I quickly realized that my ringtone idea, while stylistically something appealing to me, didn't really do much to reinvent the way people interacted with their phones. It seemed to me just a pretty skin for a very basic interface. I decided that I could more deeply explore the iPhone interface by looking at the clock.
Preliminary ideas:
iTree - My initial thought process took me in the direction of natural processes that reflect time, and how I might translate these to the screen. I thought about how flora react to the seasons, and considered a tree as a visual representation of time, changing with the seasons, with a leaf falling every second. However, I thought that this didn't really allow for quick reference.
iMunch - I thought about time in terms what kind of food we eat at different times of the day, but found it conceptually constricting in terms of representing times when we don't typically eat. And what about the person who's daily schedule isn't very consistent?
iBrand - I also thought of other ways in which we interact with different objects during the course of our day. This idea came from a cool chart by Jane, an advertising executive, documenting her day by the brands of objects she interacts with. It's worth checking out.
iVey - I also considered having a little "Pocket-Yenta" who would kvetch and grumble whenever you're supposed to do something, depending on the time of day. This would also tie in with the ringtone. "Did ya brush your teeth?" "Eat your lunch!" "Your gonna be late for work, you want I should have a heart attack?" "Your brother is calling, be nice and pick up!"
I would call it the iVey. (Get it? "Oy vey!")
iZone - I thought about a time spectrum, with different bars across the screen showing time in different countries, using webcam shots of famous landmarks. This way, you could get some sort of visual representation of the passage of time across the globe, a spectrum of daylight, if you will. The user would then be able to customize by choosing landmarks.
Progression Towards Final Idea
I eventually thought about different measures of anything really, and how they might be applied to time - distance, volume, area - and thought about amounts in terms of percentages. What if time was thought of as a percentage of a whole? This translated into a pie chart, which is essentially what a circular wall clock is. However, my thought was about having a series of inscribed circles, piecharts, with each circle representing a different unit of time: milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years.
This idea then changed slightly, because I couldn't see how it was that different from a standard wall-clock. Instead, I thought about rotating measures, so that the current time was indicated by stationary marker, and various rotating dials. This is inspired less by a wall clock but by the idea of marking time by observing the alignment of celestial bodies.
I liked the idea of marking dates and reminders by physically pressing on each ring to mark the time and date of the event. When the markers all align, that's when the alarm goes off. In that sense, there is also a visual representation of how far away the event is from occuring. Different events could have different colored markings.
The idea of setting an alarm by actually marking a rotating wheel comes from an early alarm clock, invented in by Taqi al-Din, of the Ottoman Empire, which was set by literally sticking a peg into a notch on a wheel. At the appropriate time, the peg would then engage the alarm mechanism.
I find the idea of physically marking the time an engaging way of interacting visually and tactilly with the clock. Below is an initial sketch of a pared down interface:
The concentric circles represent (as yet unspecified) measures of time - seconds, minutes, etc. - and rotate at the corresponding rate. The pink markers represent a specific event that an alarm has been set for. When all the markers align with the white horizontal line, the alarm goes off. This version is very abstract and shows the idea in its essential form. However, there are many other factors that need to be considered, for example, how to actually read the time.Below is a sort of moodboard I put together, which includes various pictures of concepts that I found relevant to developing this gizmo.
The interface of this website is really cool and sort of relates to my idea.
In the example below, I played around with an antique feel (and blatantly ignored the last clause of the brief "roman numerals and other pastiches of old clocks are discouraged") in reference to the old clocks that I used as inspiration. I also wanted to evoke the feel of an orrery, in reference to the idea of time represented as orbits. Apart from the months, the various scales are not clearly marked, and I have yet to figure out how I will do this in a way that is not overtly "clock-y".
In this interface, I have also introduced other events along the side. Each little dot represents an event that the user has set an alarm for. The user can scroll through these. The dot adjacent to the dial then reveals the corresponding time markers on each dial. In this case the red dot reveals red time markers, which the user has manually placed on each dial.
In the above configuration, the dials represent the event as being twenty-three hours, 11 minutes and 3 seconds away (provided the dials are turning counter clock-wise, which I now realize is counter-intuitive.) The month and day are already in place, so we needn't concern ourselves with those. It's important to note that the entire dial turns, not just the marker.
Below the configuration is aligned, and the alarm is currently going off. I picture an accompanying graphic of some sort.
The above is just a "skin" and I picture many customization possibilities, so users can choose their preferred look. They can also choose various dials, such as "weeks" or "zodiac symbols" or perhaps rotate through different calendar sets, such as "Gregorian Calendar" or "Jewish Calendar". They can add and remove dials as desired, depending on whether they want to use the app as just an alarm clock, or also a calendar. In addition time markers can be omitted on certain dials, so that the alarm goes off at the same time EVERY month, or EVERY day, which is good for planning recurring events, e.g. birth control regimens, doctor's visits, weekly meetings, etc.
In terms of varying numbers of days in the month, or varying numbers of months in the year, I think my solution for that would be to have the maximum available days always displayed, and then have a few grayed out as necessary, depending on the month.
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