[Project Complete] In-Flight Entertainment System - $600

[sirk]

(Admin code added by Palmer - T538442M)

Using Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Photoshop, or similar, design the look and feel of the user interface of an in-flight entertainment system. This system is not based around HTML so this is not a classic template project.

The winning design will supply the colors, images, basic screen layout, hierarchy, and navigation flow of a system operated by airline passengers to access entertainment, information, and other content offered in-flight.

This is a generic demo system so airline/travel related graphics are encouraged but no specific branding is required. Images should be in gif or jpg format - animation is encouraged. Minimal use of Flash is permissible (but certainly not required) for accent/flare but must not be used for menus/navigation.

Initially the display hardware will be a 7 inch (diagonal) screen with a resolution of 640x400 (not a typo it’s really 640x400). In production, however, a 9 inch (diagonal) screen of 800x600 pixels will be used. Format your submissions for 640x400 but if possible don’t tie the design too tightly to any resolution so that we maintain flexibility.

Assume that passengers must use a hand held device with four arrow buttons to navigate but design for compatibility with touch screens as well, e.g. don’t make buttons so small that it’s awkward to use a finger to navigate on a 7 inch 640x400 screen.

The system is not contained in an HTML browser so you need not bother with HTML’s layout constraints. Please don’t limit your thinking to HTML’s capabilities. That said, we can embed a browser so use of HTML is permitted for explanations, help, other text, etc.

You need not attempt to simulate a live user interface but we need a good description of how you imagine it will operate.

The following content choices (in no particular order) will be available for selection:

Movies
Books & Magazines
News
Help
TV
Kid Stuff
Sports
Attendant Call
Music
Internet
Finance
Music Videos
Email
Fashion
Language
Comedy
Chat
Travel
Parental Controls
Games
Shopping
Food & Drinks
Flight Information

Obviously all of these choices won’t fit on a single screen so we encourage you to create categories that organize these concepts logically for presentation on sub screens. We are deliberately being a little vague so as not to constrain creative thought on the best way to present these choices.

Ease of use is one of our primary concerns so we strongly discourage complex constructs such as extensive hierarchical menus (e.g. Windows menus/submenus) and other mechanisms that would be difficult to use on a touch screen.

Winning design must be provided in Adobe Illustrator, Corel, Photoshop, or similar.

We're very enthusiastic to see your best design as quickly as possible. Better to have a good design sooner rather than a perfect design later.

[Pawel]

This is a very nice project, I'm definitely in

[Web Rhino]

edit:
Hi sirk;
I read the description of the project, I think I understand now, what you are after, but I have some questions:

1- Do you have a snap shot of the handheld device (your product I think) ?
2- Any color limitation on the display, or the device display is full color?
3- what other buttons is there besides the up/down/left/right arrows?

I think this is all for now, will be waiting for your reply.

[sirk]

Web Rhino:

1- Do you have a snap shot of the handheld device (your product I think) ?

Let me be more clear: each passenger has their own display that's mounted in the seat-back in front of them, or in some cases in the armrest. This "display" is actually a full PC with either a 7 or 9 inch display running in either 640X400 or 800X600. While most have touchscreens we also use a "handheld" that substitutes for the display's mouse/keyboard. Some "handhelds" are more sophisticated than others and actually include a mouse and qwerty keyboard, others just have the simple arrows and a "select" button that I failed to mention earlier.

For this project we'd like to focus on the lowest common denominator - the simple handheld pointing device with arrows and a select button. I can't really send you a photo of it at this point but I hope you get the idea. Whichever pointing device is used, the action all takes place on the screen in front of the passenger.

2- Any color limitation on the display, or the device display is full color?

Good point - the display device runs in 16-bit color. Not quite full color but not so bad that it should crimp your style seriously.

3- what other buttons is there besides the up/down/left/right arrows?

There is the "select" button and various others for changing channels, going to the "main menu", changing the brightness of the display, etc. These generally get customized for each airline and in fact can be quite sophisticated. See my comment about lowest common denominator above.

Please let me know if you have any other questions and I'll try to answer swiftly.

Sirk

[dziner]

Is there a specific deadline? and, I was just a little confused on the airline theme... do you want it to be geared towards airplanes etc.. or kept more generic?

I'm in too :D

[Web Rhino]

Thanks, Sirk;
I think I will be able to join, I will think about it more and let you know I have any more questions.
I know time is very important as I can feel from your first post, so I will try to jump in with my first entry ASAP.

[Fabian]

Oh,now I get it :bang: :oops:

[sirk]

Just in case it isn't clear, you're not actually designing the device itself. It exists already and looks a bit like a laptop screen mounted in a plastic frame.

Look forward to seeing your submissions.

Sirk

[sirk]

dziner: I just meant that if you feel like it adds something to include airplane-ish graphics feel free to do so :rolleyes:

Since this isn't for a specific client I can't supply a color scheme or logos, etc. which would probably make the exercise easier.

No specific deadline but I'll likely pick a winner by June 18, 25th at latest.

Hope that helps, feel free to contact me.

Sirk

[Tonya]

Here's my concept for the main screen. I haven't worked out all the categories yet (how I might group them and which main categories would definitely appear on the main screen), but this will give you an idea of where I'm going. Let me know what you think.

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight1.jpg

[Fabian]

Hi

This concept works on the principle of the KISS method. It works on the idea of what do there want to do.

1. Watch: Here’s were you find movies, video’s etc
2. Read: Here’s were you’ll find books, magazines etc
3. Play: Here’s were you’ll find your more IQ games such as chess, backgammon etc
………and so on

So that’s the general idea behind mine, what do you think?

Cheers
Fabian

[Web Rhino]

Hi Sirk;
I made a fast case study for his project, would you please comment on my concept before I can go on with the graphics design phase , please read the attached word file, I think if you agree to my thoughts then the next step will not be a problem at all.

[Pawel]

All right.
Lets get this started. I've brainstormed about this for a while. I have a pretty clear idea of how this thing is going to work but before I continue I'd like to show you the color scheme I'll be working with. Please let me know. Once again this doesnt include any details, I'll go throught different shapes / icons for the buttons etc.
This is just to show you more or less the color scheme I'll be working with.
The shape of the panel will be most likely changed too, these are just preliminary ideas.
Looking forward to your feedback
Thank you

[Pawel]

And here's an idea for the navigation sitemap.
It's pretty straightforward, doesnt require any explaining at this point.
Thank you

[Fabian]

Hi Sirk

I thank you for your e-mail, but just in case you aren’t aware we are not permitted to correspond privately. If you could be so kind as to place all reviews in this thread it will help me and the rest of the design team put together the right package.

That being said, I’ll start making the requested changes ;)

Cheers
Fabian

[Web Rhino]

Hi Sirk;
I have some questions before I move on to next step:

1. Will you need any sound effects, or planning to have any sound effects in the future?

2. Does your backend allow jumping from the main module area to the top or bottom modules, example, if my selection is over Movies, how will I go up to the help, could you please give us more details on this?

3. On the stand by screen can I have a high detailed animated gif, I mean like a welcome animation or a welcome ad? does file size matter here?
I'm not sure what is your plans for this screen, I've seen other players with speech at the start, the male sound I heard was a short introduction to the player and how it is used, not sure how your back end works though, so can you give us more details here.?

4. Can I create an imaginary logo for the airlines company?

5. I'm assuming that the passenger has to make 2 moves to get access to any category:

a. move the selection to the category icon, so it gets highlighted.
b. click on select button on his control terminal, or touch the icon on the LCD, after it is high lighted.

Another scenario, is that he double touch the icon, one touch to highlight and the other is to open.

this is just my assumption, I need to know if my assumptions is true or not?

[Fabian]

Hi Sirk

Updated the colour scheme and added some depth to the icons, also in keep with the KISS concept of used the universal method of identifying language.

Cheers
Fabian

[sirk]

Web Rhino,

1. Good question, In fact, we think it would be interesting to have a couple of sound efects. One for the change of a highlighted item and one for the selection of an item.

2. The backend isn't a factor in any user navigation features and, in fact, is really just an audio/video/web server. All of the UI action happens in the feedback device (screen unit), therefor we can really do anything. You should not be concerned with any limitations you might be aware of from experience with similar systems.

3. Yes, please. We would love to have an animated welcome screen. File size isn't really critical - RAM and CPU speed are. Loading a 30Mb gif would work, but it would be a little slow. We are not sure what you mean by "stand by" screen. If you mean the screen displayed during PA announcements, sure, animation would be fine.

4. This is a generic app that will be differentiated, in part, by the logo of each airline that uses it. As such, a space for that airline's logo must be incorporated within the screen. If you would like to create your own logo (e.g. Rhino Air :D ) to help in design, please do.

5. You're navigation scenario is correct regarding the handheld device. Using the arrow buttons to move the highlight is analogous to using the TAB key. Pressing the Select button on the handheld is essentially a button click. When using the touch screen, however, touching the desired icon once initiates a button click that selects the item. No double touch is needed.


We continue to be encouraged by the level of thought you are putting into this project. Keep going!


Sirk

[Web Rhino]

Okay;
now I think I got most the aspects , I think at this point I will start working on the graphical phase of the project, expect my entries soon ;)

edit: Rhino Air is a nice idea :lol2:

[Tonya]

I'm trying to develop my category hierarchy and I've got a few questions about some of the topics:

Food & Drink - Is this for requesting food or drinks on the plane or is it a reading topic?

Comedy - Is this be stand-up comedy videos or humorous reading?

Finance, Sports, Fashion, Travel - Are these reading topics (magazines, articles, etc) or are they something else?

Movies - Would this selection simply give the viewer access to the in-flight movie or would they have a video library to choose from?

TV - Is this live TV or would it be a library of specific shows to choose from?


Thanks!

[sirk]

Dynagirl:

Food & Drink - Is this for requesting food or drinks on the plane or is it a reading topic?

It lets the passenger order meals and drinks using their IFE system.

Comedy - Is this be stand-up comedy videos or humorous reading?

This is general humor which might be a sub-category of the reading materials, video, or audio libraries, or could lead you to those categories.

Generally, I'm not sure whether people want to find various kinds of media under topics of interest or would want to go to a particular type of media, e.g. movies/tv, and find topics of interest there - or maybe both ways. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Finance, Sports, Fashion, Travel - Are these reading topics (magazines, articles, etc) or are they something else?

I think the answer to this is a bit like the comedy answer. Each topic might be found, for example, under TV where there will be both live TV and cached content served from an on-board server. Each of these might also be a top-level subject that gets you to printed media or multi media content. I'm leaving this open to see how designers think this might be best arranged.

Movies - Would this selection simply give the viewer access to the in-flight movie or would they have a video library to choose from?

This provides access to on-demand movies, both free and pay per view. There is no single in-flight movie, everybody gets to pick their own.

TV - Is this live TV or would it be a library of specific shows to choose from?

Both, in fact. There will be a certain number of live channels, some multi-casted channels of cached content, and some on demand channels.

Hope this helps, regards, Sirk

[Fabian]

G'day Sirk

What did you think of my latest ?

Cheers
Fabian

[sirk]

I still like the general approach but this version seems darker to me, not lighter & brighter. I'd like to see it lighten up the whole plane as 300 seat backs are lit up with the design. I want it to attract ppl on a convention floor from 100 meters away - both via color and brightness.

Thus, I'd like you to brighten it up a bit, but don't take that as I don't like the general design because I really do.

Oh, and I liked the pop that you added to the icons, that helps.

G'Night,

Sirk

[Tonya]

Thanks. I was thinking there might be some overlap like that, with some categories being able to stand alone or be subcategories of other topics. I just wanted to be sure what the flexibility was before I got too far into my hierarchy.

I'll be posting an update tomorrow.

[Tonya]

I'm still working on the hierarchy, but here's my concept for the start screen and below that is a revision of my category screen. The screen color is toned down, but the icons are more colorful have more depth.

The icons on the 3 buttons in the center of this start screen are just simple place holders. I'll be developing those more. On both screens, I also plan to have alternate looks to the buttons for when they've been selected.

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight2a.jpg


I think I'm going to have a main menu screen in between the start screen and the category screen below. Otherwise, I think it's too much to cram onto one screen. And from there, the user would go to a screen like the one below, but it would be more of a topical grouping of choices. As it is now, I've actually got all but Fashion and Comedy in there. But I think I'd have to make everything too small in order to fit them.


http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight2b.jpg


I haven't incorporated the Flight Info, Attendant Call, or Food & Drink options yet. I plan to place those on the sidebar like the Help Button. I might have to rework the side a bit to accomodate those, but the basic look will stay the same (unless you request changes, of course).

Let me know what you think so far.

[Radu]

Here's my try. Comments welcomed.

-Ruairi

[updated]

[Pawel]

I'll be posting my revised main screen with inside screens along with the layout and examples of the icons for each section later today or early tomorrow.
Thank you.

[Fabian]

Hi Sirk

Is this what you meant with lighter and brighter ?

Cheers
Fabian

[Fabian]

or more like this one ?

[Carl]

I wanted to post my first three pages and have you tell me if the design side (colors, etc.) are going in the right direction. I will work on establishing icons and incorporating the hierarchy once I know if this appeals to you.

Thanks!
Carl...

[Carl]

Welcome Page:

[Carl]

Main Menu

[sirk]

dynagirl: We all love what you've done so far - very festive and fun. Everyone uses the word "candy" to describe it and that's a good thing.

I think a food & drink icon is important to add - it's a hot topic with the airlines. Thus, maybe you could scrunch Email and Internet into one category to open space for Food & Drinks. It's completely acceptable to just park email under the internet icon in the hierarchy.

Where on the main screen (for clarity I mean the one with the multiple colored icons) can we fit the language button and parental controls? How can a user get back to the welcome screen from the main screen?

Sirk

[sirk]

Ruairi

The general look of your design is nice - sophisticated even. The curved line adds a nice dynamic to the screen also.

The icons, however, may be too small and I'm concerned that a passenger might have trouble selecting them on a touch screen. It might be good if you shrink the suit and tie and enlarge the specific images. Consider selecting fewer options for the screen and making the icons bigger generally.

Maybe you can leave much of the current screen as a welcome screen and move the icons to a main menu where you wouldn't need as much room for swoopy airplane on the welcome on board tag.

You've got the idea.

Sirk

[sirk]

creativemeasures

Yes, these definitely have a lighter look to them. The second is nice because the
background evokes the feeling of sky and atmosphere. I think the screen needs some color, maybe provided by the icons.

Everybody likes the pithy "eat" "read" "watch" "buy" descriptions so don't lose that whatever you do.

Keep going.

Sirk

[sirk]

Cadii

We like your welcome screen, seems like a logical way to start off by selecting a language. I also like how you've left room on the following screens to allow backing up, etc. We like how you’ve incorporated some of the flight details on the 2nd intro screen.

I'm not wild about the color scheme though. Would prefer it to be generally warmer and less metalic. That’s not to say that some of our clients wouldn’t like that scheme, just that it’s not what I’d want to show in a generic demo, which this is destined to be.

Hope this helps,

Sirk

[Carl]

No problemo.

That's why I didn't delve to deeply into the heirarchy.

I will work on something more "everybody" friendly.

Carl...

[sirk]

I just want to add some clarification to a couple of items.

Language:

This is a multilingual application whose UI will default to the language desired by the airline (e.g. German for Lufthansa, Japanese for ANA, etc.). A passenger, whose native language is currently not displayed in the UI, must be able to easily navigate to the language selection screen. Thus, a language icon designed to be understood by everyone will be important. The use of animation may help in this.

We feel that this item is important enough to make it available from the main (and/or Intro) screen.


Attendant Call:

Don't twist yourself into a pretzel trying to fit this icon on the screen. Everyone knows there is an attendant call button over your head next to the light switch and air vent. If you're having trouble fitting it on the screen, just place it within Help.

Sirk

[Pawel]

Hey sirk, just wanted to find out if you'd like this kind of style for the icons, dont mind the placement.
Thank you

[sirk]

deplex:

We still like the general look of your design, but in regard to the buttons I see difficulties translating captions into other languages and have the text still fit on the button. It might be a good idea, therefor, to separate the text from the graphics more fully.

Sirk

[Pawel]

Oh yes, I forgot to take that under consideration.
I'll work with them and find the best solution.
Thanks for the fast reply :tup:
Thank you

[dziner]

Hi Sirk,
Following is my first attempt. I did work with the menu a little but I realize that it will of course change and will be happy to make changes to it or incorporate any revisions you would want to see. (ie: icons?) I look forward to your comments.

Shelly


enter or welcome screen

<img src='http://www.yencreative.com/gui/enter.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />


main menu

<img src='http://www.yencreative.com/gui/2.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

inside screen example

<img src='http://www.yencreative.com/gui/2inside.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

[Fabian]

G'day Sirk

Added a bit of colour to the icons.

Cheers
Fabian

[_firstwave_]

Hi sirk,

If you like the direction of my design I will work on the additonal screens with finalised menus and icons. Also an explantion of operation!

[Radu]

:rolleyes:

[Radu]

:rolleyes:

[Zoe]

Hi Sirk

Here is my first entry.

If you like the direction, I will continue with the inside menus.

Main Menu

<img src='http://www.demexdesign.com/DO/ife_layout1.0.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />


Activities Room Menu

<img src='http://www.demexdesign.com/DO/ife_layout1.1.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

[Tonya]

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight3a.jpg

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight3b.jpg

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight3c.jpg

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight3d.jpg

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/inflight3e.jpg

[Web Rhino]

Hi Kris;
I’m finalizing my proposal, I’m trying to cover as many aspects as possible, will be posting by tomorrow I think ;)

[Web Rhino]

okay as I promised, download the 2nd doc file with some screen shots from here, www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/screens.zip (http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/screens.zip) (5 mega file)
please read the doc files first, I will be waiting for your comments.

[sirk]

Web Rhino:

We appreciate the thought you have put into the ergonomics of this UI. The consideration of space, orientation, color and font is certainly important to this application. We generally like what you've come up with regarding these concepts. For example, placing icons for Info, Attendant, Language, and Help on each screen gives the passenger instant access to what we consider important selections. The idea of using animation in addition to icon highlighting is also interesting (your Games example).

Your movie selection screen is similar to what we had in mind. You are correct in that the server will contain both movies and a database of movie info. We intend to use that info to populate such a screen.

We would like to see more color. We want the screens to be bright, festive, and happy.

We prefer to see the option icons arranged in a shallow hierarchy of screens rather than arrayed across several scrollable pages. The idea would be to arrange several similar options under one selection. You can probably fit a few more slightly smaller icons on the main screen to help accomplish this.

A Select button isn't actually needed within the UI. If using a touch screen, a simple touch of an icon both highlights AND selects it. If using the handheld device, navigating with the arrow buttons will highlight an icon and pressing the Select button on the device will select it.

We are not sure what you intend for the Exit button, but it is also probably superfluous. This app won't actually be shut down by the passenger - only put into standby mode. The hardware itself has a Standby/Shutdown button so there is no need for one within the UI.

All in all, we like where you are going.

Sirk

[sirk]

Demex:

You've got the right idea about creating a hierarchy of screens through which to navigate. However, we would prefer that the hierarchy was rather more shallow and that more choices were available from the main screen.

We would like to see more color. It would be nice if the options were identified not only by text and unique icons, but also by different colors.

As this is a multilingual app, any text will need to be displayed in various languages. It is difficult to ensure that text contained within a button will still fit once translated. We would prefer to see icon graphics and text more fully separated.

The icons on the bottom of the screens seem a little small for touch screen use. A passenger reaching forward from his seat may find it difficult to make his selection.

Sirk

[Palmer]

<!--QuoteBegin-Web Rhino+Jun 15 2004, 08:15 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Web Rhino @ Jun 15 2004, 08:15 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> okay as I promised, download the 2nd doc file with some screen shots from here, www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/screens.zip (http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/screens.zip) (5 mega file)
please read the doc files first, I will be waiting for your comments. [/b][/quote]
Tommy, if it's not too much trouble, it's easier for the client to review the entries if you post them on the forum as the others have.

Thanks

[_firstwave_]

any comments for the other designers! especially page 3 , 14 posts down ;)

[Web Rhino]

<!--QuoteBegin-Palmer+Jun 18 2004, 10:47 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Palmer @ Jun 18 2004, 10:47 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Web Rhino+Jun 15 2004, 08:15 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Web Rhino @ Jun 15 2004, 08:15 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> okay as I promised, download the 2nd doc file with some screen shots from here, www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/screens.zip (http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/screens.zip) (5 mega file)
please read the doc files first, I will be waiting for your comments. [/b][/quote]
Tommy, if it's not too much trouble, it's easier for the client to review the entries if you post them on the forum as the others have.

Thanks [/b][/quote]
Sorry Palm for that;
I was really going to do that, but the attachment was a 5 mega file, while I think there is a 3 mega limit on attachments on DO :unsure:

[Web Rhino]

<!--QuoteBegin-sirk+Jun 18 2004, 09:46 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (sirk @ Jun 18 2004, 09:46 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Web Rhino:


1- We would like to see more color. We want the screens to be bright, festive, and happy.

2- We prefer to see the option icons arranged in a shallow hierarchy of screens rather than arrayed across several scrollable pages. The idea would be to arrange several similar options under one selection. You can probably fit a few more slightly smaller icons on the main screen to help accomplish this.

3- A Select button isn't actually needed within the UI. If using a touch screen, a simple touch of an icon both highlights AND selects it. If using the handheld device, navigating with the arrow buttons will highlight an icon and pressing the Select button on the device will select it.

4- We are not sure what you intend for the Exit button, but it is also probably superfluous. This app won't actually be shut down by the passenger - only put into standby mode. The hardware itself has a Standby/Shutdown button so there is no need for one within the UI.

All in all, we like where you are going.

Sirk [/b][/quote]
okay let me ask you some questions sirk before I carry on;

1- You would like to see more colors on the icons? the whole UI? where exactly?

2- Can you give me more details, I’m a bit mixed up here, don't know what exactly to do?

3- the select button is my fault. sorry for that.

4-I think this is also my fault but only in the welcome screen, it's not needed there, but on the rest of the pages it's intended to be a back button, so should I modify this to read (BACK) instead of EXIT, and remove it from the welcome page.

thanks alot Kris or Sirk B)

[JeremeDavid]

Here is my entry for the main selection screen. I kept everything really simple. I laid out my design pretty much like a webpage. Everyone is used to navigating on the net. The home button goes back to the main screen (if you want one) or this screen.

I didn't separate the menu items yet. I just gave an idea of how they would be separated. That's what the different opacities of the three columns are for.

I included back buttons to go from one screen to another.

The language area in the bottom shows the current language. Selecting anything in this area would lead to a screen with language selections.

The design is easily editable. I included three possible color schemes here. The whole scheme is based on one layer style which can be changed to suit any color combination.

[sirk]

_firstwave_

We like the background. It has a dynamic quality about it - looks like what you would see if looking out the windscreen from the pilot's seat. Kinda cool.

I'm not sure which screen this represents though. Is it the Welcome screen? Or one directly after but before the main menu? The existance of both an Exit and Back (chevrons) button are confusing.

We would like to see your idea of a main menu screen. Interested in seeing how you would arrange selections and what kind of icons you would use to identify them.

Sirk

[Web Rhino]

Sirk;
can you please answer my questions, I've been waiting for few days for your reply :)

[sirk]

Web Rhino

1. Sorry about that. I should have been more clear. We feel that the icons should be both brighter and multi-colored, maybe each icon having its own color or combination of colors.

2. By shallow hierarchy, I mean more icons on a single main menu screen and fewer subsequent screens below.

It appears from your design that the selection icons are to be placed across several screens with the passenger navigating between the screens via the 4-way scroll button. Ease of navigation is very important, so we would prefer a single "main menu" screen from which all selections may be reached. We recognize, however, that there are too many choices to fit on one screen without it looking busy. Therefor the structure of the hierarchy of selections is critical.

In your example, you combine Music, Music Clips and Movies under the Music & Movies icon. The next screen has two icons - one for Movies and one for Music & Clips. Presumably below that is a screen with two more icons - one for Music and one for Clips. So it isn't until the third screen that a passenger would be able to select from a song list.

We want a passenger to make as few clicks as possible to reach their destination. By placing a couple of similar choices under a single icon, (e.g. Email & Web Surfing under Internet, Songs and Music Videos under Music, etc.), we can keep the main screen uncluttered yet minimize the passenger's navigation efforts.

3. No problem. I probably wasn't clear enough on that either.

4. Yes, a Back button would be useful on some screens.

Sirk

[Web Rhino]

Thanks Sirk;
I will update my draft asap, and post it back again B)

[sirk]

Tonya

We very much like where you are going. The Accessibility screen is a great idea. Although the volume selection may not be needed (there is volume control on the armrest and/or handheld device), the text size selection is something we never thought of. Your Language selection screen is very similar to what we had in mind. Only problem we see is how do you represent a language that doesn't have a clear national identity, and thus a flag (e.g. Arabic).

We like the Food & Drink, Attendant, and Info icons separated from the rest, but we think they also need color - especially the Food & drink icon. All airlines try to make a few extra bucks off each passenger and selling food and drinks is one of the best ways to do this. Anything that makes this icon pop from the screen will help draw the passenger's attention to it and hopefully loosen the purse strings.

We would like to see some more of your selection hierarchy structure. Where do you intend to place the other choices? What is under TV & Movies, Reading, and Internet. (Actually Email can be placed under Internet freeing up space for another icon.)

We look forward to seeing more.

Sirk

[sirk]

Ruairi

We have tested your latest screens on one of the 7inch touch screen display units and the icons still seem too small for easy navigation. It is very easy to “fat finger” an undesired selection. You can try placing fewer, larger icons on the main screen. You can also arrange similar selections under a top icon (e.g. Music and Music Videos under Music) creating a selection hierarchy.

The graphic of each icon is difficult to discern. The difference between explanation point head and question mark head isn’t obvious on such a small screen. I like the separation of the graphics from the text in your second screen (Jun 12 2004, 11:52 AM), but maybe you could expand the important part of each icon’s graphic and dump the coat and tie.

I liked the brighter background of your first screen (Jun 10 2004, 03:55 AM).

Sirk

[Tonya]

I'll post some changes and more screens to demonstrate hierarchy tomorrow.

I figured for the nationality flags, the next screen would be a list of available language options for the flag they clicked. My other idea is to use a world map that users can click on to get available language choices for various regions. Think that would work better?

[sirk]

All,

I'll be announcing a winner Thursday the 24th of June or Friday the 25th at the latest. Final submissions please.

Sirk

[Web Rhino]

will post my modified proposal in few hours :)

[Web Rhino]

Hi Kris;
here's my modified draft;

what's new?

1- I added more colors to all icons, and buttons, also added some details, like the star beside the kids stuff icon, and so on, still I’m open for any color changes.

2- I created a flash file to give an example of how the games icon can be animated, of course this flash file can be converted to an animated gif in the future, as well as animating the icons in the future.

3- I added a screen for the internet selections.

4- There is one thing that I’m not sure if I got right, I don't know what did you mean by the shallow hierarchy, so I just added all the 3 icons for videos, music, and music clips in one screen, I was planning to do this from the start, I’m not sure if this is what you meant, anyway I’m still open for any modifications.


NOTE: other screens, icons, sound effects, or animations will be added later on.

[sirk]

Web Rhino:

The zip file from your latest seems to be empty, or maybe the link is broken. Can you repost it please?

Sirk

[Web Rhino]

here you go again.

[sirk]

I don't know why but the file size on the zip is still 0 bytes. Not sure what to do since we're not supposed to use direct email. Maybe ask the mods?

[Web Rhino]

I downloaded the file, and it's working fine, I will upload it for you right now.

[Pawel]

Could you please wait till tomorrow ?
I'll be submitting my entry later today or early tomorrow.
Thank you

[Web Rhino]

http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFE...FES/screens.zip (http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/screens.zip)

here's the file again, please let me know if it's not working.

[Web Rhino]

<img src='http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/welcome.png' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

<img src='http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/menu.png' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

<img src='http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/internet.png' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

<img src='http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/select_movie.png' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

<img src='http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/movie_menu.png' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

and

http://www.webrhinostudios.com/clients/IFES/game.swf

[Tonya]

I've put together a page with 13 sample screens:

http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight...4/inflight.html (http://www.frobo.com/graphic_work/inflight/4/inflight.html)

Once you're there, just click on any screen to see full size. And there's some explanation at the bottom of the page.

[Pawel]

Hello sirk,
I'll be submitting my entry in a few hours.
Thank you

[Pawel]

I was actually going to withdrew from the contest, but I've gotten some time and I'll be able to finish everything by the end of today.
Thank you

[Pawel]

Another update, getting there :)

[Pawel]

Here's the inside of the Entertainment Center section

[Pawel]

Sorry sirk, I wont be able to finish it, something's come up.
Good luck all.

[sirk]

And the winner is: Tonya. I want to thank everyone who participated in the contest, with a special thanks to Web Rhino whom I believe went the extra mile. However, we just love Tonya's design and look forward to working with her to finalize the design.

best regards to all,

Sirk

[Michael]

Congrats Tonya :tup:

[Web Rhino]

<!--QuoteBegin-sirk+Jun 28 2004, 07:07 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (sirk @ Jun 28 2004, 07:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> And the winner is: Tonya. I want to thank everyone who participated in the contest, with a special thanks to Web Rhino whom I believe went the extra mile. However, we just love Tonya's design and look forward to working with her to finalize the design.

best regards to all,

Sirk [/b][/quote]
you welcome Kris;
Congrats Tonya.

[Tonya]

Thanks for selecting my design Sirk. :)

I know we have some work ahead of us, so let me know how you'd like to approach it.

[sirk]

Will do. Give me a day or so to sort things out. One of my main people is out this week so I'm going to be a little slower than normal.

regards,

Sirk

[Tonya]

No problem. I've got a few things on my plate right now, so waiting a few days to dive back into this works out well for me. I still have some more icons to make for the screens anyway, so I can work on those in the meantime.

[Tonya]

Hi Sirk

Just checking in to see if you'd come up with any revision notes or plans for how we should proceed with finalizing this. I know this is a big project, so take your time if you need to think it through more. I just wanted to touch base, though, so you'd know I'm here whenever you're ready.

- Tonya

[sirk]

Tonya,

Sorry to take so long gettting back.

I think we're nearly there with the last design. You mentioned that you had other icons you'd done that weren't submitted yet. Could we have those please?

We're also hoping you've done the design in a vector format because the hardware guys have changed the specs on us. The new resolution for the final product is an entirely unexpected 1024 X 600.

If you can change the layout to support that resolution that would be great.

Please advise,

regards,

Sirk

[Tonya]

Hi Sirk

Give me a couple days and I'll post everything I've got in the new, larger size with additional icons/screens. I'm thinking Monday if that's all right--should give me enough time to finish up and then we can work on whatever changes/revisions you need.

- Tonya

[Tonya]

Had a bit of a crisis: my latest work file (the series of screens I last posted plus some more recent work) won't open in Illustrator anymore. I can't figure out what happened. I had a rather unusual system crash last week, so maybe something went a bit haywire, I really don't know. The weird thing is I had a backup copy of the file saved on an external hard drive and that wouldn't open either. I'm really at a loss as to what happened.

Fortunately, I save various steps along the way in different work files, so I didn't lose too much. Anyway, my reconstruction work is done, but I'm now playing around with layout changes because of the new larger screen size. I wanted to let you know since I probably won't have things ready to post until tomorrow (or possibly later tonight). Sorry for the delay.

- Tonya

[sirk]

Sorry you're having trouble, no problem for us to wait a day or two more.

Sirk

[Tonya]

Hi Sirk

Thanks for your patience. I'm about 3/4 of the way done a full set of screens (I think it'll be over 40 screens when I'm finished). I've made some changes along the way that I think you're going to like (don't worry--nothing drastic). I expect to finish up sometime tonight and I'll post a link to download a zip file of all screenshots for you to review. After that, I can get into any final revisions you want done and get all the files together for you.

- Tonya

[Tonya]

I'm still not quite finished yet, but rather than make you wait any longer, here are some JPEGs of the screens I've done. Since they're so big, I went ahead and grouped them all in a file for you to download.

[EDIT: Link Removed]

Some of the screens are basically empty of content because I'm nto sure how they are going to be used. Other screens have some placeholder images to represent assumed content (I've got some movie poster pictures on the Movies screen, for example).

Let me know what you think and what changes you might need done.

I think I've got 9 screens left to do (in the music, kids and setup sections), which I will try to get done later today. I'll post an updated link once those are done.

[Tonya]

At long last... it is finished! Well, unless you need any revisions ;)

Here is a complete set of screen shots in JPEG format (53 images in all):

[EDIT: Link Removed]

I organized the images into a series of folders to give you a better feel for the hierarchy structure. But, I think just looking at the screens makes it pretty easy to figure out how it will all flow.

The basic structure is as follows:

WELCOME
- Services
- Set-Up
- Topics

SERVICES
- Food & Drink
- Call Attendant
- Flight Info

SET-UP
- Language
- Usability
- Content Filter

TOPICS (Main Menu)
- Movies
- Music
- TV Shows
- Games
- Kids' Stuff
- News
- Internet
- Weather
- Fashion
- Finance
- Shopping
- Reading
- Comedy
- Travel
- Sports
- Email
- Chat

AVAILABLE FROM EVERY SCREEN:
- Help (offers navigation assistance and Set-Up options)
- Services

--

Notes:

I went with a world map arrangement for the Language screen (I got it to work without being complicated).

For the Usability options, I dropped volume and text enlargement options in favor of "magnification" and "captioning". I figured those are 2 things you should be able to do with this system that are likely to be needed by people--magnification to create an overall screen resolution change, and captioning for movies, tv shows and music videos.

The Kids' Stuff topic is basically an abbreviated version of the Main Menu, containing only the topics that would pertain to kids. If the Content Filter is activated in the Set-Up options, then the Main Menu would be replaced entirely by the abbreviated Kids' Menu.

I don't really know what content you might want for some of the topics, so I left them more or less as blank template screens with the proper title and background image. And, as I mentioned before, I inserted some sample images for things like movies and TV shows (so nevermind the poor quality of some of those sample photos--they're just to give you an idea of what your finished product might look like).

--

Take a look at everything and let me know if you have any questions or if you need me to make any changes. Everything was done in Adobe Illustrator, so when you're ready I'll provide all the screens in vector format as well as any other formats you might need. I've also created a separate file of all the buttons and icons used throughout the system as a quick reference in case you need to grab one and place it in a new screen.

Thanks again for your patience on this. You just happened to hit me on a very busy and trouble-filled week so it took longer than I expected to get the work done.

- Tonya

[sirk]

Thanks Tonya! It looks great.

I think we're done. We've never done this before, so how can we get access to the .ai files? If I had them now, I would ask Design Outpost to pay you.

Thanks for the great work.

Sirk

[Tonya]

Glad you liked it, Sirk. I was really pleased with it too :)

I'm getting ready to upload the file package to my server now. It's pretty big (51MB) o it may take a little while. I'll send you a download link via Private Message as soon as it's ready.

[Tonya]

The files are ready. I sent a PM with the download link.

[sirk]

Tonya, we did have trouble opening the files but rather than have you remake them we're going to buy Illustrator CS. Will let you know tomorrow whether we're ok. Thanks, Sirk

[Tonya]

Are you sure? I don't actually have to remake anything, I would just have to resave them all as an earlier version and re-upload. If you'd like me to do that, just let me know what version of Illustrator you have. If you've got anything before version 8, I'd recommend upgrading anyway, but if you've got 8 or newer, I don't want you to feel like you have to go out and buy a newer version of the program just to open the files.

[sirk]

We have version 10 and it would be a great help but I don't want to be a pain. If you can re-upload that would be great, otherwise I'll go find a copy of CS tonight. Let me know, thanks again,

Sirk

[Tonya]

It's no problem. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it done tonight, though, so probably sometime tomorrow afternoon I'll upload a new set saved as v10 and I'll PM you a link.

[Tonya]

The new set is ready (saved in Illustrator 10). I'll PM you the download link.

[sirk]

Administrator: We're finished with this contest and very happy. Please see that Tonya is paid asap.

Thanks,

Sirk

[Michael]

Thank you Sirk :)