Contour Design Concept - Activity Switcher

[Fania Jöck]

Hi,

Somehow there was a technical issue, that this mail didn't get through - 
so once again :)

As I already wrote in my first Email about the life cycle of an 
activity, this is the next part in our series of sharing the Contour UI 
concept ideas with you. This time its about the activity switcher, that 
is already mostly implemented.

This Screenshot shows the general Screendesign: 
http://share.basyskom.com/contour/UIDesign/Contour_activitySwitcher.jpg
In the Activity Switcher we find the following functions: Browsing, 
Selecting, Deleting and Duplicating. I would like to describe the 
thoughts behind those features.


Activity Browsing
- The Order of activities is relative to current location, context and 
the user patterns. That means if the activity is used more often in the 
last time in this very context, this activity is displayed more in the 
beginning of the wheel/stack.
- Every activity ever created is diplayed in the browser. To find the 
desired activity quicker, the user can actively reduce the amount of 
shown activities by using the filter or search (planned for future 
versions of Contour, not in focus right now)
- It could be a favor if the user can search for activity tags, names 
etc or order them alpabetically. To achieve this goal a second Activity 
Browsing View might be needed, for example with thumbnails in a 
gridview. (also planned for future implementations)
- What I am still stumbeling over is where to put the "create new 
activity" Button. Where would you search for a button like this? In my 
opinion it should be close to the activity switcher, as this is the key 
area where all activities are listed. First I thought of putting a 
plus-Icon directly in the center of the wheel (See Sribble 
http://share.basyskom.com/contour/UIDesign/Contour_AddActivity_Option2.jpg) 
- but I think an unintentional touch on these icons while browsing would 
occur. Another option is putting it somewhere near or in the topbar (See 
Sribble 
http://share.basyskom.com/contour/UIDesign/Contour_AddActivity_Option1.jpg). 
But normally system setting icons belong there, no specific Content 
Elements. Any ideas on that?

Activity Selection
- An activity can be selected by sliding in the arrow. A simple touch 
often leads to unintentional opening of a resource because the user 
normally is moving, holding the device only in one hand and for example 
rides the bus. The sliding helps to avoid undesired opening of 
activities and makes the selection really clear.
- The activity screen animates: The image expands to fullscreen.

Activity Delete
- An activity can be deleted, that means its not listed in the activity 
browser anymore and cannot be recommended for an activity change. After 
deleting this activity wont be listed anymore in any search result, the 
resources linked to that activity are still saved on the device and are 
still connected to other activities (if this is the case).
- The delete button is aimed to be placed in the activity switcher wheel 
as an icon that can be touched. After touching it, the user gets the 
alert "really delete this activity? yes, no" to confirm his action.

Activity Duplicate
- It is planned that activities can be duplicated. This would be 
convenient for the user when he has for example similar projects at work 
that needs the same resources like a group of collegues, same 
aplications and maybe templates. So the duplication of that activity 
would be an easy way to create a new activity and simply unconnect the 
resources not needed and add new files.
- The idea is to have the duplicate icon in the activity browse next to 
the delete icon. By touching that icon, this starts a sort of 
wizard/form where all the insert fields are already filled and can be 
edited. This creates a similar activity with the same resources and 
background images etc
- In the duplicate wizard the user can either use the "copy-of-XYZ-" 
name of the activity or edits it (duplicate names are not accepted).

Since this feature is not essential for version1 of Contour there are no 
UI screens designed yet.

So again, thanks for reading and your feedback is very welcome.
Cheers,
Fania