During the development phase we defined the necessary actions and uses of our service. We defined the construction of the bubble as the most important aspect (as visual feedback) because it shows the aggregation of adepts and their thoughts. For this reason, we chose a special gesture to build the bubble: to blow in the mobile device as we do when we make soap bubbles.
When the device is active, the speech recognizer is able to understand the user’s speech, analyze it and synthesize it in a tag.
At this point the service is ready to share the tag (main topic of the discussion) and advise the user with a vibration.
Then the user chooses to send the tag by blowing in the microphone of the device, or if he doesn’t want to, he has just to drag it out of the screen.
The bubble can be explored by a simple click on the main tag or sub-tag (the red ones), in order to show to the user an abstract of the discussion. In this way the user can know better what other users are talking about. At this point the user, using the map, can locate a conversation and then participate in the real discussion.
We preferred an animated hidden menu to take advantage of the usefulness of a full screen. It’s especially useful for the visualization of the discussions.
Tag mode
Through this mode you can explore all the discussions, look in detail at a particular discussion, and read the abstract about the main tag and sub-tag. Then, you can visualize the map and join the discussion.
User mode
Through this mode you can explore all the discussions, and identify their partecipants. You can see who sends the bubble and the most active speaker in the discussion. Then, you can explore the users’ profile where you know the users’ main tag. Now you can see the map and join the discussion.
This section visualizes new adept’s pages and the people they meet. This page is only for the new adepts in trial mode.
Alert mode
This section allows you to give and take information about threats.
Sestiere mode
This is the sestiere section. Here you can set the activity zone.
Top menu
Back: allows you to return the previous page
Speech recognizer: this button is always active but, by clicking, the user can switch on or off this function
Menu: this button is always active. It allows the user to hide the menu, or open it when the menu is hidden
Bottom menu
Home: allows the user to come back at the main page
Alert: you can acces this menu from whatever application state, and see the alert sub-menu.
Map: shows the position of the discussions in the map. It works only after consultating the main tag page
Sestiere: allows selection of one or more sestieri (the “quarters” of Venice) which the user prefers to focus on
Mode: this button, always active, allows toggling between tag and user modes
Alert
-Your map: shows your position with the threats around you
-Mark a danger: allows you to mark a new thread.
-View a spy list: shows you the list with all spies-users
The buttons are not active all the time, so we researched a code to sense the icon state.
We drew three different states for each icon: less visible when inactive, visible when active, and with a background with more contrast when selected.
The map below shows the entire service navigation.
Here you can download the flow map.