Experimental skin : Phlikr

**2poor4mods** · 07-28-2009, 12:44 AM

ALPHA RELEASE:

This is a very early alpha, the only thing working is audio player, audio browser, gps, weather (current only), mixer, shutdown screen, skin pickers and backgroud picker. This is to just show of the concept of swiping, and to show the coding that I used. You should be able to just download, unzip, and place it in your skins folder.

PLEASE COMMENT, GOOD OR BAD!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zomi3w2m1j0

*******************************

One day as I was navigating through my touchscreen phone, i realized how fluid the sweeping motion (left-to-right and right-to-left) is for changing screens. In a car environment, i think this sweeping motion is the natural evolution of skin navigation. So I set out to emulate this using just RR code, no flash, and enabling the gesture feature in RR since I've never really used it before.

This is the result: My skin I will call Phlikr (flicker)

Right now I'm still finishing things, but the code works as intended and I can sweep to the left and right to my hearts content. Currently it has basic functionality, so I hope to release it in the coming weeks and get some feed back from the community to see if this is worthwhile to make a full featured skin.

For now all i have are screen shots and a quick rundown of the skin:

Main screen

Current Song

Song Browser

Weather

Mixer

Background Picker

Shutdown menu

**2poor4mods** · 07-28-2009, 12:57 AM

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LAYOUT NO LONGER REFLECT THE LAYOUT OF THE SKIN
SEE POST #22 FOR NEW LAYOUT
************************************************** **********

[IMG]

[/IMG]

So basically there are two gesture areas in the skin. The top area (area 1) controls the "group" ie, audio, video, games, weather, etc...

The lower area controls the individual "pages" of the "group".

So i was in group "Audio" i can sweep my finger in area 2 to see the "pages" of the current song, my playlist, my music browser, radio, shoutcast, etc...and if I want to change to the "Weather" group, I just sweep my finger in area 1.

Both the groups and pages loop, so while i drive i can just keep sweeping my finger until i get to the correct page. I find this useful since I dont' have to look for buttons and go through any menus. Also, if you press and hold, you bring up a menu with the available skins to choose from:
Pages Menu
[IMG]

[/IMG]
Group Menu

That's pretty much the gist of it...

What do you guys think?

**SoulR** · 07-28-2009, 04:48 AM

I like, nice and clean

**Crinos** · 07-28-2009, 05:32 AM

Nice, but how well is it to find the gesture areas while driving?
They seemed a bit small?

**2poor4mods** · 07-28-2009, 07:15 AM

They may seem small, but when you rationalize it, your finger rarely travels any more than .5" and 1" when you use a touchscreen phone. The gesture area is 150 pixels which i think makes it just wide enough to provide a natural stroke without taking up too much screen space. I had to balance that out so I could fit in buttons and other information for the skins.

You could also use the arrow keys to navigate if desired...

**pcpete** · 07-28-2009, 07:58 AM

I like the consistency of the control buttons on the bottom and the info on the top...the pop up menus are definately cool, and unique...you've definately put in a lot of work..

I really don't see the difference from having l/r buttons as opposed to swipe areas...I would think it is easier to touch a big button as opposed to swiping...

**blk02si** · 07-28-2009, 08:16 AM

That's awesome man, what can I say, I really like it, clean design, easy to read, tasteful art/layout, and cool new gesture idea. I would really like to try this out if you need beta testing.

-Joe

**2poor4mods** · 07-28-2009, 08:19 AM

Yeah i see your point. But I like a large area for my screen information as you can tell, and having a large button would prove difficult to place in a consistant area on all screens. At least by swiping, it serves as both a right and left nagivation instead of having two large buttons for navigation, that's my thought at least.

This is just a first iteration of an experimental skin, so I know things aren't/won't be prefect. But I really do think it's easier and more dynamic to use swipes than buttons. My .02 though...

**blk02si** · 07-28-2009, 08:31 AM

I also think so. Maybe I am biased though because I am using a Samsung Eternity phone

The sweeps are sweet! That's the feature I really want to test out.

**guino** · 07-28-2009, 08:32 AM

I thought the buttons toggled the gesture function only ? but you're saying you can't use the gestures on the rest of screen ? (I'd think that it can be easily changed in the skin though).