Future Screens are Mostly Blue. Isle of Ideas – Thoughts on Things, Stuff & Gedöns » Blog Archive » UI Design In Movies. While watching the latest Avenger movie (huge fun btw) I was so intrigued by the user interface design in the movie that I spent some time looking around at the virtual UIs that have come out of Hollywood.
I realized that someone actually not only had to design this stuff but also think it through in terms of functionality and applicability – which seems to be a huge task and an under-appreciated one at that. Anyway, I was hooked and the result is a somewhat more elaborated post than usual: Let’s start with a 2008 showreel by Mark Coleran, a visual designer who created UIs for films as diverse as The Bourne Ultimatum, Tomb Raider, Mission Impossible 3, The Island, Mr and Mrs Smith and many more: Funny thing is that UIs in feature films seem to get more elaborate and complex while real-world interfaces are getting more simple and intuitive. An odd contradiction that is also true for Jayse Hansens’ UI Designs in the current Avenger movie: (click to enlarge) (gestural UI in minority report) How UI Will Be In The Future - Showcase Of Fantasy User Interfaces. We see them in movies pretty often and we gaze like five year old children when a character uses them on screen.
These fantasy user interfaces that are present in movies and games are igniting our imagination when thinking about the future. And it’s a normal thing to be mesmerized by these user interfaces considering that we’re impressed with the design that top notch designers create for phone apps, let alone futuristic designs of not yet invented tech. In futuristic movies or games, we rarely see an interface for something that we use today, like a phone or a tablet. Instead we see GUIs for dashboards on advanced machinery, holographic displays or various technology.
In most movies, the graphical user interfaces that we see aren’t as interactive as we might want, but there are a few movies for which their designers are taking things to the next level by putting some thought into creating these wonderful graphics and making them actually usable on a certain level. Total Recall Prometheus. The Future of UI and the Dream of the ‘90s — UX/UI human interfaces.
All humans are capable of emotional depth.
While emotions are influenced by culture, emotions themselves are universal. We use things because they are functional but we become attracted and attached to them because of how they make us feel. Let’s assume for a bit that the product you are working on is purposeful and functional: it serves a need and the user can achieve what they need to do simply and quickly. This is only the first step. Now begins the pursuit of delight and this is what distinguishes good design from great design.
In Frank Chimero’s, “The Shape of Design” he writes (emphasis mine), The warmth and exuberance of communication and the accommodation to the audience necessitated by delightful design also makes it easier for the audience to spot the presence of the designer in the work. Although technology has come a long way, it has not replaced face-to-face communication—we still need assurance that there is someone on the other side. Sound Animation.