The Sixth Sense, or Building a Better BlinkFeed

Sense 5 was a little too restrained and Swiss,” reflects HTC’s Vice-President of User Experience, Drew Bamford. “We were fairly limited in terms of what we could accomplish with one visual design that had to fit the personality of all of our customers.”
So in Sense 6, we wanted to serve up more choice and more possibilities for personalization. “HTC’s always been about letting people express themselves,” Bamford emphasizes, “what we’re trying to do is give people more options and flexibility.”
Perhaps you’ve already discovered how we’re reshaping the software. Sense 6 is rolling out for the HTC One (M7), One mini and One max, and arrives pre-installed on our latest phones, like the One (M8). Here’s a look behind the scenes of the design process.

Color

Open up an HTC app and you’ll notice a linchpin of our evolving vision for Android.

“Color was one of the primary attributes we wanted to bring to this system,” Creative Director Dave Brinda explains. “It just makes it a more pleasant experience.”

Each of our apps now receives a rich, flat and vivid title bar. So when you go to a productivity app, for example Mail, a brilliant blue greets you. Information apps get a green treatment, entertainment is marked by our signature coral-orange and the default for everything else is tried-and-true black.
Yet while we prefer these four fantastic colors, Brinda explains that “color can be polarizing because some people have favorite ones. When we decided to move toward a more vibrant experience, it was important to introduce theming so people could pick their favorite color.”
Want to change your theme, but don’t know how?
Head over to the Settings menu, tap Personalize and look for the Theme section.

Typeface

While we were breathing life into Sense, we moved toward more graceful fonts that are easier to read. The change is palpable, especially in BlinkFeed.
“A huge thing for me was the improvements we made to the typography,” Visual Designer Jesse Penico says with a smile, “it creates an open feeling.” His background in print layout fortified the last generation of Sense with an editorial quality, now smoothly polished for digital content.
“We brought in lightweight fonts and more regular fonts, as opposed to the bold and condensed ones that we had in Sense 5,” notes Penico.
A shift in font may seem simple, but it was driven by our desire to make BlinkFeed better. We found out that headlines in the highlight view were being truncated, forcing you to click into the detail view to find out what the story’s about. That didn’t mesh well with our intent to create a streamlined snack-like experience out of all the digital content you care about.
You’ll find the view is now more open and, thanks to some other advancements, you can now read each headline at a glance.

BlinkFeed

One of those extra refinements is the break from a 3-column grid and rigid paginated view.

We’ve opted instead for an open 2-column layout that scrolls seamlessly.

“It allows for a more dynamic grid, where our designers aren’t tied down by different page templates. Instead it’s all based on the content and the size of the images,” notes Penico of the switch.

Take Instagram, for example, where every picture is square. In Sense 5, we cropped them down to fit a standard-size tile and image window—meaning you’d never see the iconic presentation that’s synonymous with the app. Senior User Experience Designer, Wendy Chan, commends the visual design team for their work “in trying to figure out how to accommodate for all of these nuances that people are asking about—making sure you can read the entire headline, making sure some of the photos fit the actual layout.”
With the new grid, you receive a collage filled with rich, edge-to-edge images displayed landscape, portrait and even square.
Chan continues, “we know people don’t access BlinkFeed all the time—it’s when they’re waiting for the bus or on their commute.” That’s why it was really important for us to create a sleek feed of news, social media, blogs and other online content that you care about. It becomes a kind of mini-magazine that’s focused on your unique interests.
We’re always innovating new concepts to help your phone reflect you and everything you do, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy these tweaks

What are the responsibilities attached to creating commentary and art for the public/for public consumption? What are you trying to achieve/what are your goals?

I don’t think there are any responsibilities when it comes to art, other than to create something that the artist can respect – and that’s different for each artist, and likely for each piece of work. I’m generally trying to achieve something different with everything I do, whether that’s to trigger an emotional response – humor, desire, etc. – or to get the viewer to recall a memory, or create their own aspiration as a result of what they see (e.g. travel and lifestyle photography). I have no specific goals as a photographer other than to create good work; as a teacher, I want to inspire others to create great work, too, whether that’s through design, photography, or another medium; as a designer, I still believe I can help change the world, and make it a better and easier place for all of us.

What inspired you to create Phonies? Are you pleased with the response you’ve had?

It was just a bit of fun, really – sometimes inspiration is much less complicated than what everyone would like to believe! The time between idea and execution/publishing was a matter of days, and the response has been fantastic. Generally, the Internet has a way of finding something to knock down with anything, but in this case there haven’t been anything but positive comments and reactions. I’m thrilled!

There’s been a lot of online chatter about the social commentary of using celebrities. Was this part of your intent?

I think public figures – celebrities, politicians, etc. – are the easiest, most direct vehicles for telling certain stories. Everyone knows them, at least on a surface level, and that recognition makes it easier to get a given point across to the audience. If I’d just used faces of unknown people, there would have been no comedic effect, and it’s the comedy – the quick laugh – that helps tell the story.

Of course, this is an HTC blog so we have to ask you about the smartphone you used to create this art. What makes the HTC One mini 2 best for this activity?

I expected as much! The HTC One mini 2 is small enough for anyone’s hands to hold it, while still having a large enough screen to display the photos (thankfully, the device is smaller than its name!) – since I was looking for random strangers, it made more sense than the larger HTC One for this project.

Describe your ideal smartphone. What type of camera does it have?

A large enough sensor to print images up to A3, while still performing well in low-light, a fast processor for post-production on the device, a sharp lens with minimal distortion (if it had a controllable aperture, even better), and control over exposure, ISO, and white balance.

What’s your favorite (Android) app? Photo tool?

VSCO Cam, hands-down. If I had to pick a runner-up, it would be Touch Retouch. Both of them are indispensable (I don’t use many apps outside of photography).

What’s next for you?

I’d love to organize a series of exhibitions in London and elsewhere in the UK and Europe (investigating venues and sponsors/partners currently), and planning more smartphone photography workshops around the world. I’m sure I’ll fit in some exciting last-minute ideas, too!
Dan’s latest work can be found on his Tumblr page. Have you tried your hand at creating phonies? Let us know in the comments section below!