New Android App Heralds Next Wave In Interface Design

The motion sensor (aka g-sensor/accelerometer) is a relatively new and virtually untapped addition to the interface design arena. It's that thingamajig inside your smart phone that senses which way you're holding it. As a whole, its use has been relegated to game development.

However, it also provides some interesting new possibilities when it comes to standard UI navigation.

Take the case of 3D Motion Labs new "3D Motion Twitter" App for android devices. This is definitely not your average android twitter app. It utilizes the motion sensor for navigation in some very unique ways.

First off, it makes use of "tilt scrolling" as a means to navigate up and down pages of tweets - the more you tilt from center, the faster the scroll. As you return the phone to center, the scrolling slows and will eventually stop. Tilt the other direction and it reverses. This type of motion sensor implementation is not new, it has been incorporated in other apps such as iphone's File Magnet and Evernote.

However, 3D Motion Twitter takes tilt scrolling a few steps further. Instead of tilting forward and backward to scroll, it uses side-to-side motion. This ensures that you are always looking straight on at the screen. It also implements an option called "neutral zone" -- the default setting. This creates a "dead zone" in the center of the navigation where no scrolling happens.

After using tilt scrolling, I wish all apps had this feature. It really makes the viewing experience much more enjoyable because your hand isn't always getting in the way of the text as you scroll. And, it prevents those annoying accidental taps that select something because you tapped too hard while attempting to navigate down a page. Additionally, the app lets you fine tune how sensitive the tilt scrolling is.

What makes this app most unique is its utilization of the motion sensor for menu navigation. Say you're scrolling through your main timeline of tweets and you want to go to the main menu -- just tilt back and you're there. Tilt left or right to scroll through the various menu options. Tilt forward to enter that section. Instantly this opens up the viewing experience, removing the clutter of buttons where they are no longer needed.

The app doesn't just use this function as a gimmick. In some screens, the app does utilize buttons. Here, they opted for large, easy-to-tap buttons -- making one-handed navigation comfortable. Oftentimes apps have such small buttons that it's easy to accidentally click something else. This can really annoy me. Large buttons really makes a tactile difference to the navigation experience.

As an aside, one of my favorite features of this app is the integration one-touch translation. Say you're doing a twitter keyword search and end up with a number of tweets in other languages? No problem. Tap the translate icon and within 2 seconds it has made the translation into English -- along with letting you know the name of the source language (something I can't always figure out). This is such a helpful feature and really opens up some interesting international research possibilities.

Clearly this is a well thought out app and makes some significant contributions to UI development. Future possibilities for motion sensor navigation are endless -- and I predict this will be a standard feature in smartphone UI designs.

3D Motion Labs plans to integrate motion sensor navigation in their upcoming apps, including a number of android tablet apps.

3D Motion Twitter will be launching in the Android Market on Wed. July 7th. For more info and videos of the app in action, visit their website at: http://www.3dmotionapps.com