1HRDC - Gestural Interfaces

The latest 1 Hour Design Challenge: Gestural Interfaces was produced in partnership with Teague. Together, we challenged designers to think off the screen and make interfaces that live in the the objects and geometry of the world around us. In developing meaningful counterpoints to the flatness of all-in-one interfaces, we hoped you would integrate the richness of the physical world with the endless possibilities of digital information, tying together interface, ritual and context.

We juried the competition with Ben Collette, Adam Kumpf and Tad Toulis of Teague, the makers of Radioball, which inspired this month's theme. Incased in a polyhedric sphere, the radio is tuned by rolling it around on a flat surface and turned up or down by giving it a quick spin.

In judging, we were looking for smart, poetic and simple ideas that could naturally be adopted by users—conversation starting points. We naturally banned screen-based interactions to give better odds to groundbreaking gestural interfaces. We also tried to choose products that did not obstruct or eliminate human interactions. Finally, we were looking for fun, convincing ideas that would be pleasurable to use.

And now for the winners!

FIRST PLACE: Hopscotch Unlocking Interface.

Design: LabRats

Based on the above criteria, we're thrilled to award the first place to LabRats' Hopscotch Unlocking Interface, a door lock disguised as pavement. To unlock your home, you must first jump (or walk) the correct pattern on the path to your door. This was an overall winner for us: it's a fun way to see an everyday task; it brings back memories and, on top of that, can be totally unobtrusive and technically transparent.

Below, a few comments from Teague:

Tad Toulis: "What I loved about this design was it's sheer randomness. I don't think any of us on the Teague side anticipated a solution like this. It's whimsy. It's feasible. Above all it has poetry. Most of all, I can't erase the image of watching someone hop and skip up to their front door. What a great way to start and end the day. It's pure theatre - and definitely challenges existing ways of thinking. I'd love to know what was the line of thought that led to this idea."

Adam Kumpf: "Harkening back to playground days, the Hopscotch system is both playful and purposeful. Albeit out-of-place at first glance, there's just something about dancing your way to the front door; it reminded us of the first days of bluetooth headsets and the bewilderment of seeing otherwise normal people talking with themselves. We'd love to see the winner try this out with their new Arduino board!"

Ben Collette: "This idea is just pure fun. There is definitely an everyday security issue there, but hey, the idea is the most important - it's fun, interactive and innovative thinking. It also brings back memories and it's technically unobtrusive. Loved it."