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Interface design: Touchscreen meets touch-edge

By Rain Noe - January 21, 2011

in Object Culture

Making the blog rounds is video of the Line Phone, a concept design that reportedly won first prize in a Chinese design competition (one that's apparently Google-proof, at least in English). The interface design features some neat ideas, like using the edges of the all-screen phone as slider buttons and the capability to place multiple phones adjacent to one another to make a communal screen. That last feature in particular is one we've not seen before and one that could truly promote the kind of contagious, small-scale community interaction that marketers dream of.

First 30 seconds of the video is filler, so skip it and get to the phone:

via tnw

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Ben Hudson

13 years ago

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Very interesting concept! I like the use of gestures, especially to send text messages. The use of the edge as a slider-type interaction is cool, although i could see some problems that arise accidentally touching the edge while using the phone. I also think its clever to thing about how friends might put their phones together to partake in a communal activity like watching movies or playing a game. What happens when someone gets a phone call or text message though?
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Jozef

13 years ago

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Interesting. I like the slider feature. The adjacent screen not so much though. It is very cool for sharing, that's great, but the use of several (likely very expensive) devices as a single screen seems of little interest.

On a side note, it is interesting to see the facebook presented on a chinese telephone, knowing that the site is blocked there.
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Matt

13 years ago

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I bet this works great when the phone is floating in mid-air. Maybe less so when you're holding it in your hand... you know, like a phone.
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Duane Brown

13 years ago

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Great idea.. However they only show these actions performed while the object is held in place magically from the back.
Holding the phone and using it with the same hand or the other looks like it may pose some issues of usability.

Plus generally you hold the phone from the side while performing actions on it.
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