SCROLL WHEEL
2023, Self-Initiated
» Interaction Design
» Interface Design
» Motion Design
↳
This project was done in response to an issue I was having with pain in my thumb from using my smartphone.
Some light research led me to discover that the source of this pain was a type of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), due to the repetitive vertical swipe gesture used to navigate an overwhelming majority of smartphone apps.
"MY THUMB HURTS"
↳
RSI's are a type of injury that are caused by a repetitive motion of a body part. These types of injuries are especially common in workplace settings, where certain tasks require the repetition of movement.
The most effective solution for RSI's is to simply reduce or stop the motion that caused the injury.
⇑
screenshots of websites used in research
Because of the shape of smartphones and how we hold them, the most intuitive way to organize and navigate mobile content by orienting it vertically.
Rather than redesign how content is organized, I decided to design an interface that would allow for a different gesture to navigate vertically organized content.
The question now was how to design an interface that would make the vertical movement of content through a horizontal gesture feel intuitive?
vertical gesture
horizontal gesture
horizontal gesture, vertical movement
↳
A.
→
B.
→
C.
→
↳
I put together basic mobile app wire frames to test the scroll wheel on.
I decided to include a retractable menu bar, as to show how you might integrate the design into an existing design system, without fundamentally changing it.
You can see the individual components used to build the prototype below.
mock-up with scroll wheel retracted
mock-up with scroll wheel open
ANIMATION + COMPONENTS
SCROLL WHEEL
2023, Self-Initiated
» Interaction Design
» Interface Design
» Motion Design
↳
This project was done in response to an issue I was having with pain in my thumb from using my smartphone.
Some light research led me to discover that the source of this pain was a type of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), due to the repetitive vertical swipe gesture used to navigate an overwhelming majority of smartphone apps.
↳
RSI's are a type of injury that are caused by a repetitive motion of a body part. These types of injuries are especially common in workplace settings, where certain tasks require the repetition of movement.
The most effective solution for RSI's is to simply reduce or stop the motion that caused the injury.
⇑
screenshots of websites used in research
Because of the shape of smartphones and how we hold them, the most intuitive way to organize and navigate mobile content by orienting it vertically.
Rather than redesign how content is organized, I decided to design an interface that would allow for a different gesture to navigate vertically organized content.
The question now was how to design an interface that would make the vertical movement of content through a horizontal gesture feel intuitive?
vertical gesture
horizontal gesture
horizontal gesture, vertical movement
A. →
B. →
C. →
↳
I put together basic mobile app wire frames to test the scroll wheel on.
I decided to include a retractable menu bar, as to show how you might integrate the design into an existing design system, without fundamentally changing it.
You can see the individual components used to build the prototype below.
mock-up with scroll wheel retracted
mock-up with scroll wheel open