Blog

Shri Hanuman Chalisa 3D App for iOS & Android Tablets


The interactive application was a remediation of the animation short film for iPad and Android tablets. The application was playful in nature and also provided a platform for sharing the stories of Hanuman, the Hindu deity. It aimed to educate the user about Hanuman in an engaging, playful, and non-obtrusive manner. It also offered a feature where the user can dedicate prayers. To incorporate all such features in a single app, intensive understanding of user experience and interaction design was required. It was a challenge to design and develop the application in a very short time without compromising on the quality. Various methods of prototyping were used for the communication and testing. Working prototypes were used iteratively for user testing; this improved the interaction design.

 

Availability of the Hanuman Chalisa:

In devotional songs Hanuman Chalisa is very famous. Classically it was famous in media like books, cassettes, CDs , YouTube and now in application format as digital book. In YouTube 6340 search results can be found with viewership of 5 lakhs and above. The digital books which are available in android and itunes have text and audio. In iTunes 13 applications can be found and in android 131.

Why should this app be made?

Though Hanuman Chalisa is widely read and recited very few people know about its meaning and stories associated with it. This application is a novel way of educating meaning of Hanuman Chalisa, mythology storytelling, propagates spirituality in playful non obtrusive manner.

For whom is this app?

The target audience includes Indians, NRI’s as well as international users. It also intends to cater wide age groups from 5 years and above. The younger age group will need assistance from the parents. Not all features will make sense for all age groups for example the faith beads will not be of much significance for a kid who enjoys just playing with the app.

Considerations:

As the application is targeted for international market, the quality of graphics and user experience has to be at par with the applications produced internationally. Some of the design decisions also reflect this, for example the text of Hanuman Chalisa verses and its explanation is offered in English which can be toggled to Hindi. Many of the icons are so selected that they are widely accepted. From many translations available Chinmaya Mission’s translation of Hanuman Chalisa is followed as it is widely accepted. It also provides pronunciation key.

What this app is and not?

This app is celebration of Indian mythology, spirituality and new medium of expression. It does not have any religious or political agendas. It merely expresses 400 years old composition in new medium. It does not want to hurt any religious or social sentiments. All the visuals are interpretation of the artist, Charuvi Agrawal, and thus do not claim that it is the sole way of interpreting hanuman Chalisa. This is also reflected by providing a platform for letting people express their own interpretation.

Sponsor: Charuvi Design Labs, New Delhi.

Role: Interaction Designer

Duration: 6 Months(Internship), 5 Months(Design Consultant)

CONTENT CREATION – DRAWING TOOL(ADOBE)

Design Brief : CONTENT CREATION – DRAWING TOOL FOR DESIGNERS AND ILLUSTRATOR

Adobe Illustrator is a desktop application used by Designer and Illustrator to create distinctive illustrations and artworks for design projects.

What will be the drawing experience of a similar tool on a tablet with touch? Or, if select set of tools found in Adobe Illustrator were to be made available on a tablet, which ones are better suited and how will they work? With the various capabilities of tablet form factor, multi-touch, gestures, gyroscope, camera, location-aware, etc.), will it be possible to create a more natural and engaging drawing experience than what is today possible on a desktop? Create a representation/mock-up/work flow to show your interpretation of one such drawing tool on a touch device (tablet or mobiles).

Knead tool:

 

Polygon tool:

 

Rectangle tool:

 

We tried to make polygon tool as intuitive and direct for the user keeping in mind the workflow, occlusion and ease of operation. It was an iterative process many functional and video prototypes were made to demonstrate the interaction. The attempt was to make the tool more user friendly than the previous version with each iteration. The unification of tool to fit as a package also taught many things which can only be learnt in a team environment. All in all the process was extremely educational and fun.

 

 

Multitouch Table

Multitouch table was a team work of batch 2010 of New Media Design Students
 
Learnings: Team work,furniture design,Interface and interaction design
Furniture Design: Construction , Materials, Joineries, Movement of elements, Stability, Ergonomics, Placement
Interface and interaction design: Multi-modal interaction, Occlusion aware interfaces, Programming, Visual Composition
My Role: Setting up, code for multitouch table,  Calibration, Programming Multitouch Sound