One of the applications I brought up in class was called PolyFauna, which was collaboration between Radiohead and Universal Everything. It is an experimental application that allows users to be immersed in an abstract world of graphics and sounds. To navigate throughout the world the user can just turn their phone and look around, moving it around them to see the world from different angles. The application does not tell you anything but instead allows the user to discover how to use the application through trial and error, which suits this experimental world. You learn that there are more useful ways of navigation by swiping rather than having to physically face your phone in different directions, which become part of the journey in learning about the app. There are 3 icons on the bottom which allow the user to take a photograph of what they have created, go to the website, and are told about the red dot that they can follow. This is a very interesting navigation tool; if you make the red dot collide with you then you are taken to a different world. It’s a new way of doing things rather than just pressing a button, and while it definitely is not easier because often you miss the dot as it passes you, it does make the experiment feel more like a game or challenge even though it isn’t.
http://www.wired.com/design/2014/02/take-deep-dive-strange-mind-radiohead-new-app/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/polyfauna/id793263070?mt=8
http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/polyfauna1.png
Samir