I've been doing a lot of thinking about the 3DS since I laid hands on it this past E3. Of course, we know a lot about what it can do for games, from the chipset that runs it to its screen resolution, from its size and weight to its control options, and even some high-level information about its core features. A considerable amount has been handed to us directly, while some of it has been dug up by enterprising fans.
But one thing we haven't really heard a whole lot about is what we'll see when we turn the system on. How we'll use it, day-to-day. We know, as I said, bits and pieces... but I've been trying to imagine the whole picture in my mind. I'd like to share that vision with you today, with a little help from some sketches I've made.
If my 3DS ideas seem DSi-inspired, it's not just for a lack of design sensibility on my part, it's because I firmly expect Nintendo to have used the DSi as proving grounds for some of its own, broader ideas for user interface. DSi did pull a little bit from Wii, and I expect that DSi, being the direct and quite young predecessor to 3DS, will influence its user interface design quite a bit.
We start on the home screen, which of course should be impressive in 3D—the more "oohs" and "aahs" Nintendo can eke out from a freshly-powered-up system, the more word of mouth they can secure. I figured putting the software menu on the top screen, and swapping the long, sliding list for a ring displayed in a 3D perspective that can get more dense as you add more software would do the trick. The currently-selected item would be out front and shown a bit larger for emphasis.
Navigating this ring should be something you can do with the d-pad and the A or Start button, of course; but there also needs to be a touch-based interface. Here, we'll draw from something we saw in a few 3DS demos: because the 3D screen has no touch-sensitive surface, a number of games would simply use the touch screen as a tablet to allow gestures or similar moves on for manipulating objects on the top screen. We've divided the touch screen into areas that you can tap to scroll left or right or start a piece of software. You can also swipe across the touch screen, in a manner similar to the DSi Menu, to scroll quickly.
In the corners of the screen are buttons that can be tapped to take you to different parts of the system UI; you can also use the L and R shoulder buttons to affect the same context switch. As you switch between screens in the system, these buttons' destinations will reflect your position in another, invisible ring—you can cycle through these sections endlessly by just tapping one of the two directions, if you wish, sliding in the different subscreens as you do.
There's also a few other features, not pictured, that I think would make nice additions. Though you won't have empty slots in a ring configuration, you might still want to rearrange the ring, like you can rearrange the DSi menu; you would do this with a d-pad up or swipe up to lift the item off the ring, then rotate the ring (again, using d-pad, taps, or swipes) to the spot you want to move it to, and d-pad or swipe down to replace it.
Finally, one other thing I'd love to see is for Nintendo to take the DS concept of Sleep Mode—where you close a DS system and it suspends any game, ready for you to pick it up again when you re-open it—and make it a system-wide service that can not only suspend any game, but let you launch another, or do things in the system menus. There might have to be a limitation on how many suspended games you can have, of course, particularly as 3DS is expected to have much more RAM on-board and you'd have to save it all to flash memory, but even just a few slots would really make this a fantastic feature.
But one thing we haven't really heard a whole lot about is what we'll see when we turn the system on. How we'll use it, day-to-day. We know, as I said, bits and pieces... but I've been trying to imagine the whole picture in my mind. I'd like to share that vision with you today, with a little help from some sketches I've made.
If my 3DS ideas seem DSi-inspired, it's not just for a lack of design sensibility on my part, it's because I firmly expect Nintendo to have used the DSi as proving grounds for some of its own, broader ideas for user interface. DSi did pull a little bit from Wii, and I expect that DSi, being the direct and quite young predecessor to 3DS, will influence its user interface design quite a bit.
Home
We start on the home screen, which of course should be impressive in 3D—the more "oohs" and "aahs" Nintendo can eke out from a freshly-powered-up system, the more word of mouth they can secure. I figured putting the software menu on the top screen, and swapping the long, sliding list for a ring displayed in a 3D perspective that can get more dense as you add more software would do the trick. The currently-selected item would be out front and shown a bit larger for emphasis.
Navigating this ring should be something you can do with the d-pad and the A or Start button, of course; but there also needs to be a touch-based interface. Here, we'll draw from something we saw in a few 3DS demos: because the 3D screen has no touch-sensitive surface, a number of games would simply use the touch screen as a tablet to allow gestures or similar moves on for manipulating objects on the top screen. We've divided the touch screen into areas that you can tap to scroll left or right or start a piece of software. You can also swipe across the touch screen, in a manner similar to the DSi Menu, to scroll quickly.
In the corners of the screen are buttons that can be tapped to take you to different parts of the system UI; you can also use the L and R shoulder buttons to affect the same context switch. As you switch between screens in the system, these buttons' destinations will reflect your position in another, invisible ring—you can cycle through these sections endlessly by just tapping one of the two directions, if you wish, sliding in the different subscreens as you do.
There's also a few other features, not pictured, that I think would make nice additions. Though you won't have empty slots in a ring configuration, you might still want to rearrange the ring, like you can rearrange the DSi menu; you would do this with a d-pad up or swipe up to lift the item off the ring, then rotate the ring (again, using d-pad, taps, or swipes) to the spot you want to move it to, and d-pad or swipe down to replace it.
Finally, one other thing I'd love to see is for Nintendo to take the DS concept of Sleep Mode—where you close a DS system and it suspends any game, ready for you to pick it up again when you re-open it—and make it a system-wide service that can not only suspend any game, but let you launch another, or do things in the system menus. There might have to be a limitation on how many suspended games you can have, of course, particularly as 3DS is expected to have much more RAM on-board and you'd have to save it all to flash memory, but even just a few slots would really make this a fantastic feature.