Pain Point 1
The main hurdle for this project was to determine how to have the live wallpaper display a nice (animated) image to view while still providing a useful function.
Overview
Project duration: 2 years, 2 months (Sep 9, 2017 – Dec 21, 2019)
Problem
This long-term project aimed to push the boundaries of what was capable with Android’s live wallpapers. In early implementations of the concept, live wallpapers were reminiscent of a screensaver. The problem was that that was all it was…a nice, animated image to look view. They really provided no benefit or solution to a user.
Goal
Push the boundaries of how the concept of a live wallpaper can be viewed and extend a benefit and purpose to them beyond being a nice, animated image.
Research
At the launch of this project, our research involved the installation and use of dozens of the most popular live wallpapers available on Google Play. We took careful note of any features included in their settings and we determined that beyond settings to control how the animated scene looked and operated, there were no live wallpapers that provided a solution to a user need.
“Would you like for a live wallpaper that could provide useful information while still being nice to look at?”
Pain Point 2
Once a potential feature set was determined, the next pain point was finding a reliable source of data.
Solution
We determined that the best intersection between art and data that users would have a real-world need for was weather. Note, to provide a proof-of-concept beta, we opted to make the artwork static images initially. The idea was simple. The live wallpaper would read data from an open-source, online database of current weather conditions based on the zip code provided by the user. At a regular interval, the app would check the weather data for the user’s location and display a wallpaper image that matches. A persistent notification featuring the current temperature and an optional widget was also included. The various images not only reflected the current weather, but the time of day..such as dawn/dusk, day, and night.
Usability Study Findings
Use of negative space
All of the artwork, the static and subsequent animated, was designed to include negative space in the middle as to leave a more unobstructed area for widgets.
App size
As the list of different weather conditions as outlined by the data source increased and the goal of providing three separate versions of each to account for the different times of day, the total size of the app increased significantly. The solution was to separate out each element as separate graphics, such as clouds, sun, moon, etc. Based on the current weather conditions, each element would be layered onto the dawn/dusk, day, or night canvas to create the same appearance as the static versions. The added benefit was it allowed us to begin including subtle animations with elements like clouds, rain, snow, etc.
Location services
In later versions and as Android increased its developer options, we added the option to choose between a manual location entry using a zip code or allow it to automatically update using location services that ensured the display of weather info and graphics was more accurate.
Conclusion
After years of success on the marketplace, ranking high on popularity lists, Project Stormfly demonstrated that a feature that was intended to provide nice, animated graphics as the device’s wallpaper could have a greater, more useful purpose for users.