TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps by Albert Salamon is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2019 Bronze A' Design Award in Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design Competition Category.
BronzeInterface· 2019
TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps
Client: Ttmm
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Interface Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #73856The Design
About TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps
TTMM clock face apps present time in a futuristic, abstract and minimal style. The collection of 40 clock faces designed for Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Versa Lite turns smartwatches into unique time machines. All models have color presets and complications settings that are controlled with a tap-to-change on screen feature. Some designs are additionally equipped with a stopwatch, a timer, an alarm or a torch feature. The inspiration for the collection comes from sci-fi movies and from the "Man Machine" and "Computer World" albums, composed by Kraftwerk.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
TTMM's DNA is to define and invent new signs of the 21 century era and soft(ware)time in a new way.
Innovation, clarity and uniqueness - these are my the three fundamental design principles.
I was inspired by sci-fi literature and movies and by electronic music. For example the album "Computer World" by Kraftwerk is very substantial for me.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
I try to harmonize functionality, like legibility and friendly interface, with the unique character of the design and I always want to fill each design with some meaning. This meaning is also hidden in particular names.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I am going to redesign the best ones to add a weather functions and offer it in a subscription model.
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to minimalist time display in TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps draws inspiration from sci-fi movies and Kraftwerk albums - how did these diverse influences shape your unique visual language for digital timekeeping?
Science fiction literature and films took up residence in my Unconscious. The spirit of simplicity, comfort and the modern future was present in the real images and physical sound effects of films and music (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sound effects for Star Wars and the lyrics and timbres of Kraftwerk's instruments). My education in the domain of graphical interfaces came from the practical experience of discovering personal computers and synthesizers. As a teenager, I composed music on an Atari ST computer in Steinberg Cubase, controlling a Roland Juno-106 and Sound Canvas SC-55 synthesizer. I believe that the culture of designing interfaces for instruments and music applications subject to the limitations of display technology (small, monochrome screens) was at the highest level. This was a model to follow and my school.
The symbols you developed for TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps (% for battery, . for steps, ... for distance) represent an intriguing new visual vocabulary - what was your creative process for developing this minimal yet intuitive system of communication?
I came up with this solution without even realizing it. It was due to two practical reasons. The limited screen resolution made it difficult to create legible and visually consistent icons that had to be the same height as a line of text, e.g. 10 px. System fonts, on the other hand, contained many additional unused characters. Up until now, an abbreviation such as Calories - CAL had been used to describe a specific type of data. This solution still took up screen space. So I came up with the idea of assigning my own symbols using the characters present in system fonts. This solution ensured the distinguishability of specific information, saved space and maintained the visual consistency of the clockface project. This choice was arbitrary and corresponded to my intuitive graphical reading of characters. For Dystance, I used the “…” character because in my reading it was a visualization of steps. I used “:” to denote Heart Rate because the heart has two chambers. I replaced Calories with the “*” character because I thought that it was the work done by the user that made it a STAR.
Your research revealed a gap in original thinking for smartwatch interfaces - how did this insight drive your vision to create TTMM for Fitbit Versa Clock Face Apps as a departure from traditional clock face designs?
Looking at the simulations-imitations of graphical interface solutions proposed by programmers, these were banal solutions, e.g. pictures of dogs or cats, and apart from their questionable visual values, I disagreed with their primitiveness. They did not aim at the truth about TIME but were a way to attract the attention of potential customers. So I went on a mission to find visual solutions that would be in line with the TRUTH of TIME and the spirit of smartwatch screen technology.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- TTMM is a collection of 40 clock face apps designed for Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Versa Lite smartwatches. It turns Fitbit smartwatch into a unique time-machine. All the clock faces have color presets and complications settings that are controlled through a tap-to-change on screen feature. Some models are additionally equipped with a stopwatch, a timer, an alarm or a torch feature. There is also a special clock face called the Onettmm, with 30 different clock faces in one, which allows the user to quickly change between the designs to adapt to the required mood or style.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Clock faces codes take up from 7Kb to 2Mb.
- Tags
- ttmm, Fitbit Versa, Fitbit Versa Lite, made4fitbit, ttmmaftertime, clockface, watchface, time, clock
- Production Technology
- All clock faces were designed in Adobe Illustrator. All bitmaps were edited in Adobe Photoshop. Programming was made with Fitbit sdk in Fitbit Studio software.
- Design Challenge
- The main challenges were to use fonts in proper weight and scale for them to be legible on a wrist-sized screen and to design the setting interface - the on screen tap-to-change feature - as a way to easy to adjust the display options: the complications or color presets. Moreover, to save the space for graphic icons or descriptions I came up with my own symbols to be used in the legend, such as: % for battery, . for steps, ... for distance, : for heart rate, * for calories, + for floors.
- Research
- I made my own clock faces market observation and analysis. I used desk research and critical thinking methods, through which I discovered that there was very little original thinking in the design of the clock faces and that the Fitbit Versa smartwatch offers a good hardware environment for creating a new vision of time.
I found that the most of the projects available for the Fitbit Versa smartwatch are mare imitations of mechanical clocks and 80'ties quartz lcd-like screens or just replicas of clock faces of the popular brands. During the design phase I experimented a lot with inventing new designs which balance out between functional design and original form giving a new meaning of time. - Inspiration
- The inspiration for collection comes form three different areas: sci-fi movies, electronic music and the idea behind Tokyo Flash Japan. The movies that inspired me the most are: 2001 Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and Interstellar and the music that influenced me during my work was the album "Computer World" by Kraftwerk.
- Project Duration
- The project started in December 2017 and finished in March 2019 in Warsaw, Poland. The programming took place in France and in Poland.
- Operation Flow
- All the clock faces can be uploaded to Fitbit Versa through the Ttmm app (available for Android and iOS). With the app you can view the design, read the description, purchase and upload clockfaces and prepare a favorite models list to facilitate the swapping between clockfaces. After the upload the user can set colors, display design and complications with the tap-to-change on screen feature. This user friendly interface makes the customization of the clockface very fast and smooth.
- Patents
- Ttmm name, logo and clock faces design © Copyright by Albert Salamon 2019.
- Team Members
- Designer: Albert Salamon
Programmer: Gregoire Sage
Programmer: Wiktor Holubowicz - Image Credits
- Fitbit Versa smartwatch Images by Fitbit, used under Fitbit Copyright License.
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