Color Terrae 移动应用程序 by Simone Ardito is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 银奖 in 移动技术、应用与软件设计 Competition Category.

银移动· 2021

Color Terrae 移动应用程序

by Simone Ardito

Client: Simone Ardito

A' Design Award 银奖 Winner in 移动 Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #118425

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Color Terrae 移动应用程序

Color Terrae 是一款专为考古学家打造的移动应用程序。该应用依据孟塞尔颜色体系,将地层单位的识别、分析、分类与描述实现数字化。基于人工智能的色彩识别功能可读取用户拍摄的照片,并将每一处地层单位与特定的色彩编码相关联。"日志"模块兼具笔记本与影像档案库的功能,可用于记录文字笔记、语音备忘和照片。"发掘模式"则提供了针对发掘作业日户外使用场景优化的操作界面。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 银奖

Color Terrae 移动应用程序是 A' Design Award 银奖得主，这是授予顶级、华美而令人印象深刻的设计的极为崇高的认可。银奖得主是极其卓越、极具创造力的作品，展现出其设计师杰出的专业技能、才华与敏锐。预计Color Terrae 移动应用程序将成为一件出色的典范之作，兼具非凡的专业性与深刻的创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 银奖的设计是一项备受瞩目、令人钦佩的发明，造福并拓展艺术、科学、设计和技术的边界。Color Terrae 移动应用程序是一件令人羡慕的创作，它唤起渴望，带来积极的情感，并激发惊叹与赞叹。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Color Terrae is an AI-powered app created to optimize archaeologist's workflow by replacing the current inefficient paper-based processes.
AI technology comes into play with a color detection function: it is able to identify colors from photographs taken by the user, and to associate the photographed stratigraphic unit to a specific color code. Furthermore, Color Terrae offers the chance to switch to Dig Mode, an outdoor-optimized version of the app which can be really useful on dig days.
Dimensions & Packaging: When a picture is taken, AI technology analyses it and samples pixel by pixel in order to get the matching color unit related to a Munsell color code.
There are 1000 hex color codes learned by the AI. Since most of them are pretty similar, they are grouped in 100 color units.
Each color unit belongs to a Munsell color. Most hex color codes detected within a color unit will indicate the "winning" unit which is associated with a specific Munsell color.
Tags: Archaeology, Digital Innovation, Use of Technology, User Experience, App Design, Artificial Intelligence
Production Technology: From pencil to pixels to code. The project started from rough sketches on paper sheets, then it moved to digital meeting the following softwares:
Adobe Illustrator (logo and brand identity), Sketch (wireframes, hi-fi mockups and prototype), Xcode with Swift UI (app), Core ML and Python (AI colors detector).
Design Challenge: The most challenging part was to bring to digital the current paper-based process without altering the user experience.
In fact by using this app the archeologist should not change his workflow, but willingly follow the same process used previously on paper, now on digital. Understanding all the human and technical pain points has been crucial in order to come up with an appropriate digital solution.
Research: Results from interviews, researches and user tests established that a mobile app could help the archaeologist in at least three different phases:
1. During the archaeological excavation, recognise the different layers, distinguish between them and note their characteristics.
2. During documentation to assign univocal color codes to the layers to avoid confusion or misunderstandings.
3. During the study phase of the site, which usually takes place several months after the excavation and fieldworks.
Inspiration: The project comes from the desire to bring innovation in areas where digital technology is not much explored, such as archaeology.
Color Terrae indeed allows to digitalize some of the main activities of the archaeologist: identification, analysis, classification and description of stratigraphic units following the Munsell color code.
Project Duration: The project started in the last quarter of 2020 and had its first demo release and test phase in February 2021 in Lugano, Switzerland.
Operation Flow: Once the app is launched, the user can interact with the main area, Diary, launch the Camera, or switch to Dig Mode through settings.
Diary, as the name may suggest, works as a notebook, but also as a photographic archive. Here user can write or record his thoughts during the day at the dig, and save all the pictures he has taken. In order to have a well structured archive, all the files (notes, voice memo and pics) are divided in three sections: recents, lists and all.