Magic Cap

マジックキャップ / 1994–1998 / Aesthetic / Platform Screen Languages

The interface General Magic put on its communicating handhelds, running on the Motorola Envoy and the Sony Magic Link. Instead of imitating single objects it imitates a place, opening on an Office where a telephone, a Rolodex, a notepad and a calendar sit on a desk, with a wall clock, in and out boxes and a filing cabinet behind it. From there a Hallway, furnished and hung with pictures, leads to the Game Room, the Living Room, the Storeroom and the Control Room.

An opening screen where a telephone, a Rolodex, a notepad and a calendar sit on a desk / A wall clock, in and out boxes and a filing cabinet drawn on the wall behind that desk / Movement between rooms goes through a hallway that is itself furnished and hung with pictures / Line drawings on a coarse grayscale display, touched directly with a stylus rather than a finger

Magic Cap — Josh Carter《Sony Magic Link》2010年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0Magic Cap — Blake Patterson《Sony Magic Link を操作するところ》2010年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0Magic Cap — Blake Patterson《Motorola Envoy》2010年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0
Josh Carter《Sony Magic Link》2010年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 ／ Blake Patterson《Sony Magic Link を操作するところ》2010年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 ／ Blake Patterson《Motorola Envoy》2010年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

Dictionary entry

Best used for
Designing a handheld for first time users where tools are handed out as rooms rather than as a list of features · Building period art for a mid 1990s handheld where the screen contents have to hold up on their own
Type
Treat type as a nameplate inside the drawing. Name the rooms and the objects briefly and do not fall back on list headings.
Composition
Make the whole screen one place. Chain the desk surface, the wall behind it, the hallway outside and the next room in that order.
Material
Draw rather than photograph. Show each object from the front and give thickness and shadow only to the things that can be pressed.
Caution
Every extra room and hallway pushes the tools further away, so count the round trips before committing to a spatial metaphor.
Further study
Motorola Envoy と Sony Magic Link の実機で、隣の部屋へ移るのに何回触れるか / 同時代の Microsoft Bob が同じ空間の比喩をどう別の形で採ったか / General Magic の設計陣がその後どの製品に移ったか

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