Rebirth 08: Can a mobile game company also build a tech empire?

Chapter 130 New Design

Next, Lu Chen switched the slides.

The next second, it was as if all the air in the conference room had been sucked out.

On the screen, a silver-gray device floats silently against a white background.

It was a brand new piece of equipment.

It's not as angular and sharp as a knife as Conquer Online 1.

Instead, it presents a more rounded and gentle form.

The entire front of the device is covered by a huge piece of glass.

The glass edges have a perfectly curved surface.

It blends seamlessly with the metal back.

There are no buttons at the bottom of the screen.

It was as clean as a single piece of obsidian.

The side frame is extremely thin.

The volume buttons and power button are neatly arranged on the right side.

The buttons themselves are made of the same metal material as the body.

The speaker openings and charging ports at the bottom are exquisitely concealed.

The speaker opening is made of an extremely fine metal mesh.

The charging port is perfectly embedded in the bottom.

The most striking part is its back.

Unlike the double-sided glass in Journey 1.

The back panel of this tablet is made of a single piece of precision-machined aluminum alloy.

The metal surface has been sandblasted.

It has a delicate matte texture.

The position is slightly above the center.

That familiar "Z" logo is no longer just a simple decoration.

Instead, it is etched directly onto the metal surface.

It is integrated with the fuselage.

The camera module is compressed into a small circle.

It hardly disrupts the overall look of the back.

The entire piece of equipment lay there.

It's like a meticulously crafted work of art.

Rather than industrial products produced on an assembly line.

Against a white background.

The silver-gray fuselage appears to float in the air.

Every curved surface and every line speaks to the designer's dedication.

"this----"

Jiang Chang opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything for a long time.

Xu Yi pushed up his glasses.

He leaned forward a little.

It was almost touching the curtain.

Hong Feng sat up straight.

His eyes were fixed on the screen, motionless.

Lin Bing's hand, holding the teacup, froze in mid-air.

I forgot to drink, and I forgot to put it down.

"So beautiful!"

Several seconds passed.

Jiang Chang finally managed to utter this one sentence.

"Mr. Lu, is your taste some kind of superhuman?"

There was a hint of disbelief in his voice.

"This design would be the focus of attention at any company's launch event in the world. I bet that the appearance alone would be enough for our competitors to study for a whole year."

"You always manage to come up with designs like this. Other people's product designs become more and more ordinary the more you look at them, but yours become more and more amazing the more you look at them."

Xu Yi murmured.

Hong Feng did not respond.

His gaze remained fixed on the device on the screen.

As a technician.

His focus is different from others.

He noticed some details.

Some details that others might overlook.

"President Lu."

Hong Feng suddenly spoke, his tone serious.

"I have a question."

"explain."

Lu Chen gestured for him to continue.

Hong Feng stood up, walked to the screen, and pointed to the front of the tablet.

"In this design, there are no buttons below the screen."

He paused.

"I remember that at the bottom of Conquer Online 1, there were three virtual Android navigation buttons: multitasking, main menu, and back."

"But there's nothing on the bottom of this tablet."

"Yes, there are no physical buttons or virtual buttons."

Lu Chen nodded.

"How do I operate it?"

Hong Feng pressed for an answer.

"What about the most basic functions like going back, returning to the home page, and multitasking?"

This is a very practical problem.

The three navigation buttons on the Android system.

It was a standard feature on almost all Android devices in 2009.

Starting with the earliest HTC G1.

These buttons have always occupied a fixed position at the bottom of the screen.

Although Conquer Online 1 made them into virtual buttons.

It is integrated at the bottom of the screen.

But those are still buttons after all.

Users are used to clicking.

I'm used to seeing clear icons for back, home, and multitasking.

Now Lu Chen takes out a device that has no buttons at all.

How should users use it?

This is not just a change in the way we interact.

It is also a disruption of user habits.

The others in the meeting room also realized the seriousness of the problem.

Jiang Chang frowned and began to think about the problem.

Lin Bing adjusted her glasses, waiting for Lu Chen's answer.

"The solution is here."

Lu Chen walked to the whiteboard, picked up a pen, and began to draw a diagram.

"The traditional interaction logic is: click back to go back to the previous level, click home to go back to the desktop, and click multitasking to view recent tasks."

He drew three simple icons on the whiteboard and then crossed them out.

"But this logic faces a problem on tablets: the distance your fingers can move."

"Tablet screens are much larger than phone screens. If the buttons are at the bottom, when you hold the tablet and want to click the back button, your thumb needs to span the entire width of the screen, and you may even need to use your other hand. You can do it once or twice, but after ten or eight times, it will feel tiring."

Lu Chen spoke while gesturing.

It simulates the movement trajectory of fingers when holding a tablet.

"Imagine when you're watching videos on a tablet, these three buttons are in the way, and when you're playing games, you might accidentally touch them."

This will disrupt the user experience.

Hong Feng nodded thoughtfully.

As the person in charge of the ZUI system.

He understands the details of interaction design all too well.

He was aware of a minor inconvenience.

Over time, this will be amplified into a huge pain point.

He also knew that truly excellent interactive design...

The design should be so subtle that users are unaware of its presence.

"So let's change our approach."

Lu Chen drew the outline of a flat board on the whiteboard.

Then I drew a few lines along the edge of the screen.

Swipe right from the left edge of the screen to go back.

Swipe left from the right edge of the screen to go back.

"This way, whether you hold it with your left or right hand, you can complete the return operation in the most natural way. Your thumb only needs to slide lightly, without having to cross the entire screen."

Hong Feng's eyes began to light up.

"What about the homepage?"

Swipe up from the bottom to return to the homepage.

Lu Chen drew an upward straight line at the bottom of the screen.

"If you swipe up quickly and then pause, you'll enter the multitasking interface."

He then drew a trajectory that slid upwards and paused slightly.

"The multitasking interface displays recently used apps in the form of cards. You can swipe left or right to switch between them, and swipe up on the card to close the app."

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

Hong Feng stared at the few simple lines on the whiteboard.

But my mind had already begun to simulate this interaction process.

"Swipe from the edge to go back, swipe up from the bottom to go to the home page, and swipe up and pause to multitask."

He muttered the same words over and over.

His eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"This idea is so elegant!"

Hong Feng suddenly raised his head.

His gaze toward Lu Chen was filled with shock.

"No buttons are needed at all!"

The entire screen is the operating area!

Moreover, the edge-sliding design perfectly solves the problem of one-handed operation on large screens!