How do you make a boring Android homescreen a little more fun? Make a game out of it of course, a developer from Sony has just unveiled the EvolutionUI project, an Android user interface that has been “gamified”. The interface requires users to use their device in order to unlock achievements to access other features of the phone – the more they explore, the more they can do.
Realizing that people learn how to play games much more easily than they learn to use an application, the developers at Sony decided to introduce the gamification method to the interface. EvolutionUI starts off with a very simple interface, isolating advanced features and disabling them from the start. As the user explore the basic functionality and learns how to use it, more features will be unlocked.
As shown in the video below, this device starts with one homescreen that has a clock widget and 4 essential application shortcuts – dialer, message, browser and camera; everything including the apps drawer will be locked. The user will have to perform certain actions to proceed with other functions, like start 5 applications and new “features” like access to the apps drawer, will be unlocked. As the user explore the apps drawer, he/she will unlock achievements to other parts of the phone.
Check out Sony’s Developer blog to find out more about EvolutionUI, it’s an open sourced project so you can even download it to try it out for yourself.
