Synapse OS is Live!

2006-09-29T00:27:00.000+01:00

Synapse OS is a project to develop interface guidelines and generate ideas for a NintendoDS operating system.
This system will be based on a DS-Xtreme flash cart, & use their xml infrastructure, together with scripting & possible plugin addons, to develop a full featured OS with a flexible and professionally design UI and GUI.

It will also serve as a base for experimenting different concepts of interaction for a specific hardware as the DS with the touch screen, standart screen and hardware buttons. So that it may also serve as a ground for homebrew developers to take ideas when contructing interface for their apps and generate positive response from the homebrew community in developing better designed interfaces.

My original concept stemmed from improvements I developed for Dragonminded's great DSOrganize, trying to tackle some of it's flaws & improving it's strenghts. For good or bad, help was not needed so I changed sights and slowly but surely turned my attention to the possibility of creating a full featured OS. My main strating point was the PIM functionality, but the OS should allow to implement the loading and unloading of programs within the OS, instead of opening outside of it. This way multiple functionality can be used inside the same familiar application space and interaction mechanics.

The key points are:
Interaction guidelines
Core GUI system
Modular applications lauched and closed inside the OS
Developed for the DS-Xtreme hardware & skinning engine & pushing for plugin support
Task centric UI
Basic range of features and applications included
Interoperability between applications

Hopefully this scheme if fruitfull will allow for the community to develop something wonderful & highly flexible for any DS owner.
I still don't know what is possible technically in what both the hardware and the DS-Xtreme underlying os will support, but i will push the barrier to it's fullest thru developing UI concepts & application mockups for it. Wich in due time will be implemented as best possible.

Here's a few concept's I've been dabbling with along with a line-up of the applications that i picture at default

The dual screens should allow interaction with both of them by switching between them, makin the most out of the touchscreen input

Animation should be used to give visual cues to interaction and make the user undestand where the elements of the UI move to.

Tabs could allow for a quicker way to acess more information without too much effort, possibly customizeable to user preference, i need more input on this to have an idea what people would likely run the most.

This is my starting lineup for the range of applications i'd love to see supported. The more comments the better on this.

Ok so after a few drafts this is where i stand at now, remember it's mostly interaction studies & feature implementation for now, not eye candy. I'll post other UI studies aswell, to see what people react to the most. It's all still very crude i know, but this phase looks the best to start getting some external input.

Hope u like my project and like contribute to develop it further with comments and insight, until my next post. :D