Category Archives: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

RSW CalArts: Rebel bombing target computer 2

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I have, over the past several years, conducted a workshop at a handful of conferences, companies, and universities called Redesigning Star Wars. (Read more about that workshop on its dedicated page.) It’s one of my favorite workshops to run.

In April of 2016 I was invited to run the workshop at CalArts in Southern California for some of the interaction design students. Normally I ask attendees to illustrate their design ideas on paper, but the CalArts students went the extra mile to illustrate their ideas in video comps! So with complete apologies for being impossibly late, here are some of those videos.

Next up, a second redesign of the Rebel bombing target computer.

Redesigning Star Wars_UX London 2015_Interfaces_Page_19.png

Monique Wilmoth and Andrea Yasko redesigned the controls to keep the Rebel bomber’s hands on the controls, added voice control, and reconsidered the display. Take a look at their video, below.

 

If you’d like to discuss a workshop for your org, contact workshop@scifiinterfaces.com.

RSW CalArts: Rebel bombing target computer

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I have, over the past several years, conducted a workshop at a handful of conferences, companies, and universities called Redesigning Star Wars. (Read more about that workshop on its dedicated page.) It’s one of my favorite workshops to run.

In April of 2016 I was invited to run the workshop at CalArts in Southern California for some of the interaction design students. Normally I ask attendees to illustrate their design ideas on paper, but the CalArts students went the extra mile to illustrate their ideas in video comps! So with complete apologies for being impossibly late, here are some of those videos.

Next up, a redesign of the Rebel bombing target computer.

Redesigning Star Wars_UX London 2015_Interfaces_Page_19

Abby Chang and Julianna Bach redesigned the controls to keep the Rebel bomber’s hands on the controls, and reconsidered the display. Take a look at their video, below.

If you’d like to discuss a workshop for your org, contact workshop@scifiinterfaces.com.

RSW CalArts: Luke’s binoculars

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I have, over the past several years, conducted a workshop at a handful of conferences, companies, and universities called Redesigning Star Wars. (Read more about that workshop on its dedicated page.) It’s one of my favorite workshops to run.

In April of 2016 I was invited to run the workshop at CalArts in Southern California for some of the interaction design students. Normally I ask attendees to illustrate their design ideas on paper, but the CalArts students went the extra mile to illustrate their ideas in video comps! So with complete apologies for being impossibly late, here are some of those videos.

First up, a redesign of Luke’s binoculars.

Redesigning Star Wars_UX London 2015_Interfaces_Page_03.png

 Yinchin Niu and Samantha Shiu redesigned the control buttons to make them more accessible to Luke and reconsidered the augmentations through the viewfinder. Take a look at their demonstration video, below.

If you’d like to discuss a workshop for your org, contact workshop@scifiinterfaces.com.

Headsets

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Luke, Chewie, the comms officer aboard the Revenge, and this orange lizard/cat thing wear similar headsets in the short. Each consists of headphones with a coronal headband and a microphone on a boom that holds it in front of their mouths.

FaithfulWookie-headset-pinch.png

The only time we see something resembling a control, Luke attempts to report back to the Rebel base. To do so, he uses his right hand to pinch (or hold?) the microphone as he says, “This is Y4 to base.” Then he releases the mic and continues, “He’s heading straight for a moon in…the Panna system.” Continue reading →

Ship Console

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FaithfulWookie-console.png

The only flight controls we see are an array of stay-state toggle switches (see the lower right hand of the image above) and banks of lights. It’s a terrifying thought that anyone would have to fly a spaceship with binary controls, but we have some evidence that there’s analog controls, when Luke moves his arms after the Falcon fires shots across his bow.

Unfortunately we never get a clear view of the full breadth of the cockpit, so it’s really hard to do a proper analysis. Ships in the Holiday Special appear to be based on scenes from A New Hope, but we don’t see the inside of a Y-Wing in that movie. It seems to be inspired by the Falcon. Take a look at the upper right hand corner of the image below.

ANewHope_Falcon_console01.png

Chat follow-up: Humanoid robots

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The live chat of the O’Reilly webinar that Christopher delivered on 18 April 2013 had some great questions, but not all of them made it out of the chat room and onto the air. I’m taking a short break from the release of the sci-fi survey to answer some of those questions.

Q: Adrian Warman asks: Humanoid robots (android) are not as efficient mechanically, yet we ‘prefer’ them (C3PO v. R2D2?) Will our preferences always override efficiency?

SW4-001

A: I think it depends on the context of use. Humans are good at humans. So, when robots have social functions, it’s best that they appear humanoid, while avoiding the Uncanny Valley (or see page 183 in the book for more). They should stick to the Canny Rise, to coin a term. When they need to do other, non-social things for us, like build cars, or vaccuum our floors, or mine for rare earths in asteroid belts, they should be fit to task.

Giving credit where credit is due, this is exactly the case with the Star Wars robots. C-3PO’s a protocol droid, for “human-cyborg relations” and R2-D2 is ostensibly an astromech maintenance droid. Their appearances match their functions.