Canvas AOD — Behind the scene
I am here to share the story behind the creation of Canvas AOD with you, this is not only my most favorite project in my design career, but it’s also a gift to my lovely daughter and hopefully all of you.
Back in May 2020, when the main idea of the OnePlus 8T’s Live wallpaper is solid enough, I was thinking about how can I measure the level of success for the live wallpaper as the KPI (Key Performance Index) of the work. The innovative live wallpaper can present the sense of time passing with the beautiful wallpaper color changing according to how long it is between the two usages of the phone. We invested so much on the creation, as the pay-back, it is expected to be used for as many users as possible and as long as possible. How can we…? This question has occupied my mind for days, and then I suddenly realized that it wouldn’t be possible to make it. At least, not like a wallpaper of users’ photos can achieve.
I am definitely one of the many users who prefer to use my own photo with someone I loved on it as the wallpaper. Nothing can be more connected with the user than a photo that captured a treasured moment in life, no matter how beautiful the artwork is and how well it is crafted. “Users’ photos have been allowed to set as the wallpaper on a smartphone for long. It’s a feature with a high usage rate; why nothing more is added for the users?”, ”The best part (memory) is created by users, then what a smartphone company can add?”, ”A lively photo wallpaper like the portrait in Harry Potter will be cool!”, so many thoughts popped up in my mind. And a photo pops up as well, a photo of my daughter looking into my eyes with her most favorite dog doll in her arms. It is surely the photo I want to use as my wallpaper. My memory of the photo is so vivid, I feel my daughter seems to look into my eyes still, but my memory of the photo is also so blurry, I can’t recall any detail on her clothes and the background. I suddenly got an idea, this is how memory works, and it’s so like how we abstractly present info on the AOD. I can relive the memory recalling process from abstract, blurry, to clear as an effect to create a Harry-Potter-liked experience for a photo with memory. I was so excited, and I can’t wait to make it.
I shared the idea with my colleagues the next day with excitement, “Hey, I got a cool idea that we can transform user’s photos into simple lines to show up on the AOD. And then, the line will spread into a real image when the user wakes up the device, and the image will change from blurry to clear when users go into Home from the Lock screen. The whole process will be just like Harry Potter’s lively portrait; it’s cool, right!” And I can see question marks on their faces, yes, not only one colleague but for all 3 colleagues who I shared. I then realized this is not an idea that you can analyze rationally; it’s an experience you get only if you see it. I need to make a prototype.
To create a simple line figure for a photo is not hard for a designer, but to create an animation to show the line spreading into a real image is hard for me. However, I feel this is the key to the idea pitching; I need to make it. With a sudden inspiration, I finally can make it by creating a simple line figure image and use Keynote’s Magic Move effect to morph in the real image from the line figure image. When I show my colleagues my quick prototype, from their face, I know that I succeeded immediately. Take this lesson learned, I know I need to show the effect and show the effect in context so people can understand what this feature can bring — smile, I wish. So I recorded the smile when my daughter sees my prototype and show it in the idea pitch to our top managers; it’s so successful. And we wish we can bring this feature to people all around the world, just like how I am excited to take the first working prototype home to play with my daughter.
The whole journey of the creation is full of nervousness, uncertainty, challenge, and excitement. There is an interesting anecdote we didn’t share on any media before. When we look for the algorithm partner to transform photos into simple lines, one of our most preferred candidates at the moment would like to change us 1 million US dollars for the algorithm authentication. I am grateful our top managers didn’t stop the project because of the ridiculous price. Even though we end up developing the algorithm with another partner from scratch, when we finally release the product, I frequently say that we literally accomplish an a-million-dollar idea! I know this product is still in the distance away from the perfect, but I can’t wait to see it is played on someone’s hand and the smile it may bring. So, we released it in a beta mark. This is because we don’t want to take away the chance for people to have fun with it and get feedback from them. This shows our imagination of the feature is way beyond it is now, and we will keep working hard to make it happen.
