Overview
The ‘Makers of the 20th
Century’ is a reference CD-ROM, with a unique approach to user interfaces.
By essence its a database of archived information about the 200 most influential
people of the 20th century, owned by News Corp. The UI is a stunning visual
experience, with various ways to access the archived information through
different interface concepts.
The Makers was developed
at the Zapa Digital Arts Research & Development center in Tel-Aviv,
between 1994-1995. At that time it was a pioneering product in its category,
and it won several awards, including First prize for Best Designed CD-ROM,
the Frankfurt Book Fair 1996, and PC Plus Gold Award for best CD-ROM 1996
by PC Magazine.
The
Product
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The Main Menu
The Main Menu is the main
navigation interface, where all the options are available for the user
to access the archive. The use can choose between one of the Searches or
one of the ‘Worlds’. The Worlds are a visual walk through or interactive
game interface the user has to explore or play in order to find the ‘hiding’
people and reach the information.
When the user rollover with
the mouse above any of the graphics, a 3D animation starts to run with
a relevant sound, giving the effect of a 2D graphic that gets it 3rd dimension
from the user action.
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The Random search
An interface for accessing
any of the 200 people by clicking an image. Each image represents a person
from the archive. The image can be the person's face, his invention, or
any other image that can be easily recognized by the user. The 200 images
are run as a loop sequence. The images are displayed at a frame rate of
1 frame per second, giving the experience of a video clip combined with
a trivia game. At any point the user can stop the sequence, choose the
featured person and access the person's archived files, or click ‘continue’
to re-activate the sequence.
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The
Worlds
The worlds are accessed
from the Main Menu. Each world was designed in a different graphic style,
different navigational logic and a different navigational interface. From
graphic design point of view, Both 3D and 2D graphics were used, to create
rich and unique environments.
From content point of view,
each world represented a group of people that belong to a specific category.
The categories were named Mind, Power, Body, Senses, Discovery and Design.
The navigational methods we used were either known methods such as a walk
through, or unique ones such as a memory game or a video marionette. |
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The Mind World
The world of the thinkers,
Novelists, play writers and poets.
A 3D world, displayed to
the user through a pre rendered panorama and short sequences of videos
and walk through. The user navigates using the left/right arrows to rotate
the panorama, and when the user spot a person she wants to learn more on
– a walk through interface is available to get closer to the subject and
view his archived information from the database.
Click the image on the left
for selected snapshots. |
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The Power World
The world of the politicians,
business moguls, economists and terrorists.
A 3D world, built from 5
‘continents’, each one contains the people from that continent.
The user navigated through
the continents using pre rendered walk through interface, with navigational
arrows to move forward / backward / left / right / up or down.
Click the image on the left
for selected snapshots.
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The Body World
The world of sport, dance,
medicine and fashion.
The interface to this world
is a video sequence of a dancer, acting as a marionette, waiting for the
user to give it life by selecting one of the people from the list on the
right. When a person is selected, the marionette mimics the person's typical
motion in a short sequence. For example – for Michael Jordan the dancer
will dunk a basketball, for Babe Ruth she will present a home run etc.
Click the image on the left
for selected snapshots.
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The Senses World
The world of the artists,
directors, actors and musicians.
The interface is a 2D interactive
‘memory game’. Users need to match pair of cards in order to expose the
person behind them. When they match a pair of cards, a small animation
is displayed to present each artist, and the user can click the artist
image to access the archived information.
Click the image on the left
for selected snapshots.
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The Discovery World
The world of the scientists
and explorers.
The interface is a 2D exploration
experience. The whole screen is dark, the mouse becomes a 'spotlight',
and the user need to explore the screen and try to reveal the hidden animation.
Each animation represents a major scientist or explorer by displaying a
short animation of his/her discovery. Click each animation reveals the
person name and image, and clicking again will load the archived information
for that person.
Click the image on the left
for selected snapshots.
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The Design World
The world of the inventors.
The interface is 4 ‘rooms’,
with different inventions hidden in each room. The user has to explore
the room with the mouse, and to reveal small animation of each invention.
By clicking the animation the user access the archived information for
that inventor.
Click the image on the left
for selected snapshots.
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The Direct Search
A series of pre-defined searches
that gives the user both direct access to a specific person, or other interesting
angles to navigate through the database.
The basic lists included
search by name (A-Z) or by worlds. Other lists covered nationality
or gender. The most interesting ones are profession, timeline and connections.
For example, using the timeline and selecting 1976, the user learns that
Steven Jobs and Stephan Wozniak produce their first computer at that year,
and that Noam Chomsky published Reflections on Language.
The connections list displayed
interesting facts and all the people that share it. For example: Exiles,
Died Violently, Thinkers, Young Achievers or Nobel prize winners.
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