Feature Articles

HTC TouchFlo 3D - A 3D Perspective

By Seow Tein Hee - 27 May 2008

Third Time's the Charm

Third Time's the Charm

On the possibility of integrating multi-touch interface into any future iterations of its TouchFlo family, Mr. Wang expressed that HTC did consider the multi-touch technology, but decided against it. As Mr. Wang explains, "The phone experience is a one-handed experience when you're walking down the street carrying something, dialing phone numbers or checking things out. Multi-touch is a two-handed experience, where you hold the device with one hand and navigate with the other. If one were to use multi-touch with one hand, you'll drop the phone. Fundamentally, we (HTC) believe the phone experience to be a one-handed experience, and to zoom in and out (of images) with multi-touch is not the only method."

Taking us further into the TouchFlo technology, and specifically to their latest innovation, the TouchFlo 3D interface, Mr. Wang highlighted the core design of the 3D technology as embedded within. "Our mission as we've shared earlier on, is not (only) about 3D. If we cared only about 3D, it's not meaningful, and when we started this project, we set out to change how people think about the phone. We made sure that there is zero learning involved for the phone, because phones nowadays are too complicated. Simplicity is about zero learning, and the only way to make it zero learning is to make it innate. If you have a deck of business cards in front of you, do you need to learn how to flip it? You don't need to, you just reach out and intuitively flip it, and that's how you bring simplicity to that level, which is second nature and what you'll see on the TouchFlo 3D. And because of that, most of the things in our world are 3D, and that's why we want to make this into a 3D experience."

The third dimension concept, though not exactly the new kid on the block, is still going to capture a significant amount of attention when it's presented on HTC's TouchFlo 3D interface.

Going deeper into how HTC innovates its user experience for the internet, and how the mobile internet is the next big thing, Mr. Wang shares with us the following, "I think a lot of people think of web browsing as an unsatisfying experience, as you are trying to squeeze a full page into a tiny screen. When you land on a webpage, you would like to see the page according to the publisher or designer intended to, which means a full screen. So, we came up with a solution whereby when you zoom, you zoom into the right level, and we reflow the text into one single column, and this all happens in about half a second. When you think about the problems and what's wrong with the world, we think of these little details. When you wish to watch a video, you would want to watch it in a full screen. The YouTube experience on the Touch Diamond as you can see is a collaboration with Google and we developed an application that actually 'talks' to the YouTube server."

Though not exactly a brand new initiative when it comes to a direct application link to various popular sites such as Facebook or YouTube, the underlying concept and goal by HTC is to provide a much stronger support for the mobile internet in the months to come. Nonetheless, as we enquired on the possibility of HTC moving into the mobile internet realm with their very own browser software, Mr. Wang has stated that there are currently no plans, but in the long run, anything goes.

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