People have been talking about resolution-independent user interfaces for years — such a UI would gracefully scale larger and smaller, and look good on any display, whether an old 72 ppi CRT or a higher-resolution 163 ppi iPhone.
But I’ve never heard anyone dream of, let alone implement, an orientation-independent interface, one in which text and other elements would always be displayed “upright” from the user’s perspective, regardless of the physical orientation of the display in space.
The creators of the new iPhone game Dizzy Bee have done just that, however, and the execution is completely flawless. Just as the iPhone itself has set the standard for multi-touch interfaces, Dizzy Bee has broken new ground and established a successful structure for future orientation-independent UIs.
Here’s how it works: UI elements rotate freely so that their bottoms point down in the physical world, as detected by the iPhone’s accelerometer. This is appropriate, given that the game itself is played by rotating the physical device in order to direct the bee (and other elements) as they “fall” in the direction of gravity. Here’s an example of the UI shown between levels — this is one of the islands around which Dizzy Bee navigates:
And here’s that same screen, as it appears when I rotate the device around 180 degrees:
Notice how, while the island and compass rose remain fixed on the display (so they appear “upside down” here), all the text elements rotate to stay “upright.” Here’s a shot of the screen that appears when you complete a level:
Here’s that same screen, but I’ve tilted the device 225 degrees clockwise:
From this, I will infer four new guidelines for successful orientation-independent interfaces:
- Each UI element’s top and bottom edges must be defined.
- A point at which the rotation occurs must be specified.
- Elements should be placed so as not to overlap too much, no matter the rotation.
- Background graphics should be appropriate at any rotation.
And as if a ground-breaking UI weren’t enough, Dizzy Bee is also just really fun to play, with cute graphics, great sound design, and lots of puzzling levels to play through — for only $2.99! See it in action here: