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Orange prospective inbox

How to aggregate messages from different sources? How to see SMS, MMS, emails, tweets and facebook messages on the same cellphone screen? And above all, how to represent this aggregate with a strong metaphor? Those question were asked by Orange during a short collaboration project at L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique.
 

My proposal is an application which has the same principles as the Plate tectonics. Each plate represents a group of contacts, chosen by the user: family, pro, friends, etc. Rocks represent messages and the source (strong line) represents contacts. The closer the messages are to the source, the newer they are (and inversely).
Plates’ appearance is created with three parameters: the number of contacts, the number of messages and a strength coefficient. This coefficient is given by the user: it’s up to him to give more or less strength to each plate, that is to say more or less strength to group of contacts.
 

Main view is the map where the user can navigate with common multitouch interactions. By zooming, message’s details are progressively appearing (sender, title, date and type). A secondary view allows the user to see deeper in the plate: it corresponds to the archive area where oldest messages are put.
Each time a new message is received, the cellphone is vibrating. It is a volcanic eruption: bright lava appears at the source, creating a new message area, expanding the plate and pushing the other ones. Once the message is read, lava cools down.
If the user suddenly want to reorganize his plates, he can take his cellphone and shake it in order to create an earthquake. Plates, which have the bigger strength coefficient, will go on top of the other ones, creating an absolute new view of the map.