Trimming the UI

Cluster has been overhauled.

After much debate, we concluded that the tri-module+big red button thing wasn't really working out for Cluster and we're going to make some changes. The calendaring functionality still looks largely the same and is found in the same place, but the majority of the home screen space is now devoted to social networking. It works almost like a facebook mini-feed only it gives more relevant information like place and status updates for your friends (true to the "context-aware social-networking" mission of the project). The only other thing on the home screen is on the very bottom, there is a color indicator and some text to give the location information that the user is currently displaying about themselves to their network.

All of the social-networking functionality is now found in ONE location and is almost completely independent of any UI related to the user themselves. This will help avoid confusion about the role the user's location information plays in this functionality. From here the user can also get to a map view that shows people in their latest updated location (if they are currently broadcasting). Whether the user selects a friend from the map view or from the search/mini-feed view, they will get the same profile information aggregated form their social networking sites.

There are now three options for location broadcast:

• GREEN - follow me around (dynamic)
  
• YELLOW - broadcast one my favorite locations (static)
• RED - don't broadcast anything

The UI to set this is found through the notification deal at the bottom of the home screen. The user will need to select the groups the information is visible to for both Green and Yellow and also select a favorite location for Yellow. Both the most recently used groups and favorite locations will be saved to be set again easily during future use. The selection sequence for these triggers has an "ipod" feel to it.

All local search functionality has been removed. We'd still like to include it in the design eventually, but it's more important to keep Cluster usable.