If you’ve ever wished you could influence the design of an actual Internet application, now’s your chance! I am designing the next generation of HeroMachine Mini-applets and I want to hear from you about what you do and don’t want them to be like. The goal is to create one basic frame that can be used for any of these smaller applets by changing just a few pieces of data (and of course drawing all new items).

Here’s the latest version of the wireframe (a basic layout without any design elements applied) I am considering for future “HeroMachine Minis” like a Face Maker, Alien Creature Creator, or what have you:

(Click for a larger version.)

The gray area would be for a 325×250 ad. Below that are general function buttons that affect the overall applet. The only “new” one is the “preview” button, which will remove everything except the current creation, shown full-screen. I might even include some zooming type of feature on that screen. Below that in light green are the various item category buttons (for instance “Headgear”, “Undershirt”, and so on).

The right side of the applet is for actually creating your image. The row of six small rectangles is for item previews, like you have in HeroMachine 2.5, so you can see a set of items before having to pick one. The currently selected item would be highlighted in white. You can scroll up or down an entire set of six items by clicking either below or above the green scroll button, or more than one set by dragging the scroll button itself. The green arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar allow you to scroll the preview boxes up or down one box at a time. Clicking on a preview box will select that item and put it on the dark yellow canvas area, applying the currently selected colors to it.

Below the preview boxes and the canvas area is a row of buttons that let you affect the current item or the entire image. Items can be moved up or down in layers, like in the current HeroMachine 2.5 application. You can clear the current item, clear all items, or clear just the currently selected item. The blue and yellow arrow buttons let you select the next or previous item in the set, acting like the left and right arrows that were previously integrated into the component selection boxes.

Below that row of buttons is the scaling control. This will let you stretch the currently selected item sidways or up and down. You can move the current item around on the canvas by clicking and dragging it.

Finally, to the right of the scaling control is the color selection area. The number of color boxes here is flexible. You can potentially set two different color areas as well as the line color. Selecting a color area tab will set that as the active region.

That pretty much covers it. I’d be delighted to hear any suggestions or concerns you might have about this proposed interface — features to include that aren’t there, features currently there you think would be useless, overall layout, anything goes.

With the HeroMachine 2.5 Expansion nearing completion, I am starting to think about the next big project I should work on. After a bit of back and forth, the one that has me most excited is the idea of a Face Maker, a HeroMachine-powered applet that would focus on the face and head. One site that does something similar is “Ultimate Flash Face“, to give you an idea of what I am talking about here. I’ve got a rough draft wire frame model and some other thoughts after the jump.

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I had a request in the last thread to show if it’s possible with the new components to have a suit and trench coat combination, so here you go:

I just finished duplicating some of the more common components into other slots, and created this preview character showing three different Coat items (one in Coats, one in Overshirt, and one in Undershirt) and two Companions (one in the Back slot and one in Tail). Should be fun!

One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was so that all of you out there would have the chance to be involved in an ongoing development project by providing insight and input throughout. Over the last few months there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity for that, as the Expansion was in the “grind the items out to the additional templates” mode.

But now that the 2.5 expansion is finally getting to the wrapping-up stage, it’s time to start discussing what you would like to see next out of the HeroMachine team. I’ve been talking with the UGO team, and here are the ideas we’ve put forth as big projects. I’d like to know what you all think about them, or if there are other things you’d like to see us work on.

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