EMUI 5.0 and beyond
The making of Huawei’s Human Interface Design and Look & Feel, including the company’s most recent release EMUI 11.
About
Nature guided us. We noted the movement of nature’s creatures, such as jellyfish, and observed water, air, and light — the inspiring interplay between light and dark became the underlying theme for EMUI’s brand-new look and feel. EMUI’s facelift took place incrementally, with EMUI 11 being the latest release of the original master plan.
Additional links:
Please click the link above to learn about the design process behind EMUI.
More about EMUI 12, which is based on the overhaul we did to the original EMUI.
The design process
My team was tasked with designing the interface for Huawei’s mobile OS (EMUI 5 interface). When I was charged with the effort, I was responsible for driving the charter by creating the design brief and working with gifted designers both internally at Huawei and with an agency that created a visually coherent look and feel, design language, and -system under my guidance.
Learn how we created the design language and system, and see before and after screens here
Inspired by nature and culture
Aside from applying the best principles and following best practices for UX design, we looked at nature for guidance to inform the aesthetics of our work. During our visits to the aquarium of the nearby California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, we studied the color palettes and movements of jellyfish and other water creatures. Animation by G. Kutsenov.
EMUI prototype brought to life in a video created in 2016.
When we presented a proposal for the future look and feel of EMUI with 5.0 and beyond, we designed the ‘new’ EMUI not only to break the boundaries between devices and to enable a seamless and connected experience to avail yourself across devices in all your life’s scenarios but also to become your intent-driven AI.
The visual designs were created to give the existing EMUI a facelift and, eventually, delight with eminent details are inviting at first sight and immerse you with long-lasting comfort. Read more about before and after when we created the new look for EMUI.
A design system is a collection of reusable components, such as buttons, controls, color palette, typographic styles, layouts, use of imagery, tone of voice, and so on, guided by clear standards that can be assembled to build many applications.
About
Shown here is a brief sampling of screenshots for EMUI 5.0+ This work has been all done in collaboration with incredibly talented people, including the talented team Fantasy, which I’ve gotten to know and enjoy. I wish I could give credit to my incredibly talented team members, everyone; however, that’s simply not possible: thanks to you all.
EMUI, formerly known as Emotion UI, is an Android-based custom user interface developed by Huawei for its mobile devices. In my role as the company’s Chief designer and VP for consumer BG, I introduced the company’s most refreshed interface ever, with a focus on nature, its azure and white interfaces interspersed with gentle, organic animations: fluid motion and a crisp, beautiful interface help people understand and interact with content while never competing with it. Content typically fills the entire screen, while translucency and blurring often hint at more. Minimal use of bezels, gradients, and drop shadows keep the interface light and airy while ensuring that content is paramount.
Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains — telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – Huawei is committed to bringing digital to every person, home, and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. As one of Huawei’s three business groups, Huawei Consumer BG covers smartphones, PC and tablets, wearables, mobile broadband devices, family devices, device cloud services, and AI. Huawei Consumer BG is dedicated to delivering the latest technologies to consumers and sharing the happiness of technological advances with more people around the world.