Zulu Love Letter: The Uber-Version

If I had the awesome ability to properly code javascript in order to achieve my ideal version of an interactive component for the Zulu Love Letter, I would have interactive component be much more creative and constructive. Ideally, in terms of bead colour selection, I would like to have a set of colour boxes that allows users to select the precise shade of a specified colour they prefer. This will be represented by a row of differently coloured beads alongside each other. Once clicked upon, a preview window will pop up that would feature around 6 to 8 different shades of the selected colour. Users will then have to select their desired shade and it will go to the ‘selection box’ and users will be able to add the bead to the string. For the stringing process,

I would like to include some basic animation, once each bead is chosen and dropped into the beading area, there will be a background image of a string where on the bead will move across and positioned in the next consecutive place designated by the beading process. I would like for the interactive component to have full touch functionality. In terms of touch, users will be able to drag each bead along the string themselves, thereby touchscreen users will have a unique beading experience non-touch users won’t necessarily have the opportunity to experience.

The design will be a lot more colourful than the mock up I made but the feel will be crafty and earthy, to evoke the feeling of Zulu culture. The Background of the beading area will feature a very light watermarked line drawing of Zulu maidens beading.

Lastly, once the last bead of the love letter has been strung, an option for saving and sharing the love letter will pop up. This will send it to a preview area where users are able to either (a) write a caption explaining the meaning of their love letter or (b) attach a pre-written colour coding guide as a caption to help receivers decode the love letter themselves. Once that has been chosen, users can then click “share” (via facebook/twitter) or “jpeg” to save the image and either “email” or “text message” it to the receivers (free of charge).