1a) I tend to find distortion and tone altering pedals the most interesting. I also find loop pedals extremely fun to play with despite them not being analog. I would like to figure out how unique sounds are created through distortion.
1b) I looked at Boss, Death By Audio, Ibanez, and Walrus Audio. The more well known companies had more professional looking pedals, with cleaner designs and more expensive looking parts. The lesser known companies had bolder artwork on their pedals with more unique and experimental looking effects.
1c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNfy31zLOIU#action=share
Compared to all the other pedals I looked at, the Janus Fuzz/Tremolo pedal I found to be particularly interesting. Its use of joysticks instead of knobs allows for both x and y axis effects. Where a knob would only allow you to adjust maybe the rate of the tremolo, the joystick lets you adjust the rate and depth of the tremolo depending on how far you push the stick horizontally or vertically. Similarly the the Fuzz joystick controls both the fuzz and tone.
2)

3)A momentary button is only activated as long as you press the button. This would be useful for things like pressing a note on a synthesizer. A latch button on the other hand, when pressed holds, and pressing it again unlatches it. This is more useful for turning things on and off in a guitar pedal.