App Design
Over the last 4 years, I have worked across a number of projects with engineering experts, Step-In CTO. As their lead designer, I help guide clients through an end-to-end design thinking process to turn their ideas into viable product designs, from concept development through to visual design.
Project: Music Competition App
Design Brief An international record label sought to create an app that hosts talent competitions in order to give artists a platform to gain insight, and access to the music industry. The app needed to factor in three different user groups: the artists, the judges and the voters. It required domain knowledge and user research to find a solution that worked for all user types, across varied regions and cultures.
Project Length 4 months
Final Visual/Product Designs
The final visual designs incorporated a marketing and design language that had been newly created by the client whilst updating their main website. These assets then needed to be adapted for mobile to create a digital design language that matched the aesthetic of the brand and website, as well as maintain accessibility and usability best practises.
Workshops, Personas & Journey Mapping
Initial research and stakeholder workshops were used to define the problem and, design and business objectives. The information gathered was then used to develop proto-personas and desired user journeys for each user type, to then inform the initial IA, task flows, and schematic designs.
Wireframes & Prototypes
The schematics and task flows were refined and iterated to then build out more detailed wireframes for each user type. Stakeholders were closely involved during this stage, with each interactive detail carefully considered. A prototype was then created to test the usability of features, allowing informed feedback from stakeholders in preparation for user testing.
User Testing and Surveys
Two separate user research studies were conducted. The first was a set of 1on1 interviews with potential users who represented a sample of the app's target "Artists", sourced from a global audience. The following was a larger online survey used to validate assumptions for the "Voter" user type that were made during the research phase. Both studies yielded informative and interesting results, which were then discussed amongst stakeholders and used to determine required changes to the wireframes to improve understanding and usability, and then to create the visual designs.
Project: A Drone App, For Non-Drone Users
Design Brief A startup looking to build a selfie-taking drone, with an app that allows users to remotely control it, operate its camera, and manage their images and account. The catch was that they were targeting users typically unfamiliar with drone technology, looking to create enticing content for social media.
Project Length 3 months
Final Visual/Product Designs
This app was designed for non-drone users, as a more agile version of the selfie stick. The task was to make operating a drone appeal to a user group who aren't typically comfortable with this type of technology, and seamlessly integrate the controls inside an app with more familiar functionality.
A Digital Design Language was also created, which included a new logo, branding, and typography to create consistent and pixel perfect visual designs.
Workshops, Personas & Journey Mapping
Due to the innovative nature of the app, much time was spent researching, brainstorming, workshopping, and iterating proto-personas and journeys during the initial research phase, as well as compiling a competitor review.
Concept Designs & Wireframes
Lo-Fidelity concept designs were iterated in the form of schematics, before putting together a more detailed wireframe prototype in order to validate design concepts and assumptions through user testing.
Frequent consultation with the engineers was needed during this project to account for complex tech requirements, and determine how the app would best communicate with the drone (which was being built simultaneously).
User Research and Usability Testing
I led a user testing day of 1-on-1 interviews and task simulations, which was observed by business stakeholders. We tried to incorporate as much of the customer journey as possible in the test, from initial hardware unboxing to app setup, main task flows, simulated drone operation, and user response to a sample visual design. Due to the conceptual nature of the tests, the journey through these touch points gave our users the context for greater understanding of the product, which yielded helpful, qualitative data to inform the final visual designs.
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