BEFORE
Designed by Fariha Habib
AFTER
Designed by Fariha Habib
Logo and App Design Review
Tag: app
Persona
USER PERSONA
A user persona is the development of a fictional character who is a representative of the intended audience. The purpose follows to reflect the goals and behaviour of the hypothetical users to help designers visualise the user experience.
Some of the fundamental questions that need to be considered when creating user personas include:
What are the tasks the user is trying to perform?
Are there different tasks for different personas?
It should be assumed that different personas will take different paths, which can essentially affect their mindsets when reaching the end goal (specific path or discovery path). For example, a designer must consider what platform the user may be viewing from. As a result, multiple personas will be developed as a solution to each platform. I.e. Desktop/Laptop, Tablet or Phone.
Another great way to further understand user personas is by creating mental models. This is an important aspect because it illustrates how the user approaches a particular problem which defines the overall user experience.
Discovery Path
Specific Path
ARTEFACT PERSONA
An artefact persona is the outcome of giving the product a personality. This helps the designer to envision their visual strategy.
The following questions are assessed when developing artefact personas:
If the interface was a person, what would he/she be like?
How would you expect the users to react when they first view the product?
How would you describe this product to a friend?
How is the product different to competitive products?
Which celebrity (or car, movie etc.) is the product most like? Least like? Why?
Alongside answering these questions, listing a group of experience keywords help define and govern the visual strategy. Usually having 5 core words help create the beginnings of the personification of the product.
Developing both a user persona and an artefact persona is principal to understanding the targeted audience and crucial to designing a successful interactive interface. Both profiles help realise mistakes and encourage improvements.
Xtensio is a good website to use to build a foundation on persona profiles.
https://xtensio.com/user-persona/
App Design Process II
IDEA
To help determine an idea, below are different questions to ask:
- Is this idea financially stable?
- Is this idea technically feasible?
- Is this already on the market?
- Could this be made simpler/differently?
By building a networked world, the users are much more active – enabling them to provide instance response and opinion. This means that designers are able to build the feedback given into their work processes and strategically continue to refine their outcomes to ensure a probable success on how their product is received.
SPEC
A specification is an important document that declares what an app does and how it is accomplished. It is imperative for the designer to establish this earlier in the development process in order to prevent deviation from the initial idea.
WIREFRAME
Developing wireframes is an essential stage because it allows the designer to realise inconsistencies in their app navigation.
PROTOTYPE & VISUAL DESIGN
Every stage of experimentation should be considered and visually realised in order to learn from the failures sooner rather than later.
DEVELOPMENT
Building the technical architecture of the app.
ITERATE
Make and remake.
App Design and Development Process I
The design industry has become an adaptable practice to accommodate the evolving digital world. Rather than being spectators, users are actively contributing to the design development of apps.
Change the way you work
With the design platform changing to encompass a realm within the digital sphere, designers are able to shift their conversations to include the users so they can become an integral part of the design development process. These developments have brought new ways of working that might not have defined beginning and end points as previous linear design processes. Here, iterative processes are adapted and evolved to take advantage of opportunities to make and remake.
Understand development
Learn to use prototype tools. E.g. InVision, Adobe XD. Learn the same terminologies as the team you are working with.
Use a variety of operating systems
If the target is the global mobile market, it is important to have a strong comprehension of the different operating systems in order to solve the sufficient design scenarios.
Prototype everything
The point is to determine the extent of its necessary design in order to test what is hypothesised.
What you see is not what you always get
Always test on a mobile device.
Apps are never finished
Apps are constantly improved because of user feedback.
What is an App?
The term ‘app’ is an abbreviated expressions of the word ‘application’. An application is a software program that is designed to perform a specific function for the user or other applications.
There are three types of apps to consider:
Web App (HTML) – a responsive web design, stored on a web server.
Native – a native app is developed for a single platform i.e. iOS, Android etc. The app runs directly on the device and does not need an internet connection.
Hybrid – elements of both aforementioned types of apps, built with HTML
| PROS | CONS | |
| HTML | – A quick option for making an existing content available via mobile device – One-time build | – User experience inferior – Performance inferior |
| Native | – Better UI and UX – Improved graphics – Offline mode | – Slower build time – Expensive – Developed separately for each platform |
| Hybrid | – Faster to build than native apps – Easier to maintain – Reduced development costs | – Don’t work offline – No unique mobile functions |
What designers should consider when developing an app.
- User expects familiar UI controls
- Touch inputs
- Hi-Res output
- Time is short
- Screen real estate is small
- Context is everything
- Wire-framing is essential
Digital Design 