GAM710 – Nathaniel's Creative App Journal

What next?

Throughout this module I have started my journey in app development by exploring this practice in a holistic manner over the past 12 weeks. I have started learning to code in Swift, created app interfaces in Figma and explored UX design methodologies and practices. This has given me a strong foundation to push myself further next semester; both in terms of the quantity of my output, the areas I explore and the breadth of app development practice I cover. I have started to explore coding, UI, UX and design methodologies but I have not developed my knowledge and skills as far as I would like in order to create more mature and advanced app prototypes. As well as the vocational skills named above, I am also looking to improve time management, increasing my drive to take on new challenges and my interaction with my peers.

SMART Goals for next semester

In my report on Continuing Personal and Professional Development I highlighted 5 key areas to improve over the next module in order to take my practice to the next level, both in terms of quality and professionalism.

Improve time management: learn and employ better time management practices in order to create more time for creative work and for a balanced work/study/life balance.

SMART Goal:

S: In order to manage my time better I want to be completing at least 15 hours of studies each week with a focus on a strong work/life balance.

M: I will know I have achieved this when I review this goal at the end of next module as well as check that I am on track each week.

A: I know that by making the changes noted above that I will be able to focus on each task more clearly and reduce wasted and unproductive time.

R: Being efficient with my time is highly important to me as I am naturally driven to taking on a lot of challenges. In future work this will also allow me to organise myself better and be able to spend more time on tasks interesting to me.

T: I will be undertaking this over the course of the next module in order to test how it works over a longer period of time. These 12 weeks will allow me to review and refine my work methods.

Broaden my scope of app development platforms, technologies and genres: expand the types of apps that I develop to improve my experience in working on a variety of platform, technologies and concepts.

SMART Goal:

S: In order to expand my skills as a digital product designer I will design and prototype 4 apps exploring the different platforms, technology and applications that I have highlighted.

M: I will know I have achieved this goal once I review the 4 apps created at the end of next module.

A: I will set myself 3 weeks for each app project which will give me 1 week to research the topic and type of app, 1 week to design the app and 1 week to prototype.

R: For my desired career as a multidisciplinary designer being able to explore a number of platforms and explore the more creative uses for applications will be a key factor to my success in gaining a job in the industry.

T: The 4 app sprints will be spread over next module in order for me to have enough time to explore each app in detail but still explore a number of topics. Each week I will look to spend at least 2 hours on each project.

Apply the UX Skills I have learnt into each project I undertake: use the UX methods and practices that I learn as a starting point for each project. This will give me experience of knowing which method to use when and will better justify the decision I make in each project.

SMART Goal:

S: In order to apply UX design methodologies I will research, test and review at least 2 methods, mindsets or techniques in each project that I undertake next module.

M: Achieving this will be clear when I have complied a framework of methods, by the end of next module, that I have reviewed and can employ for future projects.

A: Having explored multiple UX methods during this module implementing them into the design process of each project next module is an obvious step to improve my practice.

R: This is highly relevant for developing my practice as a multidisciplinary designer and one who is looking to gain a job in the design of digital products and experiences.

T: I will look to spend 2 hours each week researching and implementing these methods that are key to improving my app development skills.

Continue learning Swift and apply what I have learnt to a project next module: continue learning SWIFT over the coming module and build an app concept into a working prototype.

SMART Goal:

S: In order to achieve this I will follow Swift courses from sources such as raywenderlich.com. Lynda and Pluralisght in order to turn one of my app prototypes from Figma into a working app by the end of the module.

M: Each week I will spend 2 hours learning Swift and will review my progress each week and at the end of the module.

A: So far, I have really enjoyed learning Swift and found the it easy to read and easy to learn the interface. 2 hours each week is definitely achievable, but I will review and refine this each week.

R: Learning programming and the capabilities of a language such as Swift will allow me to interact with programmers better in future jobs as well as explore my own projects and interests.

T: Learning Swift for 2 hours each week throughout the 12 weeks of the next module will give me enough time to learn the skills necessary to create a working app prototype by the end of the module.

Improve UI skills through undertaking the Daily UI challenge: this 100 day challenge will push me to create a new feature, page or concept each day in order to dramatically improve my skills and speed in creating prototypes in Figma.

SMART Goal:

S: Throughout the next module I will undertake the Daily UI challenge to design a user interface each day for 100 days.

M: Each task ranges from single elements, to screens or journeys through an app. I will look to spend between 30 minutes and 1 hour on each UI depending on the complexity and day of the week.

A: As a daily task it will be easy to track my progress. To see the improvements I have made, and how I am coping with the challenge, I will review my progress each week and at the end of the challenge.

R: As a key part of my future career as a designer I feel this is important for me to become proficient at as soon as possible.

T: This challenge will take place over 100 days and I will start this in January in order to be underway by the start of the next module.

These SMART goals will be in place and underway before the start of the next module in order to allow me to get used to the workload and test out a new schedule for working. I have set my goals as quite ambitious, but for me this is the best way to see results quickly. By pushing myself further I can start to see where exactly my skills lie and which areas of app development I should work on more.

Daily UI challenge:

As stated above I will be undertaking the Daily UI challenge over 100 days in order to improve my UI skills to a more professional standard. Whilst I set this challenge to myself some weeks ago, after watching the GDC Vault video “Game a week: How to succeed, fail and learn” I now have a great idea of the benefits of this sort of challenge and the obstacles I will come across.

The first key point is the need for constraints which for me in this challenge will come through the themes given each day. This is a great way to push myself to think creatively about the theme and explore a number of genres and concepts. These challenges are also very good at clearing out old ideas in order to make way for new, more exciting and improved ideas. It is important to make myself accountable for the completion of the challenge so releasing the work to the public makes me accountable and gives me the opportunity to receive feedback and become more comfortable releasing work. In order to do this I will publish a weekly review on my blog but I will also release these on Instagram, which is my social media platform of choice. I have not decided whether I will release them every day or do a weekly review but releasing them on here will allow me to gain feedback by making myself vulnerable to criticism.

Conclusion:

To conclude this semester, it has been a great experience, but I have not achieved as much as I would have liked. From family problems and technical difficulties costing me valuable weeks I have been on the backfoot from the start. Whilst I believed I could catch up and continue as normal this never happened. I was spending too much time completing multiple weeks work that I was not keeping up with personal work and my SMART goals. I did not complete as much work as I would have liked, but this has also been a great learning curve for next module. I will put a number of steps in place to ensure that I stay on top of the workload and can explore concepts in more detail and greater quality.

I am looking forward to a fresh start to the module and will make sure that I stay on track in order to achieve what I wish to throughout this course.

Week 11: Project management

How Do We Plan and Manage Larger Creative App Development Projects?

Project management is a key part of app development in order to manage time, workloads and communicate effectively. There are many useful tools and techniques to better manage your time, which are of great interest to me as I am often ambitious with how much I can get done and come unstuck time to time. For creative app projects to be successful, especially in a commercial aspect, timeliness and project management is very key. Larger projects bring together other developers in a much more expansive and ambitious manner, these projects are where constantly practicing good project management will pay dividend. Forming a foundation of knowledge over the next modules will greatly enhance my chance of success through future practice.

System development life cycle

System development is complex and takes a variety of forms; from small and narrow in focus, to vast and diverse. The teams brings experts from a wide variety of fields and expertise together which cab sometimes be difficult to manage. The system development lifecycle, specifically the models and methodologies that the team work by, coordinates the process in a streamlined manner. The following example is the waterfall method which is a traditional approach to systems development.

Waterfall model:

This model cascades in a linear sequential manner, with no overlap through the stages. The stages are: plan, define, design, build, test, deploy, maintain.

Plan: this includes a feasibility study that draws out the strengths and weaknesses of the project, that compares the overall cost against the value gained. The stakeholders are the key here as they are those affected by the product; from investors to customers. A risk assessment is carried out at the end of the stage.

Define: Here the project requirements are locked down in and informal documents that includes context, key objectives and constraints on the project. SMART objectives are often used here in order to give an end goal to your requirements.

Design: This stage is where exploration and iteration occur as system architects explore a variety of different solutions to achieve the requirements of the project outlined in the define stage. During this stage evaluation from the stakeholders also occurs where the appropriate software and hardware are chosen.

Build: Once everyone involved has a clear understanding of the final outcome, the build stage starts. Heavy development occurs during this stage.

Testing: Whilst testing is done throughout the systems development life cycle in this specific stage testing is more intense and focused before final deployment. A set of quality standards are often referred to and evaluated. Bugs are reported and fixed with user testing, known as beta testing, is ran.

Deploy: Once all the necessary quality and user checkpoints have been passed the software is ready for deployment.

Maintenance: This is an extremely important stage where post-deployment problems are reported and fixed. Incremental checks and repairing of hardware/ software is needed to keep it running smoothly.

Evaluation and disposal are two more possible stages that go beyond the scope of the original waterfall model. Evaluation calls for a review of the project as a whole and looks to create a document of positives and negatives of the entire process. What went wrong? How can this be fixed next time? Was the product successful etc. Running this at the end of a project will make the next project run more smoothly as these issues will not occur again. Disposal refers to what happens at the end of the systems lifecycle. How is hardware disposed of and what will happen to the important information during this disposal phase. Users information and data is a valuable resource and if it ends up in the wrong hands, without the user agreeing, then this may cause many problems for the developers.

The pros of this model are the rigid structure allows for very easy scheduling of each stage and clear documentation leading to little ambiguity. Nevertheless, the cons are there is little room for reflection, changes to take place, and there is a lot of risk as development happens at the end of the lifecycle leading to little room for iteration.

Agile development:

Agile development is an approach to development that looks to tackle problems of traditional approaches. Agile is an umbrella term that refers to a number of methodologies, practices, frameworks and tools to assist in every aspect of the system development lifecycle. Agile is based on 12 simple principles that are as follows:

Customer satisfaction by early and continuous
Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.
Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months).
Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers.
Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted.
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location).
Working software is the principal means of progress.
Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.
Simplicity – the art of maximising the amount of work not done – is essential.
Best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organising teams.
Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjust accordingly.

Scrum:

There are a huge variety of agile methods but here we are exploring the scrum method. The term scrum originates from Rugby and in development is a metaphor for a team working together to push the project forward with a singular, unified vision.

Scrum prioritises people over processes and with a non-hierarchical, self-organised team people work together with a unified vision. This team usually consists of around 7 people with job titles and roles less important here. If a problem is too large for a single team a new scrum team is created to work alongside the new team to keep it compact.

There are two unique roles that a Scrum team need to accommodate, the scrum master and a product owner. Despite the name the scrum master is considered equal to the other members and facilitates organisational aspects of scrum practice.

The scrum master keeps the project moving forward and maintains a unified product vision throughout the entire System Development Lifecycle. If obstacles arise, the scrum master will assist the team in finding solutions. If there are any outside complications or distractions, then the scrum master will try their best to shield the team from them.

The product owner should be someone with great insight and understanding of the product, vision and the intended users. Often, the product owner is the key stakeholder for the project. They manage and prioritise the product backlog, a core list of features to be implemented by the team.

Starting each sprint the product owner chooses which feature from the product backlog that is the most important to work on. The team decides which of these to implement within the sprint and the accepted feature moves from to the sprint backlog and the team starts working. The product development stage is split into increments and a sprint is generally 2 weeks but may vary depending on the project. All the tasks for the project are stored in product backlog and are only moved to sprint backlog when they are going to be worked on, as described above. Short daily meetings make sure the team and other stakeholders are kept up to date about progress.

During the scrum each member will outline what they managed to accomplish yesterday, what they intend to do today and whether there are any obstructions holding up their progress. The scrum master supports the members in overcoming these obstructions.

At the end of the sprint, two final meetings occur where the sprint is reviewed and weighed up against the goals of the sprint. The goal here is to have a completed feature of product ready for shipping. The second meeting is a retrospective where you acknowledge where there is room for improvement. Each member is asked to reflect over the duration of the sprint and consider these questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could be improved?

Conclusion:

In my personal practice I need to start employing more agile methodologies such as product backlogs and sprints in order to keep focussed, stay on track and manage my time better, especially as project get longer and contain more peers/ stakeholders. The idea of 2 week sprints may work well to organise my time and workload. I will be looking to employ this during my projects next semester and will also explore how it is possible to alter the scrum method to suit a one person team.

Week 10: Who else is making apps?

Who Else is Making Apps and What Approaches Do They Use?

Communities of practice:

Communities of practice allow designers and developers to surround themselves with like minded people in order to avoid isolation, stay up to date with trends and technologies and share knowledge and experiences. It is important as a developer to be proactive in joining these groups, to socialise, establish local and global connections and get involved in projects. Participating in a community based around your practice allows you to share your skills with your peers as every individual brings their own social capital and makes the community richer as a whole.

In order to interact with a community in a positive manner it is important to be trustworthy, empathetic and reciprocate the communication and actions of others. This is an area that I am looking to improve over the next semester as a greater level of communication with my peers will allow to me draw off their knowledge and skills, whilst sharing my experiences and expertise with them as well. I have not been able to respond as much as I would have liked this semester due to several factors affecting my workload and pushing me behind schedule. This is one key area I wish to improve on next semester as I will communicate and interact with my fellow students as well as on websites such as Medium.

Finding communities that work in fields of interest to me, who are willing to share information; both explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge, is a key part of developing my practice. Whilst finding these communities may be difficult at the start, and difficult to get involved in them it is important in order to find them and judge whether they share my aims and mindset. I have started exploring some communities that I would like to get involved with in the future across a variety of mediums. UX Planet, a one-stop resource for all things related to User Experience design, is based off the Medium article platform which allows you to write posts and respond to others in the comments. At this stage when I am new to the subject I will be looking to respond to articles and comments in order to absorb as much information as possible. Another community is the Digital Greenhouse Guernsey which is a focal point for digital and creative sectors in Guernsey. They run events such as Hackathons, Ideation sprints and networking events to name a few. This is a great way to find likeminded individuals and get involved in projects when I move back to Guernsey in February.

Communities of practice also form around movements where individuals get together to discuss, explore and create concepts around certain topics.

Hacker movement:

The hacker movement is a group of individuals who creatively overcome the limitations of software to achieve novel or creative outcomes. They explore programming in a playful and creative manner in order to create an outcome that is meaningful and exciting. The movement started in 1960’s and was pioneered by MIT in order to push the boundaries of technology far beyond what was thought was possible. The rise of more accessible, and free, software has accelerated the growth of the hacker movement into a mature and evolved culture. This hacking subculture has a basis of being anti-authority and placing a high level of importance on sharing, avoiding secrecy and rationality.

The modern hacker movement has evolved rapidly as the internet has pushed it to a wider number audience. Websites like GitHub allow hackers to share snippets of code, libraries and most importantly knowledge and their experiences. Modern ‘hackers’ are now employed by the largest technology firms for their ability to innovate, think of novel solutions and work in an agile manner to solve problems.

Maker movement:

The maker movement is similar to the hacker movement where it promotes freedom, creativity and solving problems but through DIY. The combination of practical DIY and technology is combined to allow people to take control of their digital lives. The manifesto of the maker movement is; make, share, give, learn, tool up, play, support, participate and change. Makers embrace a learn by doing ethos where tinkering, DIY and prototyping is key. One technology that has grown this movement is Arduino micro-controllers and their open-source community. Arduino, as well as Adafruit and Raspberry Pi, allow a combination of digital and physical hacking and DIY to create an mazing amount of solutions to problems. From wearable technologies to Internet of Things houses, these have enabled people to creatively solve problems or hack their own lives.

The maker movement has been improved and has reached a wider audience thanks to websites like Sparkfun and Instructables, but also through makerspaces. Makerspaces are a physical incarnation of the maker movement. Not just a physical space with access to machinery and tools, they are ore a mindset that promotes interaction between individuals to solve problems and explore concepts.

The maker movement is a fascination convergence of physical and digital, which has made this movement so interesting to me. I enjoy getting hands on to design, make and bring projects to life which is one of the reasons that I was attracted to my undergraduate degree in product design. I have played around with Arduino before and wearables and IoT are two areas that I am looking to explore in this digital-physical realm. I am looking to get involved in the maker movement and will need to research what is the best way for me to start. I will explore online communities first in order to increase my knowledge and get some inspiration for projects.

Agile movement:

The agile movement has been pioneered in software development where traditional schedules and timelines of production do not apply, due to their ineffectiveness at staying up to date and involving all the necessary parties in a productive manner. Whilst traditional project management methods may work for other industries, they do not work in software development. Agile focusses on individuals and iteration over processes and tools. This is an important point for my personal development as I have the tendency to focus on ticking off certain boxes in order to fit what I think a developer should do. Having the knowledge of methods, processes and tools will allow me to pick which ones, and when, I should apply them to each project individually.

Agile responds to change when it happens rather than waiting and evaluating at a later point. This constant critiquing and evaluation keeps the project on track and relevant to the industry, to trends and users experience. Throughout the next module I will look to employ agile methods more often in order to improve my project management and save time from the process. This has been a problematic area for me when I have wasted time in managing my project too closely, rather than letting it evolve and iterate in a more natural manner.

Professional bodies:

IEEE: this community creates social capital and community engagement through publications, conferences, tech standards and personal professional development activities. They also contain jobs, information to becoming more employable etc. Events in your area and virtual networks are also available through the IEEE.
Association for computing machinery: brings together educators, researchers and professionals to create a dialogue, share resources and address the fields challenges that are present. They allow you access to an exclusive digital library and, multiple events around the world to grow your network.
British computer society: emphasises the importance of using technology for the good of the whole. Power of network to bring about positive, tangible change.

Week 9: Disruptive practice and emerging technology

Disruptive practice and emerging tech

This week’s topic is focusing on how disruptive practice and emerging technology can drive app development in creative ways. Disruptive practice looks to break new ground and diverge away from norms in the industry. Emerging technology can be a key facilitator to differentiating your product. Currently technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and wearable s are pushing the boundaries of app development by merging digital and physical world together. Big data, Blockchain and artificial intelligence are also driving services and may soon become common place among the apps we use.

These technologies can also be used to empower creativity, create new innovative apps, help them stand apart and help you explore new markets. The key here is understanding what technology to use and how best to use it. Strong integration is needed in order to create an app that is popular and works well. Identifying what technology to use and when is key.

Computational creativity:

Computational creativity is the combination of art, science and technology in order to push the creative limits of by taking on the responsibility as the content creator. Using artificial intelligence to help people be more creative and drive technology further towards what may be the future. Machine learning is at the heart of computational creativity and the software can process heavy user data or create a better algorithm, for a specific task, then you could.

Throughout my current internship with UNStudio I have explored computation through the CAD program grasshopper. As a company that prides itself on using computation and technology to improve is products and architecture this has pushed me to explore computation in the projects I have been involved with. Grasshopper is a powerful algorithmic modelling program that allows designers to explore concepts that are much more challenging and ambitious. This enhances creativity and allows the projects to develop complexity in a natural manner. Employing computational creativity in this manner into app design is a fascinating way to make this software more accessible and could push the limits of what you can create from devices.

AI: Automated video game design and procedural content generation

Automated video game design is the intertwining of AI and design in order to generate content in a procedural manner. Using algorithms to generate content has its benefits such as smaller file sizes, random or unscripted content/ gameplay and greater amount of content. Whilst this is very popular in video games, combing AI with procedural generation can be used in other areas of app development.

One area that I am interested from, due to my background in product design, is generative design. Utilising data and algorithms to mimic natures evolutionary process by testing hundreds or thousands of iterations of a design in order to work out which one best suits the purpose, is driving the design of products and engineered components. One example of this is the BMC Teammachine road bike which used generative design to save weight, enhance stiffness and improve aerodynamics. This area of design may come to mobile applications very soon due to the movement of creative expression and CAD from workstations to laptops and now to tablets and mobile devices. This may open up a wider audience to CAD software and the possibilities that these hold. This is an area that I am very interested in exploring as the thought of the democratization of software and design, paired with the rise of 3D printing and rapid prototyping, is an exciting prospect.

Wearable technology

Wearable technology blurs the boundary between physical and digital products. This creates new forms of interaction and new experiences for users. The synthesis between digital and physical is an interesting space to explore as the experience of the state changes is key to the user’s emotions and their overall satisfaction. For me this is an area that I really want to explore further and push myself to try new areas of app development past the standard mobile application. So far through the semester I have only really focused on mobile applications as I have been finding my feet, but next semester I want to really push myself to explore new areas and platforms.

One company that is pushing the wearable tech industry is Google. They have many projects running exploring the interaction between physical and digital products including their collaboration with Levi’s on the Project Jacquard commuter jacket. This project is a great example of physical and digital working together in harmony. I will use this project, and other similar work as inspiration, but also as means to evaluate my projects and progress.

I have explored wearable technologies in the past during a university project designing safety equipment for the RNLI. I will be looking to use some knowledge and resources from this project to form a basis for exploration next semester and beyond. The Arduino platform is one that I have worked with before and one that I feel will allow me to work on the projects that I am interested in. However, in order to explore wearable technology, I will need to put some time aside to upskilling in Arduino if a project in this area arises.

Conclusion

To conclude this research into disruptive practice and technologies this is an area of app development that I feel will play an important role in the future and our everyday lives. From clothing that monitors your health, to the democratization of apps that promote create expression these will play a more important role each year. Whilst I do not currently have the skills to undertake these projects with any great confidence, they are areas that I wish to explore and test myself in. Over the next few modules I wish to start pushing myself further and further to create more concepts for a wider variety of platforms, using more disruptive technologies and across a wider gamut of genres.

User Experience Research - SMART Goal

Defining Your Audience and Creating a Project Plan

Define Your Audience

What is this design method?

In every design project it is important to understand who you’re designing for. If your project may not give you enough time to delve into full user-research then this is a great method to consider the broad spectrum of people who will be touched by your solution.

How to define your audience?

The key to this method is thinking broadly about all the users and those affected by your solution. This may include service companies, NGO’s, other businesses or competitors.

Who would use this, when would you use it and how long will it take?

An individual or team would use this methods at the start of a design project in the Inspiration phase in order to start your research and design stages by asking the right questions. This method takes between 30 and 60 minutes depending on how deep the discussion is. This is simple method with post-its, paper and pens the only tools needed.

How to run this design method?

1: With your team, write down the people or groups that are directly involved in or reached by your challenge. Really think about everyone who may directly use your game. What demographic, age, or gender? Are you making a game for children? An app for farmers? Write all the groups down on Post-its and put them on a wall so you can visualise your audience.

2: Now add people or groups who are peripherally relevant, or are associated with your direct audience.

3: Think about the connections these people have with your topic. Who are the fans? Who are the skeptics? Who do you need the most on your side? Add them to the wall.

4: Now arrange these Post-its into a map of the people involved in your challenge. Save it and refer to it as you move through your challenge. Use these Post-its to refer back to in order to validate your design decisions.

Create a Project Plan

What is this design method?

Starting a design project can be daunting and creating a plan will allow you to think through all the logistics of your project in order to plan ahead. Reflect on your timeline, the space you’ll work in, your staff, your budget, what skills you’ll need, trips you’ll take, and what you’ll likely need to produce. Getting a good handle on all of this information can keep you on track.

Why create a project plan?

Understanding your project, what you need to produce and the tools or skills you will need allows you to better plan how to get to a final product and overcome challenges. Seeing that you will need to learn a certain skill early on will allow you to plan this into your project and overcome challenges easier.

Who would use this, when would you use it and how long will it take?

An individual or design team would use this method during the inspiration phase. This method takes between 60-90 minutes and is of moderate difficulty due to the deep understanding of how projects work, what challenges you come across and how to overcome these. This prediction is difficult but necessary. A printed calendar, paper, pens and post-its are needed.

How to run this design method?

1: A good place to start is with a calendar. Print out or make a large one and put it up in your workspace. Now mark key dates. They could be deadlines, important meetings, travel dates, or times when your team members are unavailable.

2: Now that you’ve got a sense of your timeline, look at your skills (individual or combined). Do you have everything that you need? If you foresee challenges, how can you get around them? What areas do you need to improve or learn?

3: You’ll need to become knowledgeable on your topic before you head into the field. Who should you talk to now? What will you need to read to be up to speed?

4: Answer questions like: When should my I or team head into the field? Will my team make one visit or two? Plan for all of this. Will we need to physically make something? How much time, money, and manpower will we need to produce it?

5: Your project plan will change as things evolve, and that’s perfectly OK. You can always amend things as you go but make sure that you’re really thinking through your project before you start.

Figma Prototyping - SMART Goal

Figma prototyping 1: Veuxpoints

Tourism app

For my first week’s prototyping for my SMART goal to master Figma I created a concept for a tourism app for my home on the island of Guernsey. During this process I timed myself in order to test my abilities and see improvements over the coming weeks. I have picked up Figma very quickly over the course of this module which is one reason for a decently developed prototype. There are still some issues such as quickly finding icons to use, leading to a slightly mismatched visual style and a slight lack of details such as settings, on boarding pages etc.

However, it does show the basis of the app pretty well. This app is designed to create ‘Instagram moments’ in certain locations across the island in order to gain rewards for local businesses. Benefitting both the user and the businesses this app looks to improve tourism rates to a wider variety of locations across the island and spread the word of the amazing natural environment.

Bluetooth beacons at each location send alerts to users letting them know an ‘Instagramable spot’ is nearby. The user can take photos in the app and post them straight to Instagram in order to gain a reward at the business that has sponsored each location. Rewards are redeemed in the app and new locations are easily viewed on the map.

The alert sent from the bluetooth beacon when triggered.

Home page with options to access Photos, Locations and Rewards as well as take photos and share them online.

Veuxpoint locations are easily viewed on the map. Take a photo at each location and gain rewards.

During this prototyping session I did find that 2 hours was a bit rushed and did not give me much time to explore the Users experience, visual styling or create a decent level of detail. For the next app prototype I will spend the first 2 hours (week 7) creating and refining wireframes and creating a visual style guide; colour scheme, font and source all the media needed. The next 2 hours (week 8) will then focus on building the app and prototyping. This will allow for greater exploration into the concept and also greater realism to how a UI prototype would be made. Whilst I feel I am making progress in mastering Figma there are still more features and functions that I would like to explore. The ability to link with Marvel for details such as embedding video and overflow.io for creating playable user flow diagrams that tell a story are two such areas to explore.

User Experience Research - SMART Goal

Framing the Design Challenge & the Five Whys

Source: IDEO Design methods

Frame your Design Challenge

What is this design method?

Properly framing your design challenge is crucial to understanding how to tackle to problem. This will make starting the project easier and will give you a key line to refer back to when evaluating your project. Reflecting back to your design challenge and asking if you are solving the issue helps to push you in the right direction.

How to frame your challenge?

Ask yourself does my challenge drive towards the ultimate impact, allow for a variety of solutions and take into account the context? These are great questions to ask in order to make sure the challenge is properly framed.

Who would use this, when would you use it and how long will it take?

Anyone in a design team or even working alone can undertake this method due to its simplicity. Undertaken at the start of a design project it is key that you spend time framing your challenge. Spending between 60-90 minutes will allow you enough time to review and refine your challenge. The only things needed for this method are pens, paper and post-its, but bring your ‘thinking cap’ as it is a tough problem to solve.

How to run this design method?

1: Start by trying to right out what you think your design challenge should be? Make this concise and easy to remember. A question makes it easy for you to create ideas and solutions along the way.

2: Properly framed design challenges drive toward ultimate impact, allow for a variety of solutions and take into account constraints and context. Now rewrite the challenge based off these factors.

3: Read your design challenge and make sure it is not too broad or too narrow. Spend time reflecting on the current design challenge and refine it.

4: Run the challenge through the steps again, making changes as you go. Despite this seeming repetitive it is important to make sure your problem is properly framed.

5: Test your challenge by attempting to come up with five possible solutions in just a few minutes. If so then you are on the right track.

Below is an example template of how to record down answers to the questions. Using post-its in the blank space allows for reviewing and refining the design challenge.

The Five Whys

What is this design method?

This research method is used to uncover the deep motivations and assumptions that underpin a person’s behaviour. This is a fantastic method to get to the core of a persons beliefs or motivations. Asking a really broad questions and then following this up with asking why 5 times you will get some essential answers to complicated problems.

How to conduct this method well.

Making sure you give your interviewee time to, space and permission to go really deep, you are likely to wind up with a few key insights.

Who would use this, when would you use it and how long will it take?

A design team or individual would use this method. This would be used at the start of a project to better understand the users thought process and behaviour when tackling specific problems that are related to your app. The only materials needed are pens and paper and will take 15 minutes.

How to run this design method?

1: Start by asking a pretty broad question about your Interview participants habits or behaviours then ask “why” to their response five times in a row.

2: Remember that you are going deeper not horizontally. You are aiming for depth and therefore your should ask “why” in response to a problem or sticking point they had.

3: Write down what you hear, paying special attention to moments when it feels like you’ve moved a level deeper into understanding why that person does what they do.

4: Keep in mind that might not get to the core information until the 4th or 5th “why”. Stick at it.

Week 8: Creativity

Creative exercise – ICEDIP method

For this weeks activity we were tasked with undertaking one of the following creative exercises:

Put the contents of your pockets on a scanner and create a character out of elements of the image produced, using any means you wish.
Write a 500 word story using the numbers 1 to 12.
Change one rule of the card game Snap and play it with someone else. Revise it on the basis of their feedback of the game experience.
Spend 20 minutes undertaking the ‘I’ phase (inspiration) of the ICEDIP method for a new idea for an app, and then spend 10 mins evaluating the results.

For my creative exercise I chose to explore the ICEDIP method and use this to rapidly explore ideas for an app that I will prototype later in the week for the prototyping sprint for my Figma SMART goal. The problem to solve is:

“How can we make political policies clearer, make voting clearer and attract a younger audience.”

The first activity was a 20 minute brainstorm coming up with as many ideas as possible without critiquing or analysing them. Here are the results.

The next activity was then to take these ideas and take 10 minutes to evaluate them. Here is my analysis.

My breadth of ideas was good, ranging from AR and gamification to tinder style swiping. Lots of ideas are not that note-worthy, unique or interesting enough to get attention and promote people to take greater interest. Ideas such as connecting people in a ‘FaceTime’ group call isn’t necessarily a bad idea but I am not sure it would make a good app. This might be better suited to news outlets or YouTube video style content. A problem for the AR app that allows voters to see the impact of their decisions is that it it unrealistic and almost impossible to be accurate. This is a flawed concept that might be better suited to solving this problem if the AR was used to see where to vote or key places to get more information.

Here are a few ideas i think would be worth moving forward:

Tinder style swiping app where you choose policies and candidates
‘Fake news’ fact checker (chatbot)
Recap each political term as a mini-Netflix series
Gamify the app by creating a quiz to work out who you should vote for

These ideas have been narrowed down as they are interactive, they call out to the younger generation and can educate voters about policies, candidates and the political parties better than news sources.

Overall I really enjoyed trying out the ICEDIP method and I found sticking to the timings allowed myself to focus and speed through ideas. As this was my first time using the method I found it very straight forward and enjoyable! I would definitely use this again at the start of my project and ideating for 20 minutes is probably the right amount of time in order to gain quantity and quality.

Week 7: How do I get to know the audience for my app?

Creating effective user stories

Thinking in stories

User stories are designed to give the designer more information about the audience and a specific user for use in critiquing and rationalising the project. They are high level and supply the designer with the basic information on the user. Detailed information is left closer to implementation of the story. The story should reflect the need of the user better later on in the process, hence deferring the details.

The key thing to remember about user stories is that they are flexible. They can and should change as the app and story develops. They are placeholders for conversation and should be used in place of traditional checklist type systems. This user-centric story method will allow us to understand where user wants fit into the product and if they are solving actual problems.

User story framework:

“As a…” (Role)

“I want to…”

“So that…” (Goal)

When creating a user story there are two different methods; stickies vs project management software. Here are the benefits of both:

Stickies are more tangible, more flexible and promote greater creativity. They can be moved, changed and interacted with in order to create a more physical and therefore realistic story.

E-tools are better for archiving and storage but this is project dependant.

For me the biggest reason for choosing between the two is whether you are working in a team and what sort of team that is. I think stickies are the best way to create a user story and the method I would use. Photographing and saving these allows for archiving but flexibility. If you are working in a team then it will depend on the environment you work in but generally I would push to use stickies as the creation of journey maps and user stories is much more tangible.

Creating user stories

Creating user stories can be very useful for rationalising decision made throughout the design process. One key aspect to learn are roles and what they mean in order to make the user story much more powerful.

Role: this represents a group of users rather than individuals. It is derived from characteristics of that group and their interest in the product. E.g. Owner, Customer, Service people etc.

Stories can be difficult to make; too little detail, too much details etc. Using the INVEST structure allows you to evaluate the story you have made and validate that it is good enough to use.

I.N.V.E.S.T:

Independent; the story is self contained and doesn’t require other stories or more information to stand on its own.

Negotiable; the story can be changed and rewritten.

Valuable; the story shows the value to the end user (role).

Estimate-able; This story should be small and defined enough to create a feel for what will be required to complete it.

Small; This story should be manageable.

Testable; The story should be tested to prove that it can be implemented, end result is key to understanding where to go next.

Epics:

Epics are a combination of multiple user stories where each one has to be completed to achieve the end goal. Epics allow us to capture a large workflow of related stories that a single team can tackle. By breaking stories into steps it makes each one clearer and highlights gaps and deficiencies. Each step is a story under the umbrella of an Epic. Epics capture the complete workflow towards a goal, once all stories are complete you have solved that problem. This can also cater to multiple users.

Themes:

Themes are similar to epics but they are related by association and can be solved independently. These do not capture a workflow but are related to each other under similar themes.

Personas

Personas are fictional characters that represent the user of our application. Whereas roles represent a group of users personas represent an individual. They create a backstory for the role and can be used to differentiate between similar roles.

When you make a persona make sure that you only make them for frequently used roles as these are the most important. Relationship mapping to find who the key users are can help with this. You can identify new users, highlight interactions between users and show the influence between users and different spheres. Within this there are usually two different type of user; choosers who pay for the system/ product and user who use the system (i.e. service people).

Below is an example persona that I have created for a user of the sports app Strava.

Week 7: How do I get to know the audience for my app?

User and audience research

This weeks tasks were based around user and audience research in order to better understand who we are designing a certain app for. Thinking in a people-centred way will help us to create an app that better caters for their needs and wants. User research comes in a variety of methods and manners summarised in the two topics; qualitative and quantitive research. Throughout this journal post I will delve further into these research methodologies and plan areas of further research for the future.

The first thing to understand when designing an app is that everyone is different. Some actions or features might not be used or even be obvious to everyone. The key here is to understand this and work out your target audience and who the user might be. Whilst individuals in your audience will still use the app differently it gives a better starting point for creating a user friendly app experience. Lots of user research techniques are similar to experimental psychology and this is key to a systematic and disciplined approach to understand why people are different.

As mentioned earlier this manifests itself in the two research categories; qualitative and quantitative. These are complimentary methods and can been combined to form mixed method user research.

Qualitative research:

Qualitative research is to find out the quality of something; its size, its appearance or its value, through language rather than numbers. Therefore methods of research include;

interviews: individual, structured, semi-structured or non-structured
cognitive walkthroughs
group interviews
focus groups
diary keeping
observations
self reflections

Quantitative research:

Quantitative is the collection and analysis of data in order to derive results. Methods of quantitative research include;

questionnaires
physiological measurements
technology logs
observations; what, when, how long, how often
psycho-physical testing

This week I will focus of qualitative research and in particular interviews in order to improve my ability to understand and empathise with audiences and users.

Qualitative research – interviews

Qualitative research is so important in order to create empathy with users and people cannot be reduced to numbers. People are far more complex that a number in a spreadsheet or a tick box. Qualitative research allows the researcher to delve deeper and attempt to truly understand what the user thinks and feels. Analysing what people say or write, their body language or even what they don’t say. Qualitative research requires experience and knowledge; what certain body language means, what questions to ask etc.

Interviews:

Interviews tend to be long and detailed with the ability to learn a lot of vital information about how users think and act. Structured interviews leave no room for deviation and are looking for answers around specific topics only. Semi-Structured interviews on the other hand allow for deviation and unstructured interviews follow the flow of the conversation more than answering specific questions. These last two methods require more experience as the interviewer needs to think on the spot and use their intuition in order to derive answers and information.

Interviews are only as good as the questions that the interviewer asks. If they are too long winded then the user wont give a clear concise answer, whereas if they are too simple there is not enough information to analyse. As an interviewer you must know the topic and what you want to find out. The questions must be in a simple language with short questions helping keep on the right track and keep answers concise. Prompts are useful to guide the user in the direction of the type of answer you may be looking for. This is not pushing them to tell you the answer you want but more guide them to an answer that helps you.

Regarding some more practical aspects of interviews it is recommended to interview 5 people due to the time taken to organise, conduct and review the interview. This give you a good feeling for the subject but will not overload you with work. Family and friends are also allowed to be your interviewees as long as they represent the target audience. This is helpful as they are generally easier to organise and have a low drop out rate, making it easier to conduct the interviews.

Useful skills to learn includes active listing; holding back from replying to everything and letting the interviewee come to a conclusion themselves. Answering with back channels is another useful skill, with phrases like “mmm..yes” useful at keeping the interviewee confident.

After the interview transcribing is a long and arduous task but id vital to getting the most of out the interview. During my dissertation I undertook numerous interviews along similar lines to that laid out above. Interviewing industry professionals meant that I needed to be confident with what I was doing but most of all analyse the interview after, Transcribing ever word into a word processor allows you to go through and categorise or highlight anything that is of interest. Categorising allows you to sort the key information from answers and start to form a picture of the overall conclusion.

Interviews are an area I have experience in, but would like to improve some aspects of my technique such as active listening and evaluation. Knowing what questions to ask and how many is also something that comes from practise. I would like to implement interviews into my design process, either during a research phase or for testing purposes. Design Sprints merge user testing and interviews into one in order to get deep answers about the prototype and the product. This is definitely something I will be looking to implement into future projects.