App Design Concepts for mobile apps
a journey into the challenging world of UI vs UX
As part of a University assignment (UX2), the brief spoke to the difficulty some digital designers have when it comes to solving design challenges and being able to validate their ideas with research, this is in context to agencies needing designers that can look at the business problem or requirement looking beyond the UI and understanding what it is to produce solutions.
Part 1 of our exercise required 3 X design concepts on one of three clients, for mine, the RSPCA looked like a worthy cause, the problem articulated in the brief describes the following “62% of Australian households own a pet, but not everyone has adequate knowledge to give their pets the best health and care they need. It is estimated 40% of dogs and 30% of cats are overweight in Australia, so there is an increasing need for pet owners to educate themselves on correct diet and exercise routines. In addition, many people struggle to find their pet the right veterinary care and other services (such as grooming, and dog walkers) within their areas”.
With this in mind, I followed the requirements for the need for a mobile app that can help and educate potential pet owners and specifically those considering pet adoption through rehoming from the RSPCA. There are three prototypes consisting of three concept variations including an Ideation sketch, digital LoFi WireFrames, and a Hi-Fidelity wireframe mock-up.
The first caters to new owners wanting to adopt a pet, this is our context variation, we approach the tasks using the 7 step Design Thinking (Dashinsky A 2018), primarily asking ourselves, Why, Who, When and where, Ideas, prioritising the ideas, solving the problem and How do we measure success.
Then I commenced ideation, the lo-fi using Canva and Hi-Fi using Figma which also delivers functioning prototypes, here is a snapshot of the Context variation path.
The second concept called for Aesthetic variation but must use the Photon design language a is well known as the Firefox platform, I must admit this was the most time consuming and frustrating part of the exercise I encountered, now I know why that little Fox is curled up, so we can't see him laughing at newbies like me trying to figure Photon out, and here's me thinking they were just missiles from the Strat Ship Enterprise for any Trekkies out there!
In capturing the photon language it was not necessary to follow the clients branding but more to understand how to use and translate the colours, visuals, and iconography across into our designs and mockups which again was me using Canva and Figma, here is the result of my experience, for anyone familiar with photon you can see my L plates all over this one but it definitely gave me an appreciation of a wider design lens.
The third and final requirement called on considerations for accessibility, WCAG 2.1 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) in the guidelines states” Following these guidelines will make content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including accommodations for blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these, and some accommodation for learning disabilities and cognitive limitations” however it is not possible to cater for every condition and it may be technology has yet to create more options as AI becomes more developed.
For this example I have embedded a Read Speaker option upfront, this software which I have used before in Local Government meets the WCAG requirements and reads the content out to visually impaired customers, the other aspect is to make the design simple and use large clear fonts and buttons.
In conclusion, the 3 steps of design enabled me to see different ways of solving business challenges, the concepts were useful in understanding the different customer requirements as well as the business and technology restraints the client has, the next stage of this assignment will see user research undertaken against the brief o measure how successful the design concepts were, hopefully, they have provided a meaningful and relevant design that engages with the RSPCA brand and answers the challenge, overall this exercise has walked through the importance of design, useability, and function.
references: Solving Product Design Exercises: Questions & Answers Paperback — February 7, 2018-Dashinsky, A
ttps://www.rspca.org.au
Illustrations source: Unsplash, Dreamstime, Pixabay, The Rova Project
