Application Design I: Task 1
| 23.09.2024 - 14.10.2024 (WEEK 1-WEEK 4)
| Tang Chin Ting [ 0366473 ]
| Application Design I / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media| Mobile Application Proposal
LECTURES
Week 01: Introduction to Mobile Application Design
- Designing Mobile Applications Is Important
- Essential to producing interesting and easy-to-use experiences
- Increases user happiness, retention, and engagement
- Apps with good design enhance usability and accessibility
- Design Usability
- Definition: The effectiveness with which users complete tasks
- Emphasizes user pleasure, memorability, efficiency, and learnability
- Usability testing is necessary to pinpoint problems and enhance design
- Mobile in the Digital Era
- The core of contemporary digital engagement is the mobile device
- Businesses should adopt a mobile-first strategy
- Delivering flawless mobile experiences gives businesses a competitive edge
- The Difficulties of Mobile Design
- Content should be prioritised to prevent clutter on a limited screen
- Various devices: Make sure there is uniformity between various screen sizes and input techniques
- Contextual awareness: When designing, take into account variables like mobility, connection, and location
- User-centered Design (UCD)
- Focuses on comprehending the demands and actions of people
- A research, design, prototype, and testing process that is iterative
- Lowers development costs and increases customer satisfaction and product uptake
Week 02: The Art of User-Centered Design
- Definition of User-centred Design (UCD): A design philosophy that gives users' requirements and experiences top priority across the whole product development process
- Iterative Cycle: Concentrates on comprehending customer requirements from ideation to finished product
- UCD Process
- Define: Create prototypes of interfaces and user experience processes
- Design: Verify prototypes and conduct usability testing
- Validate: Complete the product by developing and coding it
- Redesign Goals and Objectives
- Assess the Current Architecture: Determine the advantages and disadvantages of the current applications
- Boost User Satisfaction: To live up to user expectations, concentrate on both core and secondary aims
- User Research: Put procedures in place to collect opinions and insights from users
Week 03: Usability
- Usability: What Is It?
- Definition: The ability of a product to satisfy consumers and increase effectiveness and efficiency
- Emphasis: Context and user needs; usability adjusts to particular circumstances and objectives
- Measurable: Capable of being assessed by testing techniques
- Important Usability Concepts
- Consistency: A cohesive encounter that prevents misunderstandings
- Simplicity: Interfaces that are self-explanatory and intuitive
- Visibility: Labels and indications that are easy to find
- Feedback: Prompt, understandable reactions to user input
- Error prevention: Tools that reduce mistakes made by users and direct their fixes
- Redesign Goals and Objectives
- Analyse existing designs to determine their advantages and disadvantages
- Clearly define your goals to increase user happiness
- Create a thorough plan for user research and testing.
Week 04: Usability Heuristics for UX Design
The lecture highlights concepts that improve user-friendliness and lists Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability criteria for user interface design. Key heuristics include making sure that the system's status is visible, aligning the system with real-world expectations, giving the user autonomy and control, upholding consistency, preventing errors, favoring recognition over recall, permitting flexibility and efficiency, emphasizing clean, simple design, assisting in error detection and recovery, and providing helpful assistance and documentation. The goal of these standards is to make user experiences on websites and applications intuitive, effective, and fulfilling.
INSTRUCTIONS
SUBMISSION
Project 01: Mobile Application Proposal
Instruction:
- We are required to create a proposal documentation for our mobile application project.
- We are required to redesign an existing app that you find unsatisfactory in terms of the user experience or interface design
- Do the survey, interview, market studies, and research on the selected topic.
- The proposal also needs to include key features of our application and provide a clear flowchart of the app.
What is included in the proposal?
- Introduction:
- A briefing about the purpose of the proposal
- Explain the importance of mobile app design and how it affects user experience
- Background & Context
- To explain the background of the app that I chose
- Analysis of the app's current design and its strengths and weaknesses
- Analysis of the user demographic of this app and user needs of this application
- Goals & Objectives
- Clearly define the objectives of the redesign, focusing on addressing specific user pain points.
- Identify both the primary and secondary goals of the new design
- Explain how the redesigned interface will improve user experience by enhancing usability, accessibility, and engagement.
- User Research
- Outline the user research methods, such as surveys, interviews, or usability testing
- Detail how you will collect and analyze user feedback to understand their preferences and behaviors.
- Provide a comprehensive plan for user testing and validation
- References
- Include all sources of research and inspiration, such as articles, books, case studies, or design examples that informed the redesign process.
This assignment's initial stage is to choose three apps with low app store ratings, paying particular attention to those that have drawn criticism for their user interface (UI) design. I will evaluate each app's present design, point out its flaws, and suggest improvements to raise the standard of user experience.
The draft presentation also has to have screenshots from each of the three applications that were chosen. To find out if the problems mentioned in user reviews still exist, we must use every app. Those reviews cannot be utilized for the analysis if the flaws are resolved.
The three applications that I've chosen are:
- Guardian MY
- Senheng
- Sushi King MY
I've made extensive use of the Sushi King MY app, mostly to get points for each meal at Sushi King. But the software might be far more helpful if it were updated with new capabilities, including letting users place orders through the app while dining in. This functionality would improve the in-store experience by expediting the ordering procedure and giving customers more convenience.
Figure 1.1 Progress
Figure 1.2 Progress
Figure 1.3 Progress
Here is my final draft presentation:
Figure 1.4 Final Draft Presentation
Mr. Zeon's acceptance of my draft will allow me to move on with my final presentation. The presentation will center on a thorough examination of the chosen program, stressing both its advantages and disadvantages in terms of user interface design. To determine why the Sushi King MY app gets lower ratings, I will also compare it to a higher-rated rival from the same brand category and investigate significant design variations that may be the cause of this discrepancy.
The application that is chosen is Sushi King MY, I think it will be easier to redesign since its UI design is more confusing and maybe I could add the menu function in it app to make it more interesting.
Content of final proposal:
- Introduction
- Purpose of proposal
- The importance of mobile app design
- The Impact of Mobile Application Design on UX
- Background and Context
- App current design screenshot
- Ratings and Reviews
- Summary
- Strengths & Weaknesses
- Elaborate Weaknesses
- Competitive Analysis
- User Demographics
- User Needs
- Goals and Objectives
- Redesign Objectives
- Primary Goals
- Secondary Goals
- Redesign Strategy
- User Research
- User Research Methods
- Plan for user testing & validation
- References
After asking the feedback from Mr Zeon through email, he asked me to update the reviews which are from 3 years ago, and he also helped me to find out the demographic of Sushi King MY (which helped me a lottt).
I really like the design of my presentation slides, and I start to prepare my script for the presentation next week. Since we were only given 5 minutes to present our work, so I needed to summarize the content to make sure I covered all in that 5 minutes.
Figure 1.5 Progress
Figure 1.6 Progress
Figure 1.7 Progress
Here is my final presentation:
Figure 1.8 Final Proposal Presentation
FEEDBACK
Week 2:
It’s important to highlight the key phrases from each review to make it easier to identify users' feedback. Additionally, reviews that are not relevant to the application's UI design, such as comments about shipping delays or product quality, should be excluded from the draft presentation. If you wish to move forward with the third idea, focusing on Sushi King MY, I encourage you to proceed.
Week 3:
- Please highlight the keywords in the review slide using color. Update the comment from three years ago with the most recent one
- For demographics, refer to the attached screenshot and link. Additionally, conduct your own research.
- Mr Zeon also provided me the demographic of Sushi King MY which needs to be included in my final presentation
Week 4:
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the presentation day!
REFLECTION
Experience
I learned a lot from working on the mobile application proposal for my job, which improved my comprehension of UI/UX design principles. I realized how crucial user input is to a product's design when I examined the Sushi King MY app. I concentrated on obtaining information from user evaluations, which showed the application's advantages as well as disadvantages. Through this approach, I was able to improve my analytical abilities while also being reminded of how important empathy is in design—knowing the user's point of view is essential to coming up with workable solutions.
Findings
I discovered a lot of important conclusions from my study of the Sushi King MY app that highlight user experiences and places where the design of the application needs to be improved. The crowded interface was often cited by users as a source of difficulty for navigation, highlighting the need for a more simplified design. Furthermore, the overall user experience was negatively impacted by performance problems including sluggish loading times and sporadic app crashes, suggesting that app performance should be given priority in future versions. Notwithstanding these difficulties, a lot of customers expressed gratitude for the range of menu choices and special offers offered, indicating that although the user interface may want improvement, the content remains a compelling feature.
Observation
Users also indicated that they would want extra features, such as order monitoring and customized suggestions, which opened up new avenues for creativity. Examining user evaluations overall confirmed the importance of direct input as a tool for directing design changes and developing an application that is more focused on the needs of the user. These findings highlight how crucial it is to take care of user complaints to raise general app satisfaction and engagement levels.
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