24/4/2024 - 19/5/2024 / Week 1 - Week 4
Janice Marie Eng Chia Hui /0361521
Application Design I/Bachelor of Design in Creative Media /
Taylor's University
Project 1/Mobile Application Proposal
Table of Contents:
Lectures
Project 1
To-do list:
-
Create a proposal documentation for the mobile application
project
-
Identify 3 apps with unsatisfactory user experience or interface
design
- Focus on one app
-
GET FEEDBACK from peers and lect
Finding 3 apps
After the first lesson in week one. we were asked to find 3 apps we
thought had bad interface design or user experience. We were shown some
examples from the seniors to use as reference for our work. I
started downloading apps that I saw had bad ratings on Google Play.
After I managed to download a handful of apps, I went through them one
by one, creating many accounts on the way.
Figure 1.1 Apps Downloaded (21/4/24)
I've narrowed down a list of apps that I believe have issues with their
interface design and user experience. These include GSC, Firefly, Smart
Selangor, Padini, Starbucks, McDonald's, and Domino's. After spending
some time examining these apps and comparing them with others offering
similar services, I've decided to propose Smart Selangor Parking, GSC,
and Domino's as my final three choices to present to the lecturer.
3 apps chosen:
-
Smart Selangor Parking
- Golden Screens Cinema
- Domino's
Project 1
by Janice Eng
After getting feedback from the lecture on Week 2, he recommended I do
Smart Selangor as it was not as well known and others might do the other
2 apps.
Choosing 1 App
To-do list:
-
Prepare the final proposal slides
-
Slides should include:
-
Introduction (Purpose + Importance of App Design)
-
Background & Context (current app design evaluation,
strengths & weakness, competitive analysis, user
demographics/target audience)
-
Goals & Objectives (redesign objectives, primary and
secondary objectives, design strategy and user needs)
-
User Research (research methods, research methodology, user
testing plan)
- References
-
Prepare for the presentation on week 4
The app I chose in the end is Smart Selangor Parking (SSP). I
actually tried to draft the contents of the slides out first in Google
Docs but ended up not using most of the information. Then I proceeded
with the slides. However, I did not like the initial slide design so I
redid it and then created an additional presentation slides for the
presentation on week 4.
Figure 1.2 Smart Selangor Parking
Background and Context
For this section of the proposal, I discovered the 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design by Jakob Nielsen while reading case studies. I used a lot of the pointers
there for accessing the weaknesses and strengths of SSP.
For the ratings and reviews, we were to compile the findings into one
slide. I noticed a lot of my classmates explaining further on the
specifics of the reviews but I decided not to explain further as I would
be going over it in the weakness section. Additionally, I have decided to
elaborate more on the weaknesses of the app in the competitive analysis
section, because honestly, I didn't want to write the same thing over and
over again. Hopefully, this is accepted by the lecture.
Additionally, for the competitor's analysis, I chose to analyse Touch
and Go, JomParking and Parking.SG to identify what are some of the gain
points of the competitor's apps that can be implemented into
SSP.
During the presentation week, after looking at my classmate's work, I
decided to add a competitive analysis comparison chart between the 4 apps
(love stealing my class mates ideas jkjk)
Figure 1.3 Competitive analysis
Figure 1.4 Comparision between the 4 apps (17/5/24)
Goals & Objectives
Honestly, I had a hard time writing this part as I did not really know
what each point wanted. But I managed to clarify it with the lecturer so
I hope I got the right information down.
I had feedback from the lecturer that my design strategy was inaccurate
and amended it accordingly.
Figure 1.5 Original Design Strategy (16/5/24)
User Research
Somewhere in week 3, I realised that reading case studies on existing
app redesign projects actually helped a lot in coming up with the
contents of the slides. So I found 2 redesign projects to help plan out
my workflow, such as with the user research and testing phases.
Two app redesign case studies:
Slides Development
Figure 1.6 Proposal Draft (14/5/24)
Project 1 Application Proposal (Attempt 1)
Presentation Slides
by Janice Eng
Final Work
Smart Selangor Parking (SSP) enables online payment for both
parking and fines. SSP is among the initiatives developed under the
'Smart Transport & Mobility' domain (About Us – Smart Selangor,
n.d.).
Category: Productivity
Main functions: Online parking and compound payments
Additional features:
- Off-street parking season pass
- 24/7 auto assistance
- EV charging location
Smart Selangor Parking
by Janice Eng
Feedback
Week 2
Specific Feedback: Seems good, since you focused more on Smart
Selangor and GSC you can choose between those 2. But I suggest you do
Smart Selangor as it is quite unknown.
Week 3
Specific Feedback:
-
For the objective, summarize your weaknesses and solutions, can
keep it general but make it generally specific to your app
-
The primary goal is about things in the app you want to change
that make it unusable
-
The secondary goal is features in the app that can be changed to
help improve the UX but is not necessary
-
You can keep your target audience, but you can also research the
number and demographics of drivers in Selangor for your user
demographics
-
Make sure your full stop is consistent and try to arrange the
hierarchy of your titles
-
Summarise some of the issues raised by the ratings and
reviews
Week 4
Specific Feedback
-
Try to combine your user research and user testing into one
slide
-
Try not to use the premium photos
-
Try to use better icons, and make them relevant to your
content
-
Ensure consistent spacing within the fonts
-
The current design strategy resembles a blueprint of the app
design process. The design strategy should categorize and summarize
your solutions. You can refer to the attached screenshot from
another student for guidance.
General Feedback:
-
Can read some research papers to identify the user
demographic
-
Make sure to include your design strategy
-
Highlight user reviews
-
Include in-cite citations
Reflection
Experience
I had a generally pleasant experience with this project. We were told
beforehand what was expected from Project 1. We were also given examples
of seniors' work to follow as a framework. Honestly, without the senior's
work or a guideline from the lecture on the content of the proposal, I
would have had a way harder time coming up with the content. The only real
challenging part of this proposal was finding an app that I wanted to
redesign that had actual negative feedback from the users. All in all, it
was a generally smooth experience and I hope to carry this momentum into
the next project.
Findings
One of my major findings throughout my experience with this project is
that reading case studies on existing app redesigns actually helps a lot
in understanding what needs to be done or what concepts to apply. Being
able to understand the workflow of how others had done their redesign
provides me with a brief and general outline of how I can carry out
mine. Additionally, I am able to learn concepts and techniques used by
others to test or analyse usability.
Observations
One thing that I have observed throughout the project is that the
specifics of what makes a good and seamless user experience are quite
universal. I noticed that my classmates had picked out apps that I had
considered for this project as well, meaning that they found its interface
quite bad too. The only thing different from me and them is our design
preferences. Additionally, I also noticed that they way we present our
ideas is different. Its nice to see how one idea can differ from person to
person.
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