Application Design: Proposal

 23/9/2023 

ALTAIFI, LEEN MAAN A (0367698)

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media, Taylor's University

Application Design

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Table of Content

1. Lectures

2. Instructions & Tasks

3. Feedback

4. Reflections

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1. Lectures

Week 1 (23/9/2024):

The lecturer briefed us the module information booklet, including the tasks we will be doing throughout this course and the goal outcomes. We were also introduced to the fundamentals of mobile application design, and we did a short interactive quiz to test our knowledge by the end of class.

Week 2 (30/9/2024):

In this lecture, we were given a lecture on the differentiations between user-centered design, user experience design, and user interface design. The lecturer gave an interesting talk about empathy and perceiving things outside of our own biases and mind. To fully understand what the user wants or what he or she are thinking, we must ask.

Week 3 (7/10/2024):

In this lecture, we learned about the principles of usability and were briefed about our presentation in week 4. The lecturer gave us one-on-one consultations, reviewed our proposals, and gave us feedback.

Week 4 (14/10/2024):

We presented our application design proposal in class and watched each other present to learn from their presentations as well as the lecturer's feedback.

2. Instructions & Tasks

Module Information Booklet:

Task 1: 3 Potential Apps Proposal

Our first task was to choose minimum 3 different apps that could benefit from enhancements in their design. Our objective is to give brief information about each company's information, capture its current designs, identify its weaknesses, show ratings and reviews, and our conclusion. 

I searched through a lot of apps before ending up with my choices. I needed to find suitable options with enough faults to fix thoroughly and —as recommended by the lecturer—apps that haven't been over done by our seniors. I looked through my own apps as well as google play to discover new ones. However, I ended up with apps I am familiar with:

1. Shazam

2. TGV Cinemas

3. Cara

During the one-on-one consultation with the lecturer, I was given feedback to improve my proposal; instead of  just giving textual information, I should provide visual evidence to back it up.

Fig. 2.0: Draft 1 Proposal Process

Fig. 2.1: Draft 1 Proposal Process on Canva Screengrab

I analyzed all three of these apps, but still uncertain of which I will choose for my final proposal. Once I received feedback from the lecturer, he noted that, in his opinion, it's best for me to choose the 3rd option, Cara, because shazam is lacking in features, and TGV has been done before.

First Draft Proposal

Application Design Proposal by ALTAIFI, LEEN MAAN A

After I got my first proposal draft approved, I had to choose one app to redesign and move on to making my final application proposal. The app I ended up choosing was Cara. Although I initially thought that redesigning a social media app would be challenging, I decided to go for it anyway because out of the three potential apps this was the most promising and the one I'm personally interested in.

Following the guidelines the lecturer gave us, we needed to cover all these main points in our presentation: Introduction, background & context, goals & objectives, user research, and references.

Fig. 2.2: Table of Content of Final Proposal Presentation

After presenting and getting feedback from the lecturer, I was told to show more of a comparison between Cara and its competitors. Since, initially, I just had slides showcasing the app on its own with descriptions. 

Fig. 2.3: 'DeviantArt' Description

Fig. 2.4: 'ArtStation' Description

So, I showed a side-by-side comparison analyzing the features of the UI of the apps including both weaknesses and strengths.

Fig. 2.6: Cara Vs ArtStation Analysis

Fig. 2.5: Cara Vs DeviantArt Analysis

 

Final Draft Proposal

Cara Mobile Application Proposal by ALTAIFI, LEEN MAAN A

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3. Feedback

Week 2 (30/9/2024):

Regarding my proposal,  I was told that rather than only providing text for the weaknesses, I had to include app screenshots to support each point.  
 And he recommended the third option (Cara) because it has more potential for final proposal because Shazam doesn't offer many features, and TGV has been a very common choice among my seniors.

Week 4 (14/10/2024):

After presenting our proposal in class, the lecturer said my presentation was good overall, but I could include more slides that visualize the comparison between my chosen app Cara and its competitors.

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4. Reflections

Experience

In the first few weeks, we worked a lot on researching and thinking of solutions for our app redesign proposal. I learned quite a lot from this experience as it took me more in depth in what UI/UX means, how to plan out proper designs, and deeply think of the user's perspective. It made me think critically of what a good app design is versus a bad one. Although I use apps all the time, I had to search thoroughly and nitpick the faults that are not just faulty in my opinion, but other users as well, making it unbiased.

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