Application Design II - Weekly Journal

 

Week 4 (15/05/2024)

In today's lecture, we learned about mobile UI and UX. As a summary, I have learned that before creating an app, we should define our goal by understanding the problem we are solving, identifying our target audience, and researching the competitive landscape. This approach ensures that we create an app that meets users' requirements and helps position it for success. 🍰

We also covered the procedures prior to creating an app, including analyzing user flow, information architecture, and functionality prioritization. Additionally, we should consider the user context when designing the UI, such as flexible layouts, dynamic scaling, and different input methods. This helps us create an inclusive UI design that caters to users' needs.

For today's class activities, we are required to replicate an excellent UI design using Figma. According to Mr. Yusri, copying others' designs is a good practice, and I totally agree with him. By actively replicating masterful designs, we can learn from them and enhance our own aesthetic design thinking. The image below is my class activity for today. 

Figure 4.1 Copy UI design

As today's lecture key takeaways, I learned the step-by-step process to create a successful mobile app and techniques to improve my UI design. After this lecture, I plan to set a goal to copy UI designs to improve my design skills, starting with at least three designs per day. Although I may not achieve that goal every day, I am willing to push myself as far as I can to be more successful. 🍔

Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Today we have no class due to the public holiday for Wesak Day, but I am still writing something so that it won't be empty for this week. For today's reflection, I will write about the application design assignment 1. 🦖

Assignment 1 is about self-evaluating our application design project from last semester and reflecting on what can be improved in terms of aesthetics, user flow, and usability. After gaining more knowledge about design over the past four months since last semester, I feel that our previous application design is flawed and there are many improvements we can make. For instance, the use of typography, negative space, and overall consistency should be improved to enhance the aesthetics of our UI design. Furthermore, the user flow also leads to misunderstandings, as there are some sections that are not designed in our website.

In this self-evaluation assignment, I have gained a better understanding of user needs, drawing from the knowledge gained in the Embedded System assignment last semester. It is not only about building a visually appealing UI design but also identifying the user flow and ensuring usability to enhance the overall user experience, enabling them to complete tasks and solve problems efficiently. This experience has underscored the importance of understanding user needs and behaviours to create a website that fulfils its purpose effectively. By putting myself in the users' shoes, I've learned to see things from their perspective, which is important in identifying weaknesses in my application design. This insight has enabled me to make informed improvements that prioritize user satisfaction and ease of use.

Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Today, we brainstormed the application design for our healing center project, starting with the login/signup and landing pages. Before diving into the application design, we decided to start with the logo design. Since our group name is Zen Garden, we decided to design a logo featuring elements such as a stone, a leaf, and a person in a healing posture, using blue and green colours. 🏝️

Working as a group, it's important to understand each other's opinions so we can learn from one another and ensure everyone's involvement for fairness. However, due to one of our group members being absent today, we decided to start with the simple design elements first: the login, signup, and landing pages. For the application's features, each of us will research user needs and present a proposal next week. This way, we can gather everyone's opinions effectively. Below are some scratches of our app design.

Figure 6.1 Scratches

As a reflection, today I learned the importance of teamwork and involving every group member in the brainstorming process. As a group leader, it's crucial to encourage everyone to share their opinions, ensure that all members are engaged in the project, and guide the team in the right direction. I hope we can collaborate effectively and achieve the best outcome for our healing center project. 🦐

Week 10 (26/06/2024)

Today, we have a lecture on low-fidelity application design. Before we move on to high-fidelity design, which includes all pages with finalized designs and prototypes, it's important to start with low-fidelity elements such as wireframes and user journeys. This is a crucial first step in our design process.

Figure 10.1 Prototype

In this class, we need to update our application design and link all pages to illustrate the user journey. Previously, we created wireframes for various functions such as appointment booking, mood tracking, and chatbox. After linking these pages to form a prototype, we noticed some missing pages in the flow. Therefore, we need to make modifications to ensure a smoother flow, enhancing the user experience to better meet their needs.

We also presented and explained our UI design to our lecturer and received feedback. The main critiques were about aesthetics, such as some buttons having large gaps and the overall design lacking consistency. However, the app's features were deemed satisfactory. Now, we need to focus on improving the fluency of the user flow and start polishing our app design. ❤️‍🩹

Week 11 (17/07/2024)

Today, we had a consultation with Mr. Yusri about our spatial design project. We presented our final floorplan and outcome to him for feedback. We are pleased that, overall, our concept is fine, with only minor adjustments needed for the size of the furniture. Additionally, our final task is to create a video instead of pitching to the client. We decided to produce an advertisement video to make it more professional, rather than just reading slides.

Since today is also the submission day for our Spatial Design Assignment 2, we worked together after class to complete our report. This included explaining the purposes of each room, the furniture, and the technology we implemented. We also researched the availability of the furniture and technology in the market to ensure our design is feasible, assuming budget is not a constraint.