Individual Evaluation (Monday clinic application)

Individual Evaluation (Monday clinic application)

The application was designed to assist the mothers who are expecting to manage their meal planners and exercise routines. The application was required to design to make it easier to use by the mothers. The main focus of the design was to manage the daily activities of a mother by using a smart phone.

The basic requirements for the application were initially documented and then they were categorized into functional, non functional and business requirements. Then the story board was created by team to present a demonstration of the real world scenarios. Paper sketching of the storyboard helped the team to understand the requirements of the application more clearly. Then the mobile interface design was modeled on balsamic to get the wire maps and next the wire maps were modified by applying mobile interface design patterns to the basic interface design. Later the team was able to come up with the final design to the mobile interfaces to be used on the application prototype which is called, annotated storyboards. Finally the design was embedded to the interactive prototype which was hard-coded to demonstrate the functionality of the real world mobile application.

Above process involved lot of team engagement which made the whole task a success by adding up different ideas and creativity together.  Collective knowledge eliminated many duplication and unfits that would have occurred if the task was done by a single individual. Also the collective effort made the task more progressive and faster by sharing skills and knowledge. As an example the team came to a decision that the interface color has to be comfortable to user sight and navigation has to be easier when regarding the target user category which made the prototype a success by meeting initial requirements. Also the identification of each individual’s skills and capacity helped manage and complete task within the given timescale. Also the collaboration of the team hugely supported the success of the task.

Team would like to propose the interactive prototype to be developed as a completed real world mobile application to utilize user requirements further. Also the application can be developed to both android and IOS platforms using appropriate development IDE’s.

High-fidelity prototypes

High-fidelity prototypes

• Content has a more accurate look and feel to the final product
• Like an artist or designer's composition: rich in detail with all its attributes
• High-fidelity intended to create an try out the contents of a user interface, e.g. information design, visual design, interaction design
• To test the content with end users; get direct feedback, etc.
• High-cost, so used to refine the product rather than big changes
• Like an artist or designer's composition: rich in detail with all its attributes
• High-fidelity intended to create an try out the contents of a user interface, e.g. information design, visual design, interaction design
• To test the content with end users; get direct feedback, etc.
• High-cost, so used to refine the product rather than big changes

 

Monday clinic application prototype demonstration

example final prototype we use for Monday clinic application

Medium-Fidelity

Medium-Fidelity

Computer-based simulation

Medium-fidelity prototypes simulate or animate some but not all features of the intended system. There are three approaches to limit prototype functionality

example Wire-frames and Annotated story boards we use for Monday clinic application

Prototype Fidelity

Prototype Fidelity

Fidelity is the level of detail that content is rendered in the model

• Low-fidelity prototypes
• Midium-fidelity prototypes
• High-fidelity prototypes

Low-fidelity prototypes


does not look very much like the final product

    Create early representations of its content

     Akin to sketches that artist and designers create in early stages: vague and minimally           formed

     Early conceptualisations of page layouts, e.g. rough position of menu areas, banners, toolbars, and content areas

    Simple, cheap, quick to produce

    Some methods:

• Storyboarding
• Sketching
• Index cards
• Wizard of Oz

example sketches we use for Monday clinic application

Prototyping

Prototyping

The original purpose of a prototype is to allow users of the software to evaluate developers' proposals for the design of the eventual product by actually trying them out, rather than having to interpret and evaluate the design based on descriptions.

Broadly, two types of design:

• Conceptual - a concept trying to capture what the product will do and how it will behave
• Physical - concerned with the details of the design; e.g. information, screen and menu structures; icons, graphics, etc

Outline of the prototyping process

The process of prototyping involves the following steps

• Identify basic requirements

         Determine basic requirements including the input and output information desired. Details, such as security, can typically be ignored.

• Develop Initial Prototype

    The initial prototype is developed that includes only user interfaces. (See Horizontal Prototype, below)

• Review

    The customers, including end-users, examine the prototype and provide feedback on additions or changes.

• Revise and Enhance the Prototype

       Using the feedback both the specifications and the prototype can be improved. Negotiation about what is within the scope of the contract/product may be necessary.

Conceptual design

• Transform user requirements/needs into a conceptual model
• “a description of the proposed system in terms of a set of integrated ideas and concepts about what it should do, behave and look like, that will be understandable by the users in the manner intended”
• Don’t move to a solution too quickly. Iterate, iterate, iterate,
• Consider alternatives: prototyping helps

UI Patterns

The user interface, or UI, of a device is the look and feel of the on-screen menu system. How it works, its color scheme, how it responds to button presses, all of these things are part of the user interface.

Why mobile UI design is Important?

Mobile user interface (UI) technology is in the midst of its evolutionary phase. Phones and tablets that use Apple's iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad), Google's Android archictecture, Blackberry's operating system, HP's webOS, and Windows® Phone 7 mobile operating system all offer diverse UI design approaches. 

Each Mobile vendor has their own interface UI design according to branding, Target users and budget purposes. Therefore Mobile UI patterns can be applied in different UI designs according to user requirements and vendor standards. Yet Mobile UI focus on giving a user friendly experience to the user and to enhance the navigation, accessibility and rich content in a limited space which is a challenge compared to designing UI in Software Engineering.

Mobile UI is important because it must enable users to access the same content in a smaller window with the same user satisfaction where the user must get the same look and feel as they are using a bigger screen.So Mobile UI is important and concerned with a range of features that vary from position of a single button to tapping on the screen.

Mobile UI design best practices:A pattern must be a best practice, and common enough to be recognized or encountered!

Personas

    Personas

      Like most design elements, personas can be developed iteratively. And like most design elements, there are benefits to creating the personas collaboratively. Involving the stakeholders and other team members increases the accuracy of the persona and creates a level of awareness about the users that helps the team align around them. As people become familiar with the personas, they start talking about them as if they were actual people. When that happens, you have achieved a valuable focus.

    How Many Personas?
      Most interactive products have multiple audience segments. This suggests that you should construct multiple personas. However, with too many personas, the process can get out of hand. As a rule of thumb, three or four personas are enough for most projects. If you find that you are creating more than five or six, stop and reconsider.