APPLICATION DESIGN 1 - PROJECT 1: MOBILE APPLICATION PROPOSAL
21/4/26 - 15/5/26 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Lim Jia Xuan 0371026
DST60504 Application Design 1
Project 1 - Mobile Application Proposal
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 Lectures
2.0 Instructions
3.0 Proposal
4.0 Feedback
1.0 LECTURES
WEEK 1: Introduction to Mobile Application Design
Application design is the foundation upon which great software is built. It encompasses the visual aesthetics, the way users interact with the product, and the overarching principles that guide the entire
development process.
development process.
Why Application Design is Important?
Provides a seamless user experience, boosting engagement, retention, and overall customer satisfaction. Attention to detail in intuitive navigation, responsive layouts, and natural interactions can set successful apps apart from their competitors.
Laying the Foundation: Understanding Usability
- Defining usability
- Applying usability principles
- Conducting usability testing
- Developing practical skills
Importance of Mobile in the Digital Era
- Ubiquity of smartphones
- Mobile-first approach
- Shift in user behaviour
- Competitive advantage
Designing for Mobile: Embracing the Unique Challenges
- Limited screen real estate
Prioritise content and interactions to ensure a clean, uncluttered user interface.
- Diverse device capabilities
Ensure consistency and a responsive user experience across different platforms.
- Contextual awareness
A must to consider factors like location, connectivity, and user mobility when crafting the application's functionality and interface.
The User-Centered Design Approach
- Focuses on deeply understanding the target users and their needs.
- Involves an iterative process of research, ideation, prototyping, and testing to ensure the final product delivers a seamless and intuitive experience.
Applying User-Centered Design (UCD)
1. Research
- Gathering insights into their needs, behaviours, and pain points.
- Establish a solid understanding of the target audience and their specific requirements.
2. Design
- Creating wireframes, prototypes, and mockups that address the identified user needs.
- Involves continuous refinement and feedback gathering.
3. Evaluation
- To validate design decisions and identify areas for improvement.
- The cycle of design, test, and refine ensures the final product meets user expectations.
Benefits of User-Centered Design
- Increased user satisfaction
- Reduced development costs
- Improved product adoption
- Enhanced brand reputation
Optimising for Performance
- Minimising app size.
- Leveraging caching and lazy loading techniques.
- Optimising network requests and data transmission.
WEEK 2: The Art of User-Centered Design
User Centered Design (UCD)
- Puts users at the forefront of the entire product development process
- Understanding user needs
- Incorporating understanding into every stage of design
User Centered Design Process
1. Discover/ Analysis
- Define business requirements (brand vision, goals, target audience, competitors)
- Develop user personas (motivations, goals, triggers, needs)
2. Define
- Ideate solutions (campaign, website, software, product)
- Map user experience (user journey map, user scenario)
3. Design
- Design user experience (user flow, task and feature analysis)
- Design user interface (sitemap and prototype)
4. Validate
- Conduct usability testing
- Validate prototype
- Develop minimum viable product (MVP)
5.Develop
- Production coding
User Experience Design (UX)
- A person’s perception and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, service or system.
- Focuses on the users' feelings and experiences rather than the designer's perceptions.
User Interface Design (UI)
- Aesthetics, visual design, and finishes of the interior.
- What users can see, hear, and feel.
WEEK 3: Usability: Designing Products for User Satisfaction
What is Usability?
- Refers to the effectiveness, efficiency, and success of a user in utilising a product or design within a specific context.
- How well users can achieve their goals within a product or design.
- How quickly they can learn it and how many errors they encounter.
- Adapts to the user's situation and caters to their specific needs.
Common Usability Pitfalls
- Complex interfaces
- Confusing navigation
- Lack of clear CTAs
- Inadequate error handling
Key Principles of Usability
Consistency
- Cohesive, familiar, and user-friendly experience.
- Intuitive navigation.
Simplicity
- Easy to use, intuitive, and self-explanatory.
- Clear and concise communication.
Visibility
- Have information clarity and clear visual hierarchy.
- Can be achieved through factors like size, colour, typography.
- Direct users' focus towards the elements that are most relevant in the current context.
Feedback
- Provides users with a clear signal that their actions have been registered and understood by the app.
- Textual messages, Visual cues, Sounds, Haptic feedback.
Error Prevention
- To reconfirm users actions before submission.
- Increases efficiency, spending less time to correct mistakes.
WEEK 4: Introduction to User Experience Research
Roles of UX Design
- Helps understand users' behaviour, goals, motivations, and needs.
- Observe user interaction with a system and identify pain points.
- Understanding user emotions during interaction.
- Ensure that the design process is grounded in user understanding, ultimately leading to more effective and user-centered designs.
UX Research Duties
- Develop coherent research methodologies.
- Select and recruit targeted end-users.
- Conduct individual interview with clients.
- Close collaboration with product team to steer future directions.
5 Steps of UX Research
- Objectives
- Hypotheses
- Methods
- Conduct
- Synthesise
UX Research Methods
1. Qualitative
- Investigates user behaviours, needs, and motivations.
- Provides rich, descriptive data.
- Interviews, Observations, User groups, Usability testing.
2. Quantitative
- Uses numerical data and analytics to inform evidence-based design decisions.
- Surveys, Web/App Analytics, Eye tracking testing.
2.0 INSTRUCTIONS
3.0 MOBILE APPLICATION PROPOSAL
4.0 FEEDBACK
Week 4:
Remove cons for the market study and left study, just keep what you want to take/ learn from those apps.
Week 3:
Add more pictures/ video as evidence
Week 2:
Show left and market study, nice just proceed to further study.
Week 1:
Project Briefing
5.0 CONSLUSION
For this task, I chose to work on the MUJI passport app because I had not used it for a long time, even though I still shop at their outlets. I started to wonder why the app was still on my phone even though I rarely used it. While testing the app, I found that it had weak interaction with users; for example, no notifications pop up even during promotional periods. When users try to make an in-app purchase, the app redirects them to an external website, which causes inconvenience for customers. This made me realise how user-centred design can heavily influence user experience and how frustrating it feels when apps do not meet users’ expectations. After researching, I found several features from its direct competitors and related fields that could be implemented into the MUJI passport app to enhance its user experience and improve user satisfaction.
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