Two areas of research were needed to be explored in order to create a mobile application with enjoyable UI/UX; literature review and user field studies. The literature review undertaken addressed techniques used to harness online information, how existing information online can act as a narrative for real time occurrences, the cognitive science behind user interfaces and the design/development patterns to consider when making a mobile application. Numerous projects such as Foursquare, Whoo.Ly, CityBeat, MoboQ and Botarri were also researched in order to gain an understanding of per-existing patterns and how such projects could be improved. The user field studies aimed to discover the “what? who? where? and when?” of the proposed mobile app. As previously stated in the overview, the user was the primary focus of the design.

My key research questions were:

• Do smart phone users provide social media with enough geo locative content to act as an effective way to illustrate the real time temporal information of a POI?
• What are the most effective ways to display real time temporal information of a POI?
• What problems should be taken into consideration on both the app design process and the development process?

After general goals were established during initial design techniques, an understanding of the end users was required. As the user is at the heart of the design process, it was necessary to understand the users’ priorities, needs, motivations and expectations. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were undertaken. This included an online survey and numerous interviews in order to collect information about users’ social media behaviour and also to investigate what temporal information in relation to POIs is most important to users. Once the information was collected and assessed, the core features of the product were prioritized and user stories/scenarios were refined. Once feedback was collected from user research, initial wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes were created. The objective with the low-fidelity prototype was to highlight and address at an early stage any issues or design flaws through a means of user testing. Once feedback is evaluated it can be implemented into a higher-fidelity versions of the product and the UCD process can be repeated. In order to accurately address questions such as “Where will the product be used?”, “Who is the target customer?” and “How will it be used?” some field research was required. Three different user-centered design methods were carried out in order to gather the requirements, to shape the design and to evaluate the product. Methods included an online survey, one-to-one interviews and user testing. The survey and interviews objective was to gather both quantitative and qualitative data and the user testing aided in evaluating the design layout and usability at different stages of the project.

Online Survey

Compiling an online survey was a fast way to access various types of users and obtain multiple perspectives. Through the means of a survey, various pieces of data could be collected and comparisons could be drawn. As there are various user types that may find this application useful, an understanding of social media habits and how those habits relate to real-time POIs information was needed. The survey was created using Google forms. This software presents results in an aesthetically pleasing way. 67 participants in total completed it.

Interviews

In order to explore some of the points that the survey could not solely achieve, interviews with users were also held. Undertaking semi-structured interviews was an attempt to elicit scenarios and explore the unique points of view of each participant. Unlike the survey, the interview outputs are non-statistical and required note analysis afterwards. Three candidates were recruited. The purpose of the interviews was to obtain a general understanding of end users social network behaviour, in addition to finding the wants and needs of the user in terms of the mobile application.

Upon analysing the survey feedback and user interviews, it was now possible to further refine the scope. A stronger idea as to what the user expected from such an application took shape. All the recommendations and expectancies were noted and ranked by importance. This information shaped the design of future prototypes.

Learn about the design process.