Application Design 01- Assessment 1

LECTURES

WEEK 1 LECTURES: PLEASE CLICK HERE

WEEK 2 LECTURES: PLEASE CLICK HERE

WEEK 3 LECTURES: PLEASE CLICK HERE

WEEK 4 LECTURES: PLEASE CLICK HERE

WEEK 5 LECTURES: PLEASE CLICK HERE

WEEK 1 LECTURE — Introduction to Mobile Application Design

This lecture introduces the fundamentals of designing engaging and user-friendly mobile applications. It explains that application design is the foundation of great software, covering not only visual aesthetics but also the way users interact with the product and the principles guiding the development process.

Why Mobile Application Design is Important

Provides a seamless user experience that boosts engagement, retention, and customer satisfaction.
Improves performance and accessibility, making the app usable for a wider audience.
Attention to detail in intuitive navigation, responsive layouts, and natural interactions sets successful apps apart.
Good design reduces development challenges and improves long-term usability.

Understanding Usability

Usability measures how effectively users can achieve their goals using an app.
It includes learnability, efficiency, memorability, and user satisfaction.
Applying usability principles helps tailor designs to users’ needs and behaviors.
Usability testing gathers feedback and helps refine the design for better experiences.

Importance of Mobile in the Digital Era

Ubiquity of smartphones — over 6 billion users enable constant connectivity.
Shift in user behavior — people now shop, bank, and socialize via mobile.
Mobile-first approach — businesses design primarily for mobile users.
Competitive advantage — seamless mobile experiences increase loyalty and satisfaction.

Designing for Mobile

Limited screen real estate: prioritize essential content and maintain a clean UI.
Diverse device capabilities: ensure responsiveness across various screens and platforms.
Contextual awareness: consider user location, connectivity, and mobility.

User-Centered Design (UCD)

Research: Understand user needs, goals, and pain points through observation and data.
Design: Create wireframes and prototypes that address those needs.
Evaluation: Conduct usability testing and refine based on user feedback.

Benefits of UCD

Increases user satisfaction and engagement.
Improves product adoption and daily use.
Reduces development costs through early testing.
Builds a strong and positive brand reputation.

Prototyping and Testing

Low-fidelity prototypes: quick sketches or wireframes for early feedback.
Interactive prototypes: simulate real app experiences using tools like Adobe XD or InVision.
Iterative testing: gather insights from real users and refine continuously.

Designing for Small Screens

Use a compact layout and clear visual hierarchy.
Include intuitive navigation (swipe, tap, scroll) for smooth exploration.
Enhance tactile interactions with responsive, touch-friendly elements.

Optimizing for Performance

Minimize app size with compressed assets and vector graphics.
Use caching and lazy loading for faster load times.
Optimize network requests to conserve data and battery.

Key Takeaways

Deliver a cohesive and intuitive user experience across all touchpoints.
Continuously test, refine, and optimize based on user feedback.
Stay updated with emerging trends in mobile design and technology.

WEEK 2 LECTURE — User-Centered Design, User Interface, and User Experience

This lecture focuses on the importance of placing users at the center of the entire design process. It introduces the concept of User-Centered Design (UCD) — a design philosophy that ensures every stage of product development is guided by understanding user needs, behavior, and feedback.

What is User-Centered Design (UCD)

UCD is an iterative process where user needs are prioritized from concept to final product.
It helps designers create products that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Focuses on discovering user goals, motivations, and challenges to build meaningful solutions.
Combines creativity with research and testing to ensure the best user experience.

The UCD Process

Discover / Analysis: Identify business goals, brand vision, competitors, and create user personas.
Define: Generate creative ideas, build user journeys, and design experience maps.
Design: Develop user flows, sitemaps, and prototypes focusing on functionality and structure.
Validate: Conduct usability testing and prototype validation before production.
Develop: Finalize with production coding and create the minimum viable product (MVP).

Understanding UX and UI

UX (User Experience): Focuses on how users feel and interact with the product; it’s about creating meaningful, smooth experiences.
UI (User Interface): Focuses on visual design — colors, layout, typography, and aesthetics that bring the experience to life.
UX is like the structure and layout of a house, while UI is the interior design that users see and feel.
Both must work together to achieve usability, desirability, and positive brand experience.

Key Elements of Good UX

Usability: The product must be easy to use and navigate.
Utility: It must be functional and fulfill user needs effectively.
Desirability: The design should be visually appealing and emotionally engaging.
Brand Experience: Builds positive impressions and trust through consistent design and function.

Empathy in Design

Empathy allows designers to understand users’ perspectives and design with compassion.
Designers should focus on what users truly need — not what they assume users want.
Creating user-centered products requires stepping into the user’s shoes and designing for their comfort and goals.

ROI (Return on Investment) of UCD

Improves credibility and brand trust.
Reduces redesign and maintenance costs through early validation.
Increases traffic, satisfaction, and long-term user loyalty.
Enhances overall performance and exposure while reducing resource burden.

Key Takeaways

User-Centered Design is not just a process — it’s a mindset that prioritizes real user needs.
UX focuses on the overall experience, while UI focuses on the look and interaction.
Empathy, usability, and desirability are the foundation of successful design.
Testing and iteration ensure continuous improvement and user satisfaction.

WEEK 3 LECTURE — Usability: Designing Products for User Satisfactio

This lecture explores how usability influences user satisfaction and overall mobile app success. Usability ensures that users can effectively, efficiently, and pleasantly achieve their goals when interacting with a product.

What is Usability?

Refers to how effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily users can achieve goals within a product.
Focuses on user needs, context, and reducing errors.
Can be measured through testing to identify and improve weak areas.

Clarity and Learnability

Users should understand the interface intuitively on first use.
Navigation and features must be clear without needing manuals or prior experience.

Efficiency and Goal Completion

Design should help users reach goals quickly and directly.
Reduce unnecessary steps or complex interactions.

Common Usability Pitfalls

Complex interfaces: Overloaded with features or poor organization.
Unclear calls to action (CTAs): Poor placement leads to missed engagement.
Confusing navigation: Inconsistent layouts and missing search functions.
Inadequate error handling: Vague messages and lack of helpful feedback.

Key Principles of Usability

1. Consistency: Maintain uniform colors, navigation, and layout for familiarity.
2. Simplicity: Keep interfaces intuitive, reducing mental effort and steps.
3. Visibility: Make key actions and information easy to find with clear hierarchy.
4. Feedback: Provide clear responses to user actions (visual, text, sound, or haptic).
5. Error Prevention: Design systems that minimize mistakes through validation and confirmation.

Consistency

Creates a familiar and cohesive user experience.
Helps users predict where to find things.
Strengthens brand identity through unified design elements.

Simplicity

Design should be effortless to use and understand.
Use familiar symbols and straightforward steps.
Focus only on essential content and functions.

Visibility

Highlight important actions through size, color, and placement.
Provide clear state changes for interactive elements.
Ensure menus and icons are well-labeled and easy to locate.

Feedback

Confirm that actions have been recognized (e.g., color change, message, sound).
Guide users toward successful completion with cues and messages.
Reinforce positive actions and alert users to errors clearly.

Error Prevention

Validate user inputs before submission to avoid mistakes.
Provide clear feedback when issues occur.
Use confirmation steps for critical actions to prevent accidental errors.

Brief for Mobile Application Proposal (Due: Week 4)

Purpose: Redesign an existing mobile app to enhance usability and satisfaction.
Background: Evaluate current design, identify issues, and analyze competitors.
Goals: Improve interface, meet user needs, and increase engagement.
User Research: Plan methods for collecting feedback and conducting usability tests.
References: Gather design sources, articles, and samples for inspiration.

Key Takeaways

Usability drives satisfaction, efficiency, and retention.
Consistent, simple, and visible designs reduce frustration.
Continuous feedback and testing lead to better user experiences.

WEEK 4 LECTURE — Card Sorting: Understanding How Users Organize Information

This lecture introduces the card sorting method, a user-centered technique that helps designers understand how users categorize and label information. It is an essential tool for creating intuitive information architectures and navigation systems.

What is Card Sorting?

A usability method used to discover how users group and label content.
Participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them.
Helps designers structure menus, navigation, and content hierarchy based on real user logic.

Why Card Sorting is Important

Reveals users’ mental models and how they expect to find information.
Improves information architecture and discoverability.
Ensures the product’s structure matches user expectations.
Reduces confusion and enhances overall usability.

Types of Card Sorting

Open Card Sorting: Participants create and name their own categories.
Closed Card Sorting: Participants organize cards into predefined categories.
Hybrid Card Sorting: Combines both — users can add new categories while using some given ones.

Advantages of Card Sorting

Requires minimal setup and budget — only basic materials are needed.
Can be conducted quickly and yields valuable insights.
Directly involves real users, leading to more user-aligned designs.
Reveals how users naturally think about content organization.

Limitations of Card Sorting

Focuses on categorization, not how users perform tasks.
May overlook functional aspects of interaction or workflow.
Different users may categorize content in varied ways.
Results can be influenced by participants’ knowledge or background.

Conducting a Card Sorting Session

Prepare a set of cards representing features or pieces of content.
Ask participants to group them logically and label each category.
Observe how participants think, name groups, and organize items.
Record patterns and insights to refine the app’s structure.

Example Features for a Travel App (Card Sorting Practice)

Itinerary builder
Destination guide
Flight tracker
Accommodation finder
Expense tracker
Packing list
Currency converter
Weather forecast
Travel journal
Local events calendar
Navigation
Travel deals
Social sharing

Analyzing Results

Identify consistent grouping patterns among participants.
Use the results to guide menu structure and category naming.
Combine insights with usability testing for stronger design decisions.

Key Takeaways

Card sorting helps build logical, user-centered information structures.
Quick, low-cost, and highly effective for understanding user perspectives.
Results should be analyzed carefully and balanced with other research methods.

WEEK 5 LECTURE — Introduction to User Experience Research: Interviews and Questionnaires

This lecture introduces the fundamentals of user experience (UX) research, focusing on interviews and online questionnaires as key methods for understanding user needs, motivations, and behaviors. Effective UX research ensures that design decisions are grounded in real user insights.

What is UX Research?

The process of understanding user behaviors, needs, and attitudes through observation and feedback.
Conducted at all stages of product development — from concept to launch.
Helps designers create user-centered, effective, and meaningful experiences.

Importance of UX Research

Improves user satisfaction, loyalty, and business profitability.
Identifies user pain points, needs, and goals early in development.
Reduces the risk of costly redesigns or failed features.
Guides decision-making with evidence and real feedback.

Integrating UX Research

Should begin before design starts and continue through all stages.
Concept Validation: Test ideas early to prevent wasted effort.
Iterative Feedback: Test prototypes and refine based on user reactions.
Post-Launch Insights: Use feedback to guide future updates.

Benefits of UX Research

Product Benefits: Clarifies user goals, usage patterns, and improvements.
Business Benefits: Reduces redesign time and enhances satisfaction.
User Benefits: Builds trust by addressing real user needs, not assumptions.

5 Steps of UX Research

1. Objectives: Identify what you need to learn.
2. Hypotheses: List assumptions about users and test them.
3. Methods: Choose the most suitable techniques (interviews, surveys, etc.).
4. Conduct: Gather data from users systematically.
5. Synthesize: Analyze data and find design opportunities.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Qualitative: Explores why and how users behave (e.g., interviews, observations).
Quantitative: Measures how much or how many using surveys and analytics.
Both methods complement each other in understanding user experience.

Attitudinal vs. Behavioral Research

Attitudinal: What users say — opinions, attitudes, preferences.
Behavioral: What users do — actions and observed interactions.

Steps in Conducting UX Research

Step 1 — Define Objectives: Clarify research goals and knowledge gaps.
Step 2 — Pick Methods: Choose qualitative or quantitative approaches.
Step 3 — Find Participants: Recruit users that represent your audience.
Step 4 — Conduct Research: Use interviews, surveys, and usability tests.

Method 1: Interviews

Explore user attitudes, beliefs, and experiences in depth.
Usually one-on-one, lasting 30–60 minutes, in person or online.
Observe both verbal and nonverbal cues (tone, body language).

Interview Process

Prepare a discussion guide with open-ended questions.
Recruit participants that match your target users.
Record responses and analyze insights afterward.

Pros and Cons of Interviews

Pros: Provides detailed, personal insights and clarifies misunderstandings.
Cons: Time-consuming, small sample size, relies on interviewer skill.

Method 2: Online Surveys

Collects user opinions, preferences, and feedback efficiently.
Helps understand demographics, goals, and satisfaction levels.
Data can be collected and analyzed automatically by survey tools.

Survey Process

Define goals and topics for the survey.
Develop clear, unbiased questions.
Choose a platform (e.g., Google Forms, SurveyMonkey).
Recruit participants and analyze responses.

Pros and Cons of Online Surveys

Pros: Fast, low-cost, and allows anonymity for honest responses.
Cons: Risk of biased questions and unrepresentative samples.

Avoiding Leading Questions

Leading: “How difficult is it to use this feature?” (assumes it’s difficult).
Neutral: “How would you describe your experience using this feature?”
Use neutral phrasing to get genuine, unbiased insights.

Best Practices for UX Research

Test with at least five users for meaningful feedback.
Keep questions brief, clear, and relevant.
Summarize top findings and issues clearly.
Invite team members to observe and discuss results.

Project 2 — UI/UX Design Documents (Week 5–9)

Introduction: Define purpose, audience, and problems addressed by your app.
User Research: Include interview and survey analysis, personas, and journey maps.
Information Architecture: Present card sorting, IA map, and user flow charts.
MVP Features: Identify core features for initial development.

Tasks for This Week

Create a set of online questionnaires.
Create a set of interview questions.

Key Takeaways

UX research builds the foundation for user-centered design.
Use both interviews and surveys to gather rich and measurable insights.
Ask neutral questions, analyze findings carefully, and share results clearly.

Class Activity

We worked on card sorting of a travel app.

Figure 1 Week 5 Class Activity — Card Sorting.

INSTRUCTIONS

Figure 2 Instructional — Overview of submission guidelines and requirements.

ASSESSMENT 1

Project Links

Canva Presentation Link

Research Guidelines

Problem Statement: Elevator pitch of your project, explain in a few words the problem you're going to solve.
Company Intro: What are they doing, where, for who... basic intro about the company.
Company App:
- Show the main features.
- Evaluate 3 great things and 3 lacking things about the app (according to you).
- Summarize user reviews (both good and bad), what are the things we can do about them as designers?
- Analyze the app from a usability point of view.
- Gut feeling/opportunities: what do you feel can be better, what do you want to do about this app?
Market Research:
- Find 3 competitors of your selected app — what do they do great, what is lacking, what feature can you bring into your project?
- Left field: what feature would be great for your project that doesn't come from your market?
Conclusion: Based on all these, where is your project going next?

Feedback

Week 1: I share my idea on Llao Llao App 2.0 which are improve the store loactor page, contact us page and add delivery features with my tutor, Mr Slyvain and he said proceed.
Week 2: I share my proposal slides and Mr Slyvain correct my problem statement and ask me to bold on importants points.
Week 3: I finished 80% of the slides and Mr Slyvain said proceed.
Week 4: No class.
Week 5: Mr Slyvain said my improvement part is more like conclusion, I changed the wordy conclusion into what I want to do in my Company App 2.0.

REFLECTIONS

This is the first assignment in Application Design 1. We are required to find one application and develop a Company 2.0 App or new app for the original Company App. I have chosen Llao Llao App as my original app and I plan to explore in company 2.0 App by improving the features and application design in the app. Before that, we need to work on the proposal for the Company 2.0 App for us analyse the app strengthens, weakness, improvements can make and comparing with its competitors.

I explore a lot on the Llao Llao App while working on the proposal. I discover the improvements that I can make in the Company 2.0 App by improvising the problems face by users in Llao Llao App based on the app users ratings and review. Based on the review, we find out that Llao Llao App users often struggle to find store locations, contact information, and delivery features within the app. Thus, we plan to redesign three page in Llao Llao Company App 2.0 based on the original app which are Store Locator Page, Contact Us Page and Order Page.

In a nutshell, I plan to redesign the Store Locator Page with Baskin Robbins App as reference, Contact Us Page with Koppiku App as reference and Delivery Features in Order Page with Boost, Koppiku & Foodpanda App as reference. I have learnt a lot while doing the proposal and getting feedback from tutor. I hope I can applied what I learnt in this task to other module and previous work.