App Design
This morning I went to the “Designing for app/tablet” workshop with Jason Mayo. I found it really useful, a lot of the information was common sense but you can get carried away when designing but with an app it is more important to have usability over design.
There are two different types of app
- Native apps - those which are downloaded and installed/ contain special features such as camera use, GPS use
- Web app - those which are available on the web only such as a portfolio site which you wouldn’t want people to download
He talked about the different interaction types
- Urgent now - instant information such as train timetables
- Repetitive now - such as Facebook which continuously updates and people keep going back to it
- Bored now - when people have time to waste such as to play a game
The most important factor with an app is to consider the user, who will use it, what will they use the app for, when will they use it, what type of mobile device will they use…
The task for the day was to design an app for the BBC site adopting the techniques we had just learnt. The buttons need to be easy for a finger to press for touchscreen phones, the cancel button needs to be out of the way such as top left of the screen because its the furthest away for a thumb to reach if someone is using a touchscreen phone in their right had, show what the user will want to see first, navigation is usually at the bottom and keep the design simple. I think I’ve covered most of these points in my design, I’ve chosen a colourful navigation using the BBC’s branding colours, the layout is simple and doesn’t show too much information, buttons are all well spaced apart, the cancel button is well out of the way.
(Source: bbc.com)
