Add a Feature due September 12, 2018

You will be developing a new feature for an existing app based on an area of functionality to explore. Your work will culminate in a high-fidelity prototype that reflects your best path forward based on research, iteration, and testing. For apps that have both Android and iOS implementations, you may choose either platform.

Setup

• Individual Project
• 4 class days (plus the weekend!)

Materials

• Sketch
• Invision
• Google Slides

Background

As a new designer joining a team, you’ll often have to rapidly come up to speed on your product, your users, and quickly iterate on proposed solutions under tight timelines. Your other stakeholders will all have opinions, and you’ll have to get into the practice of supporting your claims and finding ways to incorporate new features into the existing platform.

Aspects to Consider

• Who are the users and what are their goals? How can you quickly learn about them? How does the assigned scenario fit into their day?
• What’s the hypothesis about how the new functionality will change their behaviors?
• How should the new functionality tie into the navigation of the product? You are expected to try variations.
• You must be able to defend your design decisions based on research and testing.
• The company already has an established aesthetic and defined look and feel. How will you maintain this in your hi-fidelity prototype?

Target Device

• Mobile App (Either iOS or Android)

Requirements

• User flows for the key new tasks the user needs complete
• Show how the feature fits into the app navigation
• Evaluate your design against heuristics and CRAP principles
• Digitized screens at high fidelity
• Provide evidence for key decisions through research and testing

Timeline

• Submit Project Plan by Fri. 7 Sep. @ 4pm
• Deliver 3-minute mid-point presentation Mon. 10 Sep. @ 4pm
• End-Of-Project Presentations will start Wed. 12 Sep. @ 10am
• Submit a final report of your project by Wed. 12 Sep. @ 6pm

End-of-Project Presentation (6 minutes)

Your will have 6 minutes to summarize your work. We should get a strong sense of:

• The problem and the user(s)
• Findings from research and how these informed your design
• Your design, including a prototype
• Next steps

Report due Wed. 12 Sep. @ 6pm

Your report will gather all of your work from this project into a single PDF. You should also include a self-assessment based on how you think this project went.

Design Thinking

Remember that design challenges are tackled by alternating divergent and convergent thinking modes. You are expected to conduct exploratory research and narrow down the scope of the problem within the realm of the proposed feature. Then generate multiple possible solutions. Evaluate. Test. Repeat. You’ll have the opportunity to show these iterations in the report.

Tips

• Devise a plan of attack
• Timebox your work
• Get feedback early & often
• Iterate
• Perfect is the enemy of good
• Document your work and add it to your individual folder on the Google Drive
• Build out your presentation deck and your report as you go
• Work fast; have fun