For my final project in my 3 mont UI design course was to go through the entire process of ideation, research, development, and design of my app idea using everything I learned.
All the UX/UI deliverables and a final prototype made using Invision. But besides that I was able to refine my skills and get valuable feedback from my mentor before finishing the program.
November 2019
If you look in the App Store, you will find plenty of financial apps. They all claim to be the best. But are they putting the user's best interests first? Are they advocates for the user? This is what Figures aims to do. This what will separate it from the rest of the apps in the field.
The final project required me to use all the skills and tools I learned throughout this four-month career intensive class. And with the ending in sight, getting eager and skipping a step was a serious consideration. But I knew I would only be cheating myself in the end. So I went through process of interview my target demo and coming up with personas.
By using the User Research Method we were taught, I was able to create a document that would be the basis of project. With this document I set out to interview some friends and create quick personas that would guide all my design decisions.
After my research and persona deliverables were approved I moved on to site mapping. At first I listed all the sites a potential user would come in contact with. Afterwards I downloaded some financial apps to see how they mapped out their apps. I'm just one person that's still learning this process, so of course I used the expertise of those that worked on the financial apps to fill any gaps.
I was able to find a cool site mapping template with pre-made elements to help better visualize my thoughts.
In order to meet these needs I mocked up possible solution and came to the following set of core components for the app experience.
An overview screen that allows the user to see all their important information at a glance. Once the application begins to understand the user's spending habits, it will be able to make money saving suggestions.
Wireframes made on Sketch so I could get some feedback.
Throughout this design process I spent a lot of time getting feedback from other designers and potential users to make sure I was staying on track with my initial hypothesis and the findings. A prototype was made in InVision to help get a mutual understanding of complex flows.
Throughout this design process I spent a lot of time getting feedback from other designers and potential users to make sure I was staying on track with my initial hypothesis and the findings.
As for next steps, I will continue getting what I made into the eyes of people that can offer me valuable feedback. Hopefully through this I will be able to improve on the overall design of the app.
