View Critique Presentation Here
This week was the last class we had for the module so it was extremely important to gain one final critique from the class. Additionally, it’s helpful to refine and focus on the minute details.
Recap
It’s important to do a recap on where I have come from since a certain timeframe, in this case, I’ll be looking back at my healthcare product on Week 7, although a lot of the content was limited at that time due to only having 4 screens. As I travel near to the end of finishing this app (besides refining) I feel like I have come a long way since the beginning. Taking a look at the same three screens there are a few changes (old left – new right)
What has changed?
- Brand colours scheme
- Colour highlights clash with white background causing visibility issues
- New UI elements e.g. buttons, etc.
- More depth
- Age range 10 – 14 (from 11 – 14)
Although these are a small portion of screens from my app it shows how I’ve stayed true to my original design and research.
The Critique
Strengths
- Strong & consistent branding
- Well-considered typeface(s)
- Colour scheme
- Fun & cute illustrative design
- Strong UI
- Appropriate and thought out concept
- Appealing wordmark
Disadvantages
- None
Paul’s Critique
Paul’s critique was mainly positive however, he did talk about the navbar icons being too large (something that I always do) and scroll bars aren’t really necessary it is often useless on apps that are directed to scroll anyway and can take up UI elements.
Overall, the critique was all positive. I am extremely happy with the outcome and see that everyone is pleased with the development of my brand and the product. It was also extremely helpful and engaging to comment on other people’s work and see how they are progressing.
Refining Work
Icons/UI Components
I started to work on my icons first, making sure they are proportionate and not too large which was one of the issues that cropped out in this critique session. Originally they were 100PX wide in size, so I decided to look at other apps to resize them appropriately. I resized them down to 81 W X 86 H (pixels). I saw that some people were aligning their UI components up to create a defined margin. I decided to look into this by comparing popular apps and how they display content. I then made changes to create a clear margin (48 PX) on each side. Additionally, while looking at the apps I found the top portion of my screen to be very dull. There were no elements present to define it which most other apps included so I decided to create a white top bar to define the sections of the app and scale it proportionally similar to other apps.
Another change I made was the removal of the scroll bar as Paul said it wasn’t necessary as users expect to scroll down content anyway and I found it just taking up space in my design.
Below shows a before and after photo of the changes made:
Changes
- Removed scroll bar
- Added white border elements (top and bottom)
- Content/components are now aligned by the margin.
- Type scale used to create a text hierarchy
- Smaller toolbar icons
- Proportionate and accurate UI elements (scaled to iPhone)
Conclusion
Overall, I found this class extremely important in refining and adding to my work. Using Paul’s critique and looking at others allowed me to view the errors that were visible in my work. Additionally, it showed me the strengths that are presented in my work that was consistently said since the last critique. I feel like I was able to clearly show how the app actually works and how the techniques and narratives are used to create a fun and relaxing app for both parents and children. What’s left is to clean up my work and finish the last few screens for the parent side of the app.