Interaction Design Capstone Project
FILTER
Interaction Design online specialization
University of San Diego California
Filter is an app that, of course, filters. Filters what? All the notifications coming through to your mobile device. Nowadays, with so many apps around, there’s actually an app for everything, and all of them compete for your attention. But there are moments when your attention should rather be on something else. Work, for example. “Lose an hour in the morning and you’ll spend all day looking for it.” So that precious hour, when I’m going to be super-productive, no distractions, zero procrastination. I’ll better leave that phone switched off. But what if the childminder calls, what if my kid has chickenpox?
How it started
I started thinking about the need to reduce the quantity of notifications a while ago, reflecting about my own productivity. That constant buzz, the instant update is very addictive. Being in the know if something happened immediately, even when that “something” is that my neighbor commented “awesome!” under my IG photo.
Then I made a small research on “addictive UX design” and found all the confirmations to my guesses. I was right, it all is done on purpose. And the bubble keeps growing, so inevitably it is going to burst one day! What’s going to happen next? The opposite trend. When we reach the maximum
saturation point, the trend will reverse. We’ll start looking for minimalism in our digital life.
Another input, from a slightly different perspective, came in the needfinding phase, while I was observing and interviewing different people. One of the persons I interviewed, told me she keeps her phone in her drawer during the working day to avoid distractions, so she’s quite difficult to reach in case something urgent is happening.
This observation and my own reflections gave me that hint: it would be really handy to be able to choose who, how and when can contact me! So that I decide: block or allow, which app and/or contact, when and so on.. At the moment mobile devices permit to allow or not allow notifications from apps as such, but wouldn’t it be great to have the flexibility?
Storyboarding and rapid prototyping
Here came the storyboard. I love drawing and I love inventing scenarios in my head, so this was an easy part. It was a graphic illustration to the idea that was already shining bright in my head.
Next was the paper prototype. At that stage I faced the challenge of having to give physical form to my idea which seemed to be already complete and defined but it wasn’t. Every screen I created had so many questions! I had to decide the flow of my app, and while the idea seemed very simple and straightforward putting it into practice wasn’t that easy. At this stage I got precious insights from user testing. People who were unfamiliar with my idea tried playing with my prototype and, surprise! so many errors have emerged!
Heuristic evaluation
Another helpful source of feedback was peer heuristic evaluation. Usability heuristics are truly golden rules of good design! So many times, when looking at something with a not-so-excellent design I could immediately spot which heuristics was violated there. Then my turn came, and it really helped improve the structure of my prototype.
In the meantime, my prototype turned from paper into digital.
Development Plan
The part of the process I most struggled with was the Development Plan. No doubt I recognized the importance of it but it was definitely the least exciting part of the project. Especially the need to review and update the Plan every week… well that was a good exercise in discipline and consistency!
Online User Testing
After weekly doing and undoing, assembly and disassembly, and a few finishing touches I had 2 versions of my prototype. The difference was the part I was most unsure about: adding a new segment or changing something after the user has completed all the steps. I had 2 versions of the interface and I was ready for A/B testing! When the results came through, it was the moment of the highest tension and anticipation, the moment of magic: the first time when my idea went to the World! Until now it only existed in my head and here it is, interacting with actual people whom I don’t even know. And again, some elements of my prototype which I believed to be at the core of the whole concept were revolutionized and turned upside down. Obvious turned out to be not really obvious. Straightforward turned into confusing! But my ideas survived this crash test as well, I made alterations to the flow without losing it’s initial integrity.
Final touches
Dulcis in fundo, I could finally play with fonts and colour palettes! And here it is my final prototype:
