Designing MyRez
For my Capstone Project of the Interaction Design Specialization on Coursera, I based my final prototype upon Christopher Griffin’s ideation “Glanceable Collaboration in a Shared Household” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, in accordance with the course’s Remix project guidelines.
I wanted to address the needs of people living under the same household (ranging from families to roommates) with my mobile application. Cohabitants need to coordinate their schedules, shopping lists, chores, etc., in their daily living circumstances, and my main objective in designing this app was to enable users to easily see what is going on in their households and coordinate things with cohabitants. Hence I named the prototype “MyRez”, taken from “my residence”.
Because I am new to mobile app design, I had to learn and adapt to many different software programs over the course of the design project.
I was already familiar with Balsamiq Mockups, and used it to create a computerized image of this iteration. However, it didn’t look much polished and I was not happy with this stage. I simply wanted the basic idea across.
I then discovered Marvel App, which is web-based. However, the Marvel website had many glitches that hindered my work process.
I eventually settled with Sketch and InVision. Using Sketch involved a considerable amount of learning at first. But the final outcome was worth the trouble. This was the stage when I had actual participants try out the prototype.
What is particularly worth mentioning is the calendar tab. When I had people try out the application on UserTesting.com, I learned that my initial calendar iteration was not very intuitive. No one really understood what the icons on the calendar meant.
In the final prototype, the calendar now shows more intuitive icons instead, thanks to the usability testing.
Overall, this was a difficult but satisfying project, and I am proud that I have accomplished it. Check out the prototype yourself: