UX Case Study: Jamr (Sprint 2)
An app to get you back to jamming!
Project 4 at General Assembly (concept app project)
Team: individual project
Client: Paul Woodley
Duration: 1 week
Methods: Mood boards, concept tables, ideation sketches, digital wireframing, mockup.
Tools: Pen and paper, Sketch (Bohemian Coding), Marvel.
The Brief
For project 4 of the General Assembly UXDi course, we were asked to create a high-fidelity mockup of our Project 1 app. In my case: Jamr, an app helping amateur musicians to find places and people to jam with.
To know more about how Jamr came up, and the process I went through to create a first rough interactive paper prototype, please read Case Study: Jamr (sprint 1).
Part 1 — Researching and creating a theme
Creating a theme conveying a personality allows to address the last need in the hierarchy of user needs: pleasure.
Setting the Personality
In order to set a personality for my app, I first asked myself how I wanted people like Paul to feel when using the app. Here are the feelings that I picked and kept in mind for the rest of my design process:
- Excited - Excitement is an essential feeling that came up from my research during sprint 1. Paul should be excited to check his app to find jams going on around him.
- In control - It is important that Paul feels in control while reviewing and deciding whether he wants to join a jam or not.
- Trusting - Paul must trust Jamr and the community of jammers using it.
- Social - Being social and open-minded is also a key element to make the most of the Jamr community-based concept.
In addition, I also identified brands, ideal spokespersons, and even cars whose the personality would apply and relate to the Jamr app.
Creating a theme: Mood Board and Style Style
Personality is a concept that requires a theme to convey it to a user. In order to help me find one that was appropriate to the usability and personality of Jamr, I started by creating a mood board based on a variety of magazines. I then created a style tile of visual elements that contribute to conveying Jamr brand personality.
Part 2 — Designing and testing
Once the personality and theme set for my app, I moved to the design and testing phase.
Wireframe and high-fidelity mockup
I revised my sketches done during Project 1, and created a digital wireframe for 3 key screens illustrating the journey of finding, reviewing, and joining a jam. I then used the style tile I created earlier, to produce the first testable. mockup.
Peer critiques and Tests
Peer critiques and tests of my first mockups allowed me to reinforce and enhance some traits of the app personality and usability. Here are the question I asked:
- Who do you think is app is for?
- Choose one adjective to describe the colour?
- Choose one adjective to describe the topography?
- Choose one adjective to describe the app?
Improvements included:
- Clearer rating information
- More contrast between Jam pictures and background
- More feminine and softened
- Social links
- Differentiation between join and cancel-jam buttons
Last iteration and Clickable Prototype
Based on the feedback I got from the final critique, I iterated on the mockup and produce the following clickable high-fidelity prototype in Marvel. Feedback included:
- Map not useful (name of the venues would be more useful) - for next iteration
- Not clear what the + icon on the Jams screen does - for next iteration
- Pending icon confusing (what does it mean?) - improved
- Profile screen: use text instead of icons for instruments - improved
- Confusing rating - improved
Thank you for reading!
