Week Three Kicked Our Butts
It’s been a bit since my last post, but let me get you up to speed. In the last two weeks, our team has been continuing on with our 100 Days of UI challenge. Also in the last two weeks, our team has been ridiculously busy with normal day to day work, last minute business trips, workshops, Design Disruptors viewings, and various other exciting activities. Suffice it to say, this team likes to hustle hard.
Although we refuse to let our tendency to keep busy stop us from the UI Challenge, some of us (mostly myself) have been skipping around on challenge days or are even behind on a few. However, that does not mean we don’t have some awesome work and insights to share. Read on below to hear about some highlights from the last two weeks.
Day 007: Settings Screen
Ann : I think this one might have taken me the longest so far. I’m not sure exactly why, but even looking at it now I feel like it’s not quite right. I think this will definitely be one I go back to and work on more.
Yasmine : This has been my favorite challenge thus far! I decided to take an already existing settings screen on the Spotify mobile application and get more creative. I also extended this challenge and pushed myself to create my first animation UI!
Day 008: Error 404 Page
Ann : When I saw 404 Page come up in the challenge I was immediately excited. It’s one of the few areas where it feels like almost anything goes! You’re totally free to make jokes, in fact the funnier the 404 Page the more I like it. After seeing Yasmine and Theresa’s I knew I had to bring it! (Everything is a competition, right Theresa?) I couldn’t force it though– I’m generally not that funny, especially when I’m asked to be funny — so I set this one aside for a while and would occasionally think about it on my drive to and from work. Sometimes design is about putting things away for a while and letting inspiration hit.
Theresa : Something I’ve always enjoyed is a good 404 Page design. It is usually so frustrating to hit an error page as you’re cruising through the web, but a delightfully designed error page that makes you snicker can instantly release that frustration. I appreciate the extra attention to detail as well as the use of humor to make a user’s bad experience a little better. For that reason, I really enjoyed day 008! I like to think I’m a funny person (although many who know me would probably disagree), and had the chance to flex those muscles.
Yasmine : I challenged myself for the error 404 page to use the power of copy and give the user a good chuckle when they reach a page they would typically feel confused and/or frustrated.
Day 009: Music Player
Ann : I’ve used a bunch of music apps and podcast players and found it really difficult for this one to think beyond the apps I use already and create something unlike them. I went through a few different ideas with this one in terms of how much to show on the screen. Some music players allow you to see the playlists and what’s coming next and have a lot of other interactions in addition to just the simple player. In the end I decided I liked the minimalist view better and I tend to be the user that just wants to hit play and set down the app.
Theresa : I am a person who never leaves home without some form of music player. I still have a portable CD player in my apartment JUST IN CASE. I have earbuds hidden everywhere from my work bag, to my dog’s backpack. (Yes, Smalls has his own backpack) For this reason, I was jazzed to work on a music player. I used myself for user testing and spent a little too much time playing with this day’s challenge.
Day 011 : Success/Error Page
Yasmine : For this challenge I wanted to continue the use of a minimal, simple style and enjoyed designing a lightbulb that tells the user whether they are using their noggin or not. ;)
What’s next!?
The team will continue to publish updates here on our progress during our #designPOK100 challenge. We plan to even have a few guest stars from our team weigh in on all of the work we’ve been doing for this challenge. In the meantime, feel free to follow in real time as Ann, Yasmine, and Theresa post, vent, and brag on twitter!
As always, our challenge submissions are all fictional and represent only our own, awesome views!
