Mobile app development: prototyping for end users at the University of Lincoln
How students at the University of Lincoln used prototyping to prioritize user-centered design in mobile app development.
Smartphones are now the most popular way to surf the internet, meaning that developers need to be ever more aware of usability and user-centered design in mobile app development. In this guest post Derek Foster, Lecturer at the University of Lincoln’s School of Computer Science (LSoCS), explains how Justinmind helped his students adopt a ‘design first, code second’ approach to mobile app development. The ability to rapidly create high-fidelity prototypes, run usability studies and iterate allowed students to focus on user experience and requirements, developing a deeper understanding of usability. Derek explains what made Justinmind suitable for the job of encouraging his code-loving students to prioritize user-centered design.
Prototyping with usability in mind
With the global uptake of smartphone platforms growing exponentially in recent years, particularly for accessing highly personalised social media, news, streaming entertainment, and games, all through the lens of ‘mobile apps’, developers more than ever need to be mindful of the user experience and usability aspects of app development. The Lincoln School of Computer Science(LSoCS) in the University of Lincoln has redesigned its final year Mobile Computing module to adopt a ‘design first, code second’ approach to support a robust understanding of end-user expectationswhen using mobile devices. LSoCS students are equipped with skills in Human-computer interaction methods to elicit user requirements and develop interaction scenarios, it was a logical step to then scope high-fidelity mobile prototyping tools to quickly realise and rapidly ‘bring to life’ these identified requirements and interactions.
