Inflate App
"Could we create an app to encourage free-flowing thought by posing structured, creative problems? What would the UI of such an app look like?"
Project Overview
This MSc project was a full development cycle of creating an app with a team of student developers, giving me first-hand experience in rapid UI problem-solving and scope creep.
The project brief simply stated the deliverable would need to be an app concept that expanded a new market concept. Pure blue-sky thinking that would be much more difficult to come by in full-time work. The proposed question to answer was literally “If you could do anything, but in a smartphone app format, what would you attempt to make?”.
The project brief simply stated the deliverable would need to be an app concept that expanded a new market concept. Pure blue-sky thinking that would be much more difficult to come by in full-time work. The proposed question to answer was literally “If you could do anything, but in a smartphone app format, what would you attempt to make?”.
Understanding
Our team of four (two designers, two programmers) began with a brainstorm and wall of post-it notes as a rapid ideation and exploration stage, silently placing all our ideas without judgement.
Once we finished card-sorting, categorising the notes in groups of common themes, several trends emerged:
Once we finished card-sorting, categorising the notes in groups of common themes, several trends emerged:
- We had a lot of “novelty” concepts, which were some of the first viral single-use apps, but with very little “stickiness”.
- Some concepts were, in retrospect, simply not possible at the time, but now would be possible with the use of GenAI.
- Many ideas aimed to encourage or streamline communication; the most positive aspect of smartphone ownershop.
- Choosing a concept to run with was more difficult than initially expected. I proposed a weighted vote system. Each member picked three ideas, then voted for their first, second and third preference.
Research
The highest voted question on the post-its defined our problem statement:
“Could we encourage creative thinking with an app?”.
This could be combined with our second-highest voted idea:
“Anonymous question-answer surveys”
Thus, our competitor analysis was primarily popular communication and survey applications for inspiration. During our search we couldn’t find an existing app exactly matching our parameters, boosting our confidence that we had found a unique selling point to expand on.
Rough paper prototypes were mocked up to quickly test ideas on the most engaging ways to answer questions.
We were inspired by the creativity and ease of use of SnapChat, with the community voting aspects of Reddit.
“Could we encourage creative thinking with an app?”.
This could be combined with our second-highest voted idea:
“Anonymous question-answer surveys”
Thus, our competitor analysis was primarily popular communication and survey applications for inspiration. During our search we couldn’t find an existing app exactly matching our parameters, boosting our confidence that we had found a unique selling point to expand on.
Rough paper prototypes were mocked up to quickly test ideas on the most engaging ways to answer questions.
We were inspired by the creativity and ease of use of SnapChat, with the community voting aspects of Reddit.
Design
Balloon release events have been popular for decades, but recently fallen out of favour due to the environmental fallout from the untraceable, non-biodegradable waste they produce. Nonetheless the motivation of encouraging creativity, coupled with the unique experience of a balloon release's concept of letting something float free really resonated with the group, so that guided our design decisions.
I was responsible for designing and developing the final UI of the app.
While generating our paper sketches, our group ran several rounds of rough prototype testing with our peer group, quickly showing the value of an MVP, and paring back extraneous functionality for a clear first-time user flow.
Examples of removed features were share functionality and appearance customisation.
I was responsible for designing and developing the final UI of the app.
While generating our paper sketches, our group ran several rounds of rough prototype testing with our peer group, quickly showing the value of an MVP, and paring back extraneous functionality for a clear first-time user flow.
Examples of removed features were share functionality and appearance customisation.
Challenges
The primary challenge during design was creating a “delightful” set of interactions to maximise the opportunity that smartphones can offer.
Feedback
Testing revealed difficulty in the value proposition of the app. Testers felt answering questions to be more of a chore than an outlet for creative expression. I reduced friction in as many interactions as possible during first time use, through a simple tutorial with a pre-set selection of questions. This helped somewhat, but the mental effort needed to sustain through the primary feedback loop would clearly have trouble converting users to advocates outside of a very targeted fraction of the audience.
Users reported feeling fatigue after only a few questions as the novelty quickly wore off, nonetheless the delightful novel experience was still there, so was something to be excited about. The colour contrast of the text was also far too faint, and we needed to run an accessibility study to ensure it would not inadvertently exclude users with disabilities.
Discussing possibilities for potential future versions, the group proposed several solutions to the novelty issue, such as gamification, daily rewards, and more tangible interactions to appeal to younger demographics.
If the app were to be brought forward into production, the main next step would be promotion and testing to see if the analytics followed our hopes for engaged user retention stats.
Users reported feeling fatigue after only a few questions as the novelty quickly wore off, nonetheless the delightful novel experience was still there, so was something to be excited about. The colour contrast of the text was also far too faint, and we needed to run an accessibility study to ensure it would not inadvertently exclude users with disabilities.
Discussing possibilities for potential future versions, the group proposed several solutions to the novelty issue, such as gamification, daily rewards, and more tangible interactions to appeal to younger demographics.
If the app were to be brought forward into production, the main next step would be promotion and testing to see if the analytics followed our hopes for engaged user retention stats.
