Timeline
This week's work was not inline with my goals. The outcomes were good, though.
Week 9's tasks, Own Work.
To be frank, the contributing factors to the slowing down of work at this point is: knowing the end of my degree is near, a lack of discipline, and being obsessed with the game Baldur's Gate 3. However, my work is tracking well with my milestones and my deadlines. I continuously feel unease about my progression, but I do feel happy with my outcomes. To try and make an action plan for this, as I've been feeling it for the last few weeks, I searched 'productivity guilt' into Google and Google scholar. There are a few comments from blogger Scott H. Young (2018) that resonated with me:
The question is never, "How can I solve this problem?" It's always "How can I do this a little better next time?"
Pick a few goals and tell yourself it's okay not to work on other things.
Separate the nice-to-have from the essentials.
Aim to be slow, patient, and forgiving.
I do a few of these already without realising, and in not acknowledging them I see them as habits that support a slow-work lifestyle. Which is true, but it's not a bad thing. To work with this better next time, I'd like to make conscious decisions in my schedule earlier rather than later so I don't sit on my phone thinking about what I should do. I also aim to keep the points above in mind.
Volunteering
I showed up earlier this week and it was the first time I had seen other volunteers about since my orientation. I guess no volunteers want to give up 5 - 6pm for companionship, I'd never thought about it! I talked to a few new faces and joined my usual resident friend where they were doing a crossword with a volunteer. After they left for dinner the resident that I'd met a few weeks prior came out to talk with me and we had a conversation where they divulged political and religious beliefs that took me off guard. We had a conversation about it and they were willing to listen to my point of view. It helped me understand their life situation better.
Figma Feedback
The main focus of this week was a cycle of one-on-one Figma feedback, editing my program to fit suggestions, then seeking feedback again. I didn't get five sessions like I wanted, but got three and I'm happy with the development it supported.
First session
Figure 1. Main feedback slides from second app prototype in Figma, Own Work.
The first session was with a lecturer from another class that has years of experience in graphic design. The session was short, however gave me some good commentary to think about for the pages in Figure 1. Here were the main insights:
My padding wasn't consistent for many sections, especially the chat area.
The 'freshness' of the grey and white in the profile section was a positive.
The typeface should change. The peer likes curved typefaces, but doesn't like ''handwritten' styles for UX/UI.
I should use a grid system to check the alignment of my objects. Aim for objects aligned in as many places as you can for a cohesive design.
These were the points I kept in mind when moving forward with Figma. Point 1 allowed me to discover 'Auto layout', a property in Figma that allows components to scale dynamically when adjusted. This shortened the time and effort needed to implement edits for the future. It also made my spacings more consistent as I was able to manually input padding. For point 3 I trialed Verdana and VAG Rounded, two typefaces that were previously given positive reactions by at least one peer. I decided to go with Verdana as I originally didn't like the look of VAG rounded for the text chat portion of the app. These changes can be seen in Figure 2.
I felt happy with the depth of feedback and moved forward with the changes. This peer offered up their time for more feedback and so will be following up on that.
Second Session
The second session was conducted with two one-on-ones on prototype version three, seen below in Figure 2. All pages in this Figure were shown as-is aside from the game subpage featuring the game 'Sudoku'. This inconsistency is because I started editing the page during the session to quickly trial some of the suggested changes. This did work for depth of feedback, but I likely want to avoid this in the future for consistency purposes.
Figure 2. Main feedback slides from third app prototype in Figma, Own Work.
Here are the main feedback points I got from this session and relevant commentary:
1. The chat should be interactive if possible to provide a better prototype experience.
I learned how to make content scrollable and added extra text. At this point in time you can scroll and it looks great, but it always defaults to one position. I believe there is an error in the way I implemented it which I will find later.
2. A text size increase could ruin my UI layout, especially in the profile screen.
It was recommended to me to create a pie graph shape to replace the profile assessment bars to remove this issue. I believe this would complicate the profile screen. Instead I made made the bars thinner to allow space for text changes up to 24px.
3. I should consider adding headings to each page like I have in Settings.
I considered it, but I believe this would change my UI in a way that isn't necessary. I want to bring this point up to future peers to get more opinions.
4. Font for back/exit buttons should be smaller and feature a representative icon.
I agreed with this and implemented it.
5. I should consider different precedents for layout for my Game subpage.
I talked this over with the peer and we picked out a few pieces of previous brain training research for me to look at. The main parts we liked are shown below in Figure 3, where green is the peer and my comments in yellow.
Figure 3. Suggested precedents for the game subpage, Own work.
6. Adobe XD would be a better prototyping option.
I truly believe this but I don't believe I'm in a position to switch programs. This is the first time I'm hearing about Adobe XD and so had never considered it for prototyping. Although, upon researching whether the skills between Figma and Adobe XD are transferrable, I found an article by Jess Weatherbed from The Verge (22 June 2023) that states that not only has Adobe acquired Figma, that it's pulled Adobe XD from sale. I believe that I've picked the right option in this situation as this event implies that support for Adobe XD may be limited in the future.
7. I should consider dyslexic-friendly fonts.
This seems like a good option and originally it was recommended as the main font I should use. I am against it as a main font as dyslexic-friendly fonts rely on each letter silhouette being recognisable, meaning the font sports strong thick and thin variations. The research I've done for fonts for older adults cautions against this. I am for allowing this option in accessibility settings.
8. I should consider a swipe action to move between pages.
I would love to do this but upon research it seems impossible with Figma's tools. This is because I have a fixed navigation bar that I don't want to swipe with the page, but I don't believe Figma allows components to transcend frames. Something I'll dive deeper into if I have time later.
You can see the results of these choices in Figure 4. I'd like to continue this trend, incorporating at least 2 peer sessions a week. I've added this task to every week from now.
Figma Development
Mentioned in Week 8 I wanted to create a page for every section in my Figma, regardless of the quality. I put this to the side as the best progress came from feedback. I created a welcome page, a login page, and the start of a settings page, however, I'm unsure if this is the best task. On one hand, I make a lot of progress toward getting the structure of a finished prototype and avoid perfectionism. On the other hand, peers generally ignore these sections as I list them as unfinished and under-designed. I'll be continuing to move forward with this in Week 10 as I like the feeling of progress, but I'll keep this in mind and ideally start working on polished designs ASAP.
If you'd like to try my prototype, you can find it here. Below in Figure 4 is it's current stage as shown by Figma. I develop with my phone open, so keep in mind that the contrast and the camera notch position are slightly different for me.
Figure 4. Fourth and current app prototype, Own work.
Next Steps
I definitely would like to prioritise tasks that I didn't finish this week for the next week. None of the tasks are essential, but the most pressing one is the script for my video. It shouldn't be a big task but one I'd love to complete earlier in the week so that I can move forward with it. After that I will be prioritising making Figma pages for every section so that I can polish their designs. Here are the tasks that are set for Week 10:
Make Figma pages for every Figma section
Video script
Game research
Figma Feedback (minimum 2 peers)
App documentation is a big undertaking and was set for this week. I decided to move it to Week 11 to give myself some time to build up my working prototype first.
References
Weatherbed, J. (2023, June 22). Adobe XD put on life support ahead of Figma acquisition. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/22/23769586/adobe-xd-discontinued-shutting-down-figma-design-app
Young, S. H. (2018, December). What is productivity guilt? (And how can you prevent it?). https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2018/12/13/productivity-guilt/