The past couple of weeks have been spent reviewing the necessary steps to take in order to get our app up and running. What is the best layout? What does each slide need to contain in order to flow for the user? In order to better understand the product we are designing, my partner and I have connected with Professor Laskin with our rough draft.

Now, the rough draft design was in my hands. I understood that a flow chart of some sort would be most beneficial in this scenario, but what medium would be most effective? I decided to start up a PowerPoint presentation, as this allowed me to flick through slides in a fashion similar to its presentation on an Android device. The menu would be the first panel the viewer interfaces with, and each button within this menu would have separate maps leading to unique user options. This experience has taught me how to think in a linear fashion, a mind frame that would most closely align with that of the user. Our previous meetings with Professor Laskin and Professor Cassens provided me with a framework to build within, so I ensured that the essential options were included and accounted for (ie. sound preferences, language compatibility, large buttons, timers, patient menus and user information input options).

It was now time to present this rough draft to Professor Laskin. I presented the slides in a fashion similarly to how a user might encounter the application. Any number of user scenarios were presented to Laskin in order to demonstrate the workability of the design. Of course, like any larger endeavor, revisions needed to be made fairly quickly. Some of the layout options needed to be changed, and Professor Laskin noted several aspects that he wished to be included in the next iteration of the presentation. This primarily included slide flow. What panel would come next after pressing this button? What pops up here after this task has been completed? The difficult aspect of working on a computer rather than on the intended device is that it becomes more difficult to convey the true nature of the operations of my design. But that was a minor obstacle that was simply inevitable.

In the meantime my partner considered the design options from a programming point of view. Sometimes ideas on paper, much like any concept, are easier proposed than completed. Not to mention that the coding language was still somewhat foreign. The platform on her laptop did not run smoothly the past several days, so any advancement was simply in the knowledge of how to complete certain tasks if presented with the opportunity. For now, my design would be limited to the PowerPoint. From there, I have already made several improvements and ensured that the final copy was sent to both Laskin and my partner. I’m sure that once the technical aspects of the programming are taken care of, great headway can be made in initiating the first set of panel coding. It does turn out that the program my partner is using is frequently used by application designers worldwide. Information concerning anything from troubleshooting to the creation of text boxes on action buttons could easily be found on YouTube.

I have somewhat lost sight of the end goal as we get bogged down by an overwhelming amount of minute details that need to be taken care of. The task is great, but at times I lose sight of its purpose. Dedication is key, but is certainly something more difficult to come by during the great summer months. Yet I am positive that with some more structure and headway in the realm of coding/programming, we can develop our Beta for UMove.