DSGN 361

The single menu button from which the navigation pops up was the most problematic thing that came up during my usability testing. What started out as a relatively arbitrary decision ended up a two solutions: either do away with the pop-up nav and have all items on screen all the time, or have a tutorial explaining how the use the app when it is first downloaded (if a tutorial is needed, a link to it should probably go in the settings, just to have as reference). There was also some very small text that needs to be resolved. More icons to differentiate the pages with similar structures was also a suggestion I received.

The trend toward flat design is undeniable and omnipresent. With the release of iOS 7, textures and dimensions took a significant blow. This, as the two articles argued is neither wholly good nor bad. In many instances, we are inundated with information, too much for us to possibly ingest and interpret. That is when flat design comes into its own--visual content is removed to make room for actual data and important information. Twitter’s app is an example of this, though perhaps and imperfect one. On a phone screen, less is more in terms of visual content, and focus on the written (typed?) content of a tweet is vital. Skeuomorphism on the other hand is a well established way of conveying how something functions to a very large user base. The example given in the article is the trash can as a metaphor for deleting files, obvious and logical. It is also an easier way of evoking a feeling through imagery we already have associations with.