#theresanappforthat

For this project we were asked to develop a prototype of an app to solve a problem created by an opposing group. The issue we had to resolve through our app was creating a weekly meal plan for people on a budget

The process of creating this app has been thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding for both me and my group members. I got really lucky with my group as we all participated equally and were very enthusiastic about every part of the design and its development. From the get-go, we knew what we wanted from the app and began planning immediately - researching competitors and what they include in their apps and how we could stand out from the crowd. We also established our roles early on, meaning we could begin planning accordingly: I was in charge of the brand assets such as the logo and colour palette, Ellie did the final Adobe XD prototype and the base app we built off of, and Ysa did illustrations that were carried throughout the app, as well as some research. Despite these being our main roles, we fluctuated between them and developed elements for the app on our own and then relayed them back to the group and implemented them through the main document. 

The group had amazing communication throughout, by using an Instagram group chat, helping us keep each other updated constantly, taking on each others feedback with ease, whether it was constructive criticism or praise. We used our time wisely and began planning page designs in the early development stages and then translating them onto an Adobe XD document alongside. This meant we got ahead of the game pretty quickly and knew what features we wanted in the app early on, which enabled us to design even more in depth app elements making it more functional and feeling like a proper app. We all spent extensive periods of time creating this app as we all enjoyed it so much - every aspect of it. This meant that we were very thorough in designing it and each button functioned fully and linked back to other pages 

None of my group had availability at the same time so we ended up all developing our own apps and combining them together into one franken-app (before we discovered being able to invite people to a document.) I found this really enjoyable as I was able to play around with XD on my own and not worry about ruining elements of the main app. Being able to create my own alongside the groups one meant I could share this with them and inform them of features I had created, which allowed us to expand the app even further, as well as compare designs and mix and match everything. They took on suggestions and feedback very well, as did I and we all felt comfortable providing suggestions.

I think the app is very well developed looks and feels professional and remains consistent throughout, it is easy to use and fits our clientele very well, even those that our outside our target market would happily use the app. During our presentation we had great feedback. We were highly complimented on our design and functionality, as well as the fact that we had hit all our user personas directly and catered to them exactly. The other group really liked the colour choices, fonts and overall friendliness of the app - they said that even though our target market was uni students, they could see other ages using it as well. They also really liked the added feature of being able to invite people to join so you can divide meals and meal costs and make the shopping a household thing. 

As I have a tendency to take over group projects, I personally feel like I reigned myself in better than I have previously, however, as my group was so involved, this was easy. I really enjoyed developing my own app alongside the group one as I am able to put it in to a portfolio, and it opened my eyes to potential career paths in app development - something I never would have considered before. In the future I plan to create some more apps to widen my knowledge and build up some more work to put into a portfolio. 

PRESENTATION

The day before presenting, Ellie was sending us what the presentation looked like so we can make edits if we wanted. I was fine with the presentation, then Morgan brought in some mockup slides:

We were all so thrilled to see the app looking as if we were about to actually launch it. I made a few tweaks to the text in the images:

Morgan made the edits, and Ellie put the new slides into our final presentation:

Then finally, the day came for us to present. Unlike the group we presented to, we didn't come with a script but we still managed to present orderly, passing from one member to the next. We all agreed that we would use this app if it were real, celebrating our success in responding to the brief.

DEVELOPMENT

Since we've all been working together to add features here and there, our app came together really quickly. I regularly checked the app's prototype to see if everything functioned well, and found that our button functionality was pretty limited.

Morgan and Ellie laid out their apps in a way which only allows for a single route to take in the prototype. So, I made a copy of the file and condensed some of their pages to turn them into working buttons instead of sequences. I did this by incorporating toggle states.

Above is the aims part of our onboarding section. Below is the compare section we have for ingredients.

I also felt like our first page, the welcome to the app, could take a bit of sprucing up. The initial version (on the left below) I felt the colours clashed, not really showing the vegetables well. In my version (see middle and right) I used a composition technique which utilises lines connecting the corners of the canvas. I made sure to align/fit the components there. I also added in some gold coins because I thought it would be fitting for our focus on savings.

I left my welcome screen in the file for my group to consider, and they implemented it. Morgan decided she was going to remove the grey blob behind our logo, and she also edited the text I put. Eventually, we got to the final opening screen:

I also began linking everything together, animating transitions between pages so it would look more believable as an app. Here's a before and after of all the links:

Then, Morgan wanted to change the navigation/home bar into individually coloured icons when selected. Thankfully, I hadn't done the links for the home bar yet so there were no issues in the change:

These two images also show how we've edited the home page. How I've changed the 3 buttons at the top to include savings, Morgan with her clearer money saved bar. Ellie also added a few things I missed, such as making the shopping list interactive.

At this point, we were getting ready for our presentation, which Ellie was working on putting together for us. Morgan had a few more additions to our app; showing how meals are added to the calendar, a cooking view for recipe instructions, as well as a recipe search function.

I created some promotional mockups of our app, showcasing its main features and best screens

I wanted to keep these ones pretty plain and simple and let our app do the talking for us. I used a short phrase of "saving you time and money, your pocket friendly meal prep companion" to quickly advertise the purpose of our app.

These ones were designed with the idea we would have a website linked to the app and these would be featured on the website to explain what it does and show off its pages.

Summarised Aim

Pre’D is a simple and intuitive meal planning app designed around your preferences to fit seamlessly into your life.

Presentation for our app, presenting it to our opposing group

‼️This is just my app design that I did alongside the group one to develop more features to be copied over onto the main document

These are my screens and wireframes for my version and the full run through

I did this purely for fun as I had started the mockups for the group to let Ellie continue with the designs, and then I just carried on adding screens and got a bit carried away.

I like how mine and Ellies designs have similarities but their own personality. When copying screens over they didn't need much tweaking at all due to this - they fit together very well.