UX Design: Exercises

29.08.23 - 16.10.23 (Week 1 - Week 8)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B' Creative Media
UX Design / Extension: Design Exploration & Practice
Exercises / App Analysis & Design Audit

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INSTRUCTIONS

To-Do List:

• Analyse a fashion app (or any app) and point out its affordances, signifiers, etc.
• Based on the analysed app, determine the pros and cons of its user experience
• Compile findings into a 5-slides presentation

Week 2

Originally, I was deciding on analysing the transportation service app, Grab. However, I decide to spend some time browsing the app store to look for fashion apps to analyse, just so it's more relevant to our other assignment. I eventually found CIDER and decided to pick it as my analysis subject.

I went through app and took multiple screenshots at first, regardless of how relevant it would be to my analysis. It just saves time in my opinion. I ended up with a lot of pictures than I really needed, but that's besides the point.

Figure 1.1: Compiled screenshots of CIDER

I started analysing the app as a designer and consumer. It was a little hard switching in between two mindsets, since I was stuck in the designer mode for quite a while before this module. I first focused more on the layout and interface of the app, as our first exercise is to determine the affordances and signifiers of the app.

Week 4

We moved on from observing its functions to evaluating its user experience. Ms Anis gave us a lecture of the aspects to be considered while evaluating user experiences. I decided to write my design audit report accordingly.

I went through the app again, this time more focused on trying to "buy" the product and explore the app with more depth. I found myself having trouble with some of the navigation, though that might be just me who's not used to shopping online in the first place. I took my experience and wrote them in the report, while suggesting possible remedies of a few hiccups I went through in the app.

Figure 1.2: Writing design audit report

We also had to summarise our findings into a 5-slides presentation, further testing our ability to communicate information that is understandable to most viewers. I picked out the areas that stood out to me the most in the report and arranged them in the slides.

Figure 1.3: App analysis report for CIDER

Figure 1.4: Design audit report of CIDER

Figure 1.5: Presentation slides of design audit

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REFLECTIONS

Never liked doing report back then, never liked doing it now. Still, doing this analysis and design audit report does help me in further understanding the overall mapping of an app. Not only that, I did gain some valuable insight and inspirations that will be useful for our fashion app project during the semester. Now it's the matter of applying the theory into practice.