This week was all about thinking how I could make the Libraries NI app better and more efficient for the user. I took down some notes on what areas of the app don’t work and what areas do work:
These notes gave me a good idea thinking about why different parts of the app don’t work like the fact there are way too many buttons in the home screen (example shown below)
The fact there is too many things going on in this makes the app a lot more confusing for the user, there is no need for a socialise, what’s on, reset pin or an eBooks button on the home screen,
My aim for this app is to limit the amount of buttons on this for not only a seamless design but easy use for the different users.
I also noticed that the icons are not the same size, which makes the interface look unfinished and and overall lazy design, along with looks the colour scheme just doesn’t work at all, it makes the entire interface look dark, gloomy and sad and if I was a member of these libraries I wouldn’t be going onto the app because of these issues.
Although this app doesn’t look/work well at all there are some areas of it that I actually like, such as the fact users are able to find their nearest library by using this app, it uses the location of the phone and users can find the nearest library to them and if they need directions to it, it is linked to google maps.
They also have a section which allows users to scan the ISBN barcode on the back of a book to see if it is available in their library. This is handy to not only see if a book is available but also handy if users don’t want to buy a book from a bookstore they are able to see if it is available in their local library.
I will be keeping these different areas in my app re design as I actually do think it is helpful to have for the users to find things quickly.
These are some of the thinks that have been uploaded to blackboard to help me with my UI design for this. However, since I have created a UI for my other class I am just going to go off with what I already know and design one myself.
I know that I am wanting to have 3 screens for this, so that is what I am going to create myself. I am going to draw up different sketches to see what things I m going to include and for the overall layout of the interface.