Project Background
Universal design is design that takes into consideration all types of users and their various needs when creating products.
For my project on universal design, I wanted to see ‘How might we create an app to help students with dyspraxia go about their daily college lives?.’ Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), also known as dyspraxia, is a condition affecting physical co-ordination. It affects 4.1% of college students and can make their daily college lives very difficult.
I also wanted to take remote learning into consideration, as we were going through the pandemic at the time. The college I focused on was IADT.
Persona
Meet Colm, a 21-year-old dyspraxia student from Dublin. His dyspraxia affects him from the moment he wakes up in the morning - where he doesn't know what is on his schedule for the day and is always afraid he has forgotten something - to last thing at night when he is not sure what is happening tomorrow.
I then created a scenario based on one of the touch points from the customer journey to help inform where an app could start to come into play.
Design
Prototype
Sketches
I created some basic sketches of what needed to be on the screen and where and then I went straight into creating a wireframe in XD from my ideas. I needed to learn very quickly if the way I thought the app should work was right and helpful or not so I wanted to test my ideas as quickly as possible.
First XD Wireframe
Initial XD LoFi Designs
Initial XD LoFi Designs
Initial XD LoFi Designs
Findings
It's fair to say I learned a lot as I got a lot wrong on my first attempt! The reminder journey needed to be massively adjusted, the nav buttons needed to be changed, map functionality needed to be added, how the VO and keyboard functions worked needed to change drastically! And the purple overwhelmed the users. On advice from my users, I went back to Google calendar and had a good look at how it worked.
First Full Prototype Design & Testing Results
I took all of my findings and put them into my first full prototype which I then tested with 5 users. Below are my findings and subsequent design iterations.
First full prototype test – amends to Classes Cards based on testing
First full prototype test – amends to Assignment Cards based on testing
First full protoype test – amends to Reminder Cards based on testing
First full app test – amends to Assignment Cards based on testing
Second Protoype Walk Through
These tests went really well but there were still areas for improvement. I incorporated my findings and created a final prototype.
Future Considerations
• Fix listed weaknesses
• Design up the Light Mode version of the app and put it for testing Possibly have automated cards (like classes and assignments) different to reminder cards
• Consider including a way to message tutors in the app
• Consider adding college support contact
• Spend time on the settings in the profile page
• Design up the Light Mode version of the app and put it for testing Possibly have automated cards (like classes and assignments) different to reminder cards
• Consider including a way to message tutors in the app
• Consider adding college support contact
• Spend time on the settings in the profile page
I would also like to spend more time on the functionality behind ‘adding’. Currently, you should be given both keyboard and speaking options whenever you want to add anything. This may become repetitive if you have to choose every time you want to add anything. Should you just be able to speak at the app – like Siri or Alexis – for voice functionality and then in the nav, only have the option of the keyboard? Secondly, some of the cards are quite robust so, for the speaking option, should the user be given prompts for each section that needs to be filled in the card and what does that look like?
Conclusion
It is impossible to design an app that will suit absolutely everyone. For example, this app has been created with dyspraxia in mind. Dark mode suits them well (M.A.W. Consulting, LLC.; Recite Me, 2020). However, users with certain visual impairments prefer Light Mode as an effect called halation can occur when they use dark mode which makes it difficult for them to read the screen (UX Movement).
What we can do is design apps that have options built into their functionality that give users the freedom to modify their apps to their liking. We should, and can, design to include all users.