The story of my first professional app design
By: Eva Steen
Tags: UX Design, Coursera, Interaction Design

I have to admit that it is not my very first design. Since I have changed my career course and started working with different start-ups I was designing quite a lot, but I would not consider myself as a professional UX designer. Things changed and I want to tell you a story of gaining self-confidence and getting my first fully professional project done with the help of online Coursera studies.

It all started with a silly New Year’s resolution. As a staying at home mother of 2 months old I felt like I need something to keep my mind stimulated. As a marketer, I was always interested in product design. It grew into a bigger part of my job and I felt like it was what I wanted to do. After doing some digging into the subject and asking some friends for recommendations, I started studying Interaction Design Specialization by UC San Diego.

I have to admit that even though the course is getting a bit old and some parts are a bit annoying, it was a great journey overall. It was a great experience to gain professional knowledge about the designing process. It was also very interesting to self reflect on how I intuitively was using some of those rules before, not even knowing about their existence. Finally, it was very funny to realize how some of the best practices demanded me to get out of my comfort zone and how fruitful the results of those are.

After all the theoretical part, I was more than ever ready to design my application. This is how Connect Club app was created. The idea of the application came from both business and user needs. People who are exercising need a solution to gain an access to different sports facilities in an easy and effortless way, without carrying around their wallet with cards and ID. Sports clubs want to get new customers and be able to register and manage their customers’ visits easily. The Connect Club app meets all of those needs, I believe.

Home screen

The app design is kept simple and clear, focusing only on the functionalities that are essential for the user. Connect Club is using QR codes as a way for user identification. To keep it useful, yet still good looking I decided to give the QR code a little twist and use some colors and a gradient combined with the user’s photograph in the middle.

Old ‘Explore’ screen design

Even though the ‘Home’ screen went through quite a lot of changes from the initial stage, it was the ‘Explore’ screen that was the most surprising and demanding, yet very insightful part. In my head, I imagined it as a map-based module. Initial tests showed that the users’ needs were far away from my vision. Map module was not understood at all and I feet like it was a total disaster.

New ‘Explore’ screen design

I am extremely happy that I ran some tests before online testing, as it allowed me to avoid some big mistakes and redesign this section. What was obvious in my head, wasn’t intuitive for users. After all, I decided to show filters first and then lead to a search result, showing the facility’s location on the map as a very last stage. It was quite a good idea because tests showed that this setup was very easy to understand and follow. I was extremely happy to hear testers appreciating the big and readable, yet modern looking filter buttons.

Seeing users testing my design online was a great experience and I believe that such tests are a necessary part of any design process if we aim for a really good product. It showed me some small but crucial mistakes and confirmed that other elements functioned well. It is amazing that the Interaction Design specialization allows students to run it for free.

After all, I think that online courses are a great opportunity for everyone looking for self development. In just some months I have managed to come to form a stage of just designing to gaining confidence in both my designs and myself.