How I designed SILA 2018 App
By: Ilyes Boudjelthia
Tags: Ui Ux Design, UX

Roles & Responsibilities

I have been contacted by Netfer Smart Solutions to design a mobile app for the bookfair two weeks before the event date and I was given one week to send the design to the developer, therefore it was a new challenge to test my ability to work under pressure and a very limited time frame. Another challenge was that the agency do not have books pictures or even exhibitors logos which will result in UI design without pictures and that was very frustrating for me but I took it as an obstacle that I need to overcome. I progressed through fast short UX process from research, user interviews, sketches and wireframing, user testing to creating the final design.

Competitive Research

Before starting the competitive research I knew very little of what I should start with or how the design should look like, moreover i knew very little about how a book fair app should behave. As a first step in my research I downloaded several book fair apps from the playstore, such as The London Book Fair, Riyadh Book Fair, Bologna Book Fair and Beirut book Fair, doing this fast and short research gave me a first hint of what my app should have as basic features, and what should have as basic UI elements.

What I learned?

I learned that most book fair apps provide a prominent big search bar in the first interface to allow for faster searching for books or exhibitors, also I learned that a map of the exhibitors sections is a must, and that most book fairs have activities and conferences that should be included in the app too.

User Interviews

Due to the short time I was given to design the app I went with interviewing 4 people I found on a facebook group interested about books and the book fair on Messenger also I set down with two friends and all 6 of them used to have the old SILA app of 2017, we talked about the book fair event it self, what they liked and disliked about it, about which books they like the most about authors they prefer, and most importantly about their interaction with the old SILA app, what they liked and disliked, what features should be added, what features should be improved and what should be removed.

What I learned?

1- About the book fair: I learned that the event organization is poor and the venue is relatively small for the huge number of visitors that pours in daily specially the first two days, also interesting and trending books sold out very quick in the first days, I learned also that finding sections and exhibitors is hard due to great number of people and poor organisation and section labels are not visible.

2- About the App: Most people hated the old app design as it was flooded with logos of the event sponsors, text input were small and easy to miss, pixelated illustrations and logos, they also hated the lack of saving books in to a favourites list. After the competitive research and the user interviews that took me 2 days I had a very specific and refined idea about how my app should look and behave like, thus it was time to start sketching on paper.

Sketches

When I understood users likes, dislikes and needs, I was able to sketch some concepts to meet those needs.