Story Boarding for Art Museum App

The idea of this art/game app is to get children more involved with the art work in museums. Through gaming they learn about the pieces of art work through acceding through the levels to win art tools as prizes before they run out of life. The game is quite simple so will attract most ages as they won't see if as a task they have to do.

They gain more points/tools by guessing the answer to the question before the water level is at its lowest point. I still intend to design this based on the Lincolnshire Usher art gallery exhibit.

At the final stage the 'prize' is to create a drawing with the tools that have been won. My aim to to inspire children through this art app to use techniques and expand their ideas through absorbing ideas from masters of the discipline that they have gained knowledge about by playing the game.

UI IOS Navigation

The iphone is very restrictive, it is very small, doesn't have a keyboards and few buttons so I have to be thoughtful when it comes to navigating such a small screen. It needs a navigation that doesn't clutter up the UI.

Navigation on an iPhone generally allows you to-

• explore all of the level of the flow diagram and get to where you want to be easily
• switch between main functionality systems without loosing your place within the app
• edit and adjust info without loosing your place
• display a list of info or choices

This is a tableview controller. It uses a tab list that is scrollable. Each option provides another list once tapped. This allows for a clean design that is easy to navigate. Easy to understand as items of a similar nature are generally listed in the same category/section.

This is a tab bar controller. It is designed to save space on the screen once you choose the option to hide the main screen. Each button has a menu that pops out individually that you can hide easily.
This is an example of flattened navigation hierarchy. It is usually used in information rich apps. It works by having a single type of main view with multiple option within each of them.
The 2 app navigational systems below aren't standard navigation systems but they focus around one interaction point. The first app uses a ticker wheel that is designed by weightbot. It has a mechanical spinning wheel for selecting items.
This navigation is used mainly for musicians but is a different version of the tab controller as it is placed in the middle of the screen instead.

User Interface Design Tips

http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/userInterfaceDesign.html

• User need to know how to work the UI that you designed for them so keep the UI consistant throughout the design.
• Use a interface flow diagram.

E.g.

The flow diagrams used is to form the architecture of the app and how the user can move through the stages. It can also be used to form the behavior of the user. It gives me the chance as a designer to see if the system of the app will work. The main purpose of the UI flow diagram is to see if the UI is useable.

• Design the navigation left to right, top-bottom as in western cultures this is the format that we read in. It will seems more natural.
• Colour should be used appropriately. If you use it as a highlighter make sure that you use something else to highlight it as well as people might be colour blind. Also use it sparingly so as to not overwhelm people.
• Use the contrast blue e.g blue on white is easy to read, red on blue isn't
• Align the fields. Left justify so make all the fields line up in a straight line. MAke the other fields right aligned so that it is organised. Make it is visually appealing and efficient.

Constantine and Lockwood have a set of principles that guide UI design

1. The structure principle. Your design should organize the user interface purposefully, in meaningful and useful ways based on clear, consistent models that are apparent and recognizable to users, putting related things together and separating unrelated things, differentiating dissimilar things and making similar things resemble one another. The structure principle is concerned with your overall user interface architecture.

2. The simplicity principle. Your design should make simple, common tasks simple to do, communicating clearly and simply in the user’s own language, and providing good shortcuts that are meaningfully related to longer procedures.

3. The visibility principle. Your design should keep all needed options and materials for a given task visible without distracting the user with extraneous or redundant information. Good designs don’t overwhelm users with too many alternatives or confuse them with unneeded information.

4. The feedback principle. Your design should keep users informed of actions or interpretations, changes of state or condition, and errors or exceptions that are relevant and of interest to the user through clear, concise, and unambiguous language familiar to users.

5. The tolerance principle. Your design should be flexible and tolerant, reducing the cost of mistakes and misuse by allowing undoing and redoing, while also preventing errors wherever possible by tolerating varied inputs and sequences and by interpreting all reasonable actions reasonable.

6. The reuse principle. Your design should reuse internal and external components and behaviors, maintaining consistency with purpose rather than merely arbitrary consistency, thus reducing the need for users to rethink and remember.

   
   

What to consider with UI design

Android UI Design Tips

Through viewing this presentation it has got me thinking about what makes an app good? It is all about quick and simple functions. If detailed instructions are needed then the app is too complicated so quick actions are needed, such as being able to choose a brush, colour or texture to work with. I have got to think about:

• How to make the action quick to summon
• How is my app different?

My aim is still to experiment with merging art app design with game however for artefact three I intend to design a UI and compare it to the rest of the market to see if the audience respond well to it.

Google app inventor

Google app inventor makes it easily accessible to create app for the android phone. So far I don't think it is possible to make an art app however it seems like a good tool to experiment with for the interface. It is highly based on functionality that leads the user through the stages of basic-component- defining properties.

What do the audience want from User Interfaces?

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/AppDesign/AppDesign.html

The link above describes steps to creating a IOS app, of which I think can be transfered to android UI design as well. So far it has guided me in getting started with what the audience need/want from a UI. I have also been referring back to my previous artefacts for information that young artists need to create artwork through apps.

Tasks/ protential features that users might be interested in:

• Creating line, tone, texture etc (formal elements)
• Range of colours
• Range of brushes
• rubber
• Different backgrounds that replicate different paper textures
• Using layers
• Importing photos as backgrounds
• being able to sketch
• simple interactions to create the artwork
• create range of graphics
• easy to find/use navigation

Who are the users?

Young artists in education between 18-21years

What features are they looking for?

• Play game apps as they find them more enjoyable
• Used to social networks
• Used to traditional tools
• Used to photoshop

Streamlined or thematic style?

Generally games have a thematic style and art apps are more streamlined so I think it would be more beneficial to have a streamlined interface because it won't distract the target audience from the purpose of the art app.

What do they want to accomplish? Serious or entertainment? Most art apps don't have an entertainment factor so the audience gets bored and frustrated quickly as they are trying to purely work with the functions of the app. I think young artists would benefit form an art app merged with game as they could learn different skills at each level therefore getting a sense of achievement.