Studio Brief 2: Low Fidelity Wireframes (Silent Crit)

Toady we had our first crit for this studio brief. As I said in my previous blogs before I was hoping to get some really insightful and helpful feedback. Thankfully, I did get relaly good feedback praising aspects of my designs and good feedback suggesting my other features and designs which I didn't think about that may work in my app. 

Things people thought was good:

• Context is really good.
• "Camera and speech page are useful and good UX"
• Target audience is considered, "catered towards their needs"
• "the journey seems intuitive and the saved folder is a good idea"

Suggestions:

• 'Simply the UI' - Most of the suggestions were similar to this or in the same line. I think because there's so many steps to the app, this may be why it can be a bit confusing or too long to use especially to the users. I think definitely I'll need to think about how I could lessen the amount of info or simplify and lessen the amount of clicks the users will need to do in order to get to the information that they need and  providing good UX. Although, another alternative someone said was to have a 'how to page' or a walkthrough for the users, however, I feel like the users should already feel like they will know how to use the app like other translator app, and I think a how to or walkthrough will just be a nuisance to them and be redundant and the users will figure it out themselves. Therefore, this is probably not an idea that I will experiment with.

• 'Saved pages to 'Saved phrases/definitions - Someone suggested that instead of saving by countries saving by phrases or definition would be more effective. After some thought, I think they may be kind of right as users will probably use the app to learn one or two languages in detail therefore they would only need to focus on those two languages. They also pointed out how it'll be "more effective on allowing them to become familiar + confident using the terms, can access them quicker + easier". I think they have a really good point here and this saving technique would probably highlight and increase the effectivity of the app better. Furthermore, I think to achieve this, I may categorise the Saved pages by Content like 'Social', 'Formal', 'Food' OR just leaving it up to the users and providing them a 'New Folder' option in order for them to customise it themselves for their own needs and usage optimising the personal usage and effectiveness of the app.

• Activities or features centred to the audience - All of the suggestions also talked about how the app could have a feature where users can interact? Someone suggested a discussion board or a chat for user interactivity? I think this could become a feature or an idea I can definitely consider. It could be really helpful in terms of getting other users to share other similar definitions or usages of a word and phrase which could a community and communication between the app users or even find people they could meet with in the area. If I was to do this I'd probably need to make it a separate feature on one of the buttons at the bottom where the users can easily see -> may also mean that users will now need to sign up and give personal info in order for them to use the chat? -> privacy policies etc. needed., email, username, password

• Need a stronger justification for the colour choices - I thought the yellow and blue would be good as contrasting colours which both connote and bright and playful at the same time informative and educational content for the users however, someone suggestion to possibly link the colours to 'research into effect if colour on memory, ability to learn?' I didn't think of this, but it sounds really beneficial for my colour scheme choices plus they're not set in stone yet so I'd definitely look into this.

• Tweak feature usage *camera - what if users only want to translate certain phrases from the picture? - Someone pointed out this problem for the camera feature and suggestion for me to utilise the highlight tool, for the users to possibly highlight certain parts they want to translate. I think this would really helpful and I'd probably add this in my app for better and accurate UX.

Thoughts & Reflection: 

I think this crit was really fruitful and I got really positive feedback as well as good suggestions and criticism which I could sue in order to develop my application further. I will definitely look into the suggestions that have been given and apply them to my application in order to see if they actually work and make it more effective. In addition, hopefully by this week or next I'll be able to do a simulation of how the app will be used using Adobe XD or other apps for a more effective and accurate evaluation of the UI and UX so that I can refine and evaluate as I go along.