Design a mobile app for [choose one from column A] for [choose one from column B] where the user’s primary goal is [choose one from column C].
Column A Column B Column C
food deliveryA astronauts entertainment
health monitor babies safety
matchmakingB amusement park patrons exploring new things
transportation nurses efficiency
recordingC artists style/fashion
A Food delivery could refer to getting food from a restaurant to a person, or from a bowl to a mouth, or from a field to a restaurant, or any other movement of food products.
B Matchmaking could refer to dating, but could also refer to finding others with shared interests, necessary expertise (e.g. job searching), access to resources (e.g. I have lots of chocolate, I’m looking for someone with lots of peanut butter) or various other contexts than romantic relationships.
C Recording system refers to anything used to document events. It could be a video camera, but it could also be a court stenographer.
Process
To develop your concept, you should go through three steps:
STEP 1. SKETCHING
Once you have chosen your prompt, you should sketch ideas. This is basically your brainstorming phase. You should quickly sketch different ideas that could respond to your prompt. You should sketch at least 10 (or more) initial ideas, with the goal that each one is a distinct idea. These can be small sketches – 10 or more could fit on the same page. You should do this quickly – aim for 15-20 minutes. If you start feeling stuck, try some “far out” concepts. There are no bad ideas at this early stage.
After you have completed your first round of sketching, you should reflect on the set of sketches, and select the most promising three sketches. For each of these, spend another 10 minutes or so sketching at least 5 variations on that same approach. Again, these sketches do not need to be large. The goal of this phase is to better understand the feasibility of the concept.
At this point, you should choose one sketch (or a small number of sketches) that provide a path forward for your design.
By the end of this phase, you should have spent 45-50 minutes sketching (15-20 min. brainstorming + 3 x 10 minutes development) and have at least 25 sketches.
All sketches should be done by hand on paper. For this step, do not use digital tools.
STEP 2. STORYBOARDING
You should create a storyboard that illustrates the experience of using the system you designed. You can show the entire user journey through the app, or you can illustrate a smaller task.
Your storyboard should have 6-8 panels. The storyboard should focus on the user experience, not on the interface itself. The storyboard should show the task in context. Specifically, it should show:
Characters (users)
Setting and environment
Task sequence
What leads a person to use the technology? What is the motivation?
What are the key steps or actions?
What is the outcome?
Emotions
What are people feeling before, during, and after using the system?
