Below are my writings. I let my mind go free and I listened to me.
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After free writing, I discovered that I had huge interest in gadgets, mobile apps, and technology. I didn’t realize the amount of apps that I have on my iPhone and the majority of them can be categorized under fitness and health. Let’s see…I have:
- iFigure: Food logger that works off a point system like Weight Watchers, but free
- Lolo Easy Abs: Guides you through quick 15 minute ab workout
- Lolo Easy Legs: Guides you through quick 15 minute leg workout
- Lolo Easy Arms: Guides you through quick 15 minute arm workout
- Lolo Easy 5k: Guides you through training for 5k
- Nutrition: Basic food logger
- MyFitnessPal: Awesome food and exercise logger. List more foods than any other app I have.
- Running by Nike: Cool graphic interface and tracks my runs by distance. Fun app that allows you to post your runs to FB with a nice map to showoff your hard work.
- Fitter: Calculates all things such as BMI, BMR, Body Fat, waist to hip ratio, etc. These things matter, right!!!
- Weight Watchers
- Weight Watchers scanner: Scans food UPCs to make tracking foods easy
- iFitness: Tracks and displays videos of various strength training exercises
- Livestrong MyPlate: Simple and I love the aesthetics of the graphics.
Wow…this list has really surprised me. Should I be embarrassed? I am a fitness app junky. Who knew?
Creating this list made me think about WHY I have so many apps. Sure, each one is unique and grasps me in some form or function. They are all built so that you can customize them to fit who you are. But do they all have limitations that hinder the user experience thus leaving me no choice but to download multiple apps that does similar things. How can an interface exist where the user has complete control over the content that was important to their individual needs right at their fingertips? Is there a place where the user can build an interface to include their unique interests? So rather than having multiple apps that served for different purposes, they can have one that allows them to display only the content that they use frequently at their fingertips?
What if these apps were altered in some ways and adapted an interface that made its functions more accessible to the user?
These are some questions that I began to wonder about.
Two days and a call from a tech guru later:
I finally received the call that I was waiting for to confirm or validate the technical aspect of my thesis direction. Before I could even spit a word from my mouth, my guru easily deciphered my interests based off my free writing. I was definitely impressed and glad that I was at least understood.
So basically I am into:
User interface design and
The role graphic design has in the user experience
“Does the user interface fails or succeed?”
“How does the user engage in the design’s interface?”
I need to determine a solid direction to take. Find a path and follow it to see where it takes me. It’s all unknown, but discovery is what makes us who we are and drives us to want to know.
My guru noticed that I like story telling and that my interest in photos says that I am not afraid of image theories.
But …there is a but in here. But I have narrowed my direction to thin. I must back up some and reflect on why I love fitness apps.
What is it about the fitness apps that draw me to them? There is a bigger picture present and this is what I must begin to seek out.
There is definitely more exploration that needs to take place here but I am at a good place. I am ecstatic about my new interests in the user experience and technology as it applies to mobile apps. I am confident that unit three will bring some new experiences with this topic. Of course the unknown is a bit unnerving, but the user experience is where much of this technology is headed and it can only be a good thing that my inner “me” is already telling me to head this way as well.
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Hey Lori,
This is quite the brain dump here with the free writing exercise. I’m very impressed on how you approached this and yet the story you exemplified along the way. I’m totally following your thought process here and where it is taking you. I look forward to what finally comes out of this – your end results.
Great Work!
Jamie -
Hey Lori,
This is quite the brain dump here with the free writing exercise. I’m very impressed on how you approached this and yet the story you exemplified along the way. I’m totally following your thought process here and where it is taking you. I look forward to what finally comes out of the four areas that you have concluded thus far.
Great Work!
Jamie -
This is thorough, good exploration. You are asking good questions and have followed your ideas down logical paths. I am trusting that your tech guru is Rebecca? yes? These are good directives and questions also.
Keep digging. The answer is not far off.
LWF
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Yes…Rebecca.
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Hi Lori,
I think that this is an excellent opportunity for you to plunge yourself into a design genre that you have not handled before. It was so intriguing to see the way that you built your new concept centering on your own characteristics and attributes. I think that this could be a wonderful new app idea that will take flight. As you have shown I have seen many new ventures that are getting even more personal in terms of connecting to the qualities of the user. Your app would fit right in with this new movement in the realm of technology.
It is a great idea. Your free writing entry shows your wonderful progression Lori.
~ Keely
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Hi Lori,
I think that this is an excellent opportunity for you to plunge yourself into a design genre that you have not handled before. It was so intriguing to see the way that you built your new concept centering on your own characteristics and attributes. I think that this could be a wonderful new app idea that will take flight. As you have shown I have seen many new ventures that are getting even more personal in terms of connecting to the qualities of the user. Your app would fit right in with this new movement in the realm of technology.
It is a great idea. Your free writing entry shows your wonderful progression Lori.
~ Keely
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Your fascinating topic is a very large undertaking that is surrounded by a lot of opinionated research, costly investments, and trending markets.
I am not an app guy, I often wonder if the app is fading out. A lot of the questions you raised perhaps point at the fact that we are spread to thin. Designing for 10 or 100 devices leads to quick and rough solutions, we cut corners keeping up with the ‘device’. The reason maybe that we are not tied to a device, but spread across multiple devices.
The thing you will hear the most is that apps target the limitations of the device. My question is why is that true and how long will it be true? Native apps have an advantage due to processing power (mostly graphic) but that is changing as devices advance. The biggest concern for the app is that there are so many different devices that development costs make it an impractical and non-profitable method of delivery for some. Most apps have a short life span and are under constant development. On the business end is the legality, site owners have to add another party; deal with censorship and share revenue with app stores.
With the advances in browsers and devices we are seeing more and more cross-platform capabilities that vastly reduce redundant development and design. (HTML5) Responsive design allows for adaptation, in a way it frees us from the device. When I read your conclusion that apps have a lack of customization I thought about why I never got into app design. For me, tackling device design is a losing battle that requires endless and costly development, the moment you get it all in one place the next device is released. Maybe this has to do with the abundance of apps and lack of customization also I am not a developer. The only solution in my mind was to forget about the device and concentrate on screen interaction.
Now that I ranted a bit to long about the app/site, your idea of creating a customizable interface is interesting. UI’s depend on consistency and predictability and your example of Microsoft’s Windows 8 exemplifies a lot of relevant problems in it’s UI Metro. What came to my mind was what if there was a website that acts as the mothership to it’s mobile app, keeps it all together across devices or post device? I guess I question if the problem is in the delivery, in apps. The one thing that I always felt apps lacked was cross device/platform access. (cloud computing comes to mind) I am not sure how savvy you are in development, but are you familiar with the term ‘hybrid app’? Also, with the emerging trends of ‘mass customization’?
I will have to let this sink in before I have something profound to say, but I am loving your thought process and direction!
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Very interesting, and nice that you have an idea of what your visual thesis may be. To add to your questions, perhaps you are investigating a trend of user controlled user experience. As you noted before, you have many apps, but for different functions and purposes. We see users controlling their own experience on the web (think MySpace themes, twitter backgrounds, Facebook apps), but how do we extend that into the mobile environment while maintaining good design.
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