Do I have, or can I gain, the skills to realize the vision of this app?
Can I develop this app in a reasonable time frame?
Can I afford to develop this app?
Can I leverage additional assets like online services?
Can I partner with someone to make this app even better?
Is there a lot of infrastructure needed for this app?For example, a streaming media service might be an awesome idea, but can I afford the server resources needed to get such a service off the ground?
If you’ve done a good job on brainstorming, you should have a great list of ideas, so you’ll probably have to be very critical to get your list down to two or three ideas you really want to move forward on.
Sketch and Wireframe Designing a prototype involves pulling together your brainstorming ideas.You might want to start by evaluating some similar apps that are already in the Marketplace.You’ll probably discover both good and
bad designs.Each offers good opportunities for learning.
Use a whiteboard or pencil and paper to move quickly.Lay out the navigation architecture for your app.Designers call this the information architecture, although that means something completely different to those of us in the
content publishing world.No matter what you call it, this step can uncover inconsistencies in your design.It can also inspire ideas for making your app easier to use.I did a quick exercise with some sticky notes and my
whiteboard (see Figure 1).This example is really simple, but it shows how this step might look.Each sticky note represents a page in an online shopping application.
Figure 1 Information Architecture Planning
The detail here isn’t important; I drew up each of these pages in less than a minute.The point is to really think through the flow and navigation of your app.Sticky notes are great tools to quickly mock up the pages of an
application.And because they’re similar in size to an actual phone screen, they can impart the feel of an actual app.
Using a whiteboard to lay out the navigation makes it easy to move pages around and draw connections without investing too much time.This exercise quickly and obviously shows where there are holes in your planned interface.It
also helps you estimate how much coding work you’ll be undertaking to implement your vision.
Try to bring in other people and get their feedback on your information architecture, perhaps coworkers, or friends and family members if you’re working on your own.Walk them through the design, but try not to overexplain.The
purpose and navigation of your app should be obvious; keep refining until it is.
Prototyping and User Research Once you’re happy with the pages and navigation of your design, it’s time to create a prototype and start getting some feedback from users.
The prototype doesn’t have to be a working application.Paper prototypes are excellent tools for quickly creating the look and feel of your app to present to users for usability testing (see
Figure2).Of course, if you’re using paper, you’ll need to help the user understand how the application works.Do a YouTube search for “paper prototype” and you’ll find many videos showing this process.
Figure 2 Paper Prototype
Once you have a couple of prototypes, invite users in to try them out.Ask users to state their goals within an application rather than to make specific suggestions about UI or interaction.
Try to answer the following questions about the functional elements of your app:
Is it clear what your application does?
Is it clear how to operate it?
Are tasks intuitive in both purpose and operation?
This can be an incredibly powerful and rewarding process.I once watched a design team quickly create new designs on the fly, before the next group of usability test subjects even showed up.They could test out several designs
in a single day.Talk about agile!
Iterate and Refine Continue to refine your prototype based on user feedback.Be careful not to get caught up in user requests for more and more features.While some user feedback might alert you to UI problems, most should be
absorbed holistically.Keep your application focused and minimal.
Once you’ve refined your design to something you’d like to implement, move to the computer.Consider using a prototyping tool such as SketchFlow (microsoft.com/expression/products/Sketchflow_Overview)
to start creating mockups of the actual page designs.Include enough detail so you won’t need to make decisions during coding about:
Visual elements: Are typography and content presented clearly, legibly and concisely?Is the display visually appealing?Theme Resources for Windows Phone (msdn.microsoft.com/library/ff769552(VS.92))
make it easier to adhere to Metro design principles, as well as user preferences, by providing predefined values for properties such as brushes, colors and fonts.
Control elements: Are controls sized and spaced for easy touch operation?Note that in Visual Studio, the tools in the toolbox are already Metro-themed.
Branding elements: Have you accurately reproduced colors and logos?Is all art compliant with copyrights?
Make sure you implement all the elements necessary to recreate the interactions you mapped out during prototyping.Confirm that the tasks and operations look and flow correctly based on your earlier usability testing.
The simple workflow chart in Figure 3visually represents the design process I’ve described.
It should now be obvious that you don’t need to invest in a lot of expensive tools to do a good job of designing your app.Chances are you have some of these tools available right now.
Paper and pencil: The original design tools, still powerful.
Sticky notes: These are great “canvases” for phone page designs.
Video camera: For recording usability tests and creating stop-motion animations of your designs to share with coworkers, friends, family.
Windows Phone SDK 7.1: A free download (bit.ly/snlph6) that includes Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, the Windows Phone Emulator and Expression Blend for
Windows Phone.
SketchFlow: Lets you quickly sketch up functional designs in Expression Blend.
There are many online resources that can help as you design your Windows Phone apps.The following documentation resources dive into the topics discussed here in much greater detail:
User Experience Design Guidelines for Windows Phone (wpdev.ms/wpuxguide)
You never know where inspiration might come from, so input is important.The following Twitter users often tweet about useful and interesting design and user research topics:
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