UX Inspiration
A fundamental aspect of any study or project in this vein is the research stage, wherein the team gathers information from statistics, websites, studies, articles and people directly in order to shape the project around relevant topics, good ideas and niches or needs that necessitate the content being developed.
Several apps were looked at for inspiration in service of shaping the look, feel, and function of IADThub. These primarily included Reddit and Tinder, which were singled out due to their purposes of building and connecting communities as well as facilitating social activity respectively.
​
​
​
​
The general layout of IADT Hub was heavily inspired by Reddit, which we deemed appropriate as a template due to its focus on interacting communities centering around a diverse series of subject matters.
The structure of icons, posts, and the societies page owes a lot to Reddit and its mobile format, though still modified and edited wherever appropriated for the specifics of IADT Hub’s functions.
​
​
The notifications page, the user interface, and the navigation bar, as well as elements of the overall aesthetic, were inspired by Instagram.
The most prominent influence on the appearance of the app was the IADT website itself, notably the contrast of purple and orange and the stylised text boxes and image filters. We took direct inspiration from the company's branding for the app's aesthetic. The font used closely mirrors that on the site and the home button on the prototype, the navigation bar was also inspired by the old IADT logo. The logo or the app itself was entirely original, with the circular motif symbolising connection.
User testing
In order to garner feedback from potential users of the app, we conducted user testing with five participants who scored various aspects on a standardised USE test with a five-point Likert scale.
​
The resulting feedback told us that usefulness and satisfaction were high, but the ease of use and ease of learning required improvement.
For example, users in testing indicated issues with the calendar related to a lack of customisation options with colour coding in the scheduling function. The lack of days of the week associated with dates was also raised.
These are small issues that can be ironed out through minor tweaks and changes, such as a key or adding icons. Without testing via people who have no inside knowledge of the structure of the app, these issues can be hard to predict.
​
Positive input on the calendar highlighted the scrolling feature, which helped them navigate the page intuitively.
The home icon raised some issues in user testing, wherein participants did not originally intuit the symbol of a circle inspired by the IADT logo as a home button. In order to remedy this, a home symbol was taken from the community board function on the navigation bar and integrated into the icon. To replace the missing space on the left, a new icon was integrated to transport users to the communities page.
Future development
Future development of the app will take this feedback into account. Across the many varying screens of the prototype which can be viewed here, the aforementioned changes will be implemented to attain the most user friendly experience possible. More direct links to the IADT website and navigation optimised for other operating systems were common requests, which would be the first steps to take.
