Designed and developed a mobile app for Android and iOS. I saw the project through from the early brainstorming sessions, to the closed beta launch of it on Google Play Store and the App Store.
As a fan of Disc Golf, I wanted to get better at the game, and without a doubt getting better at putting is the best way. So, we got inspired from an app called Perfect Putt 360. However, it had some major flaws, so we thought, maybe we could improve on it and make it better. So, that’s exactly what we set out to do, we called our app Just Putt.
I led and oversaw the designs and artwork of this project. I was supported by my amazing brother, lead developer, Aris. We both shared a portion of the development, I took the more front-end and design portion of the project. I was responsible for the user experience and the deliverables that you will see in this case study.
To explore our ideas of the app, we used FigJam. It’s a neat tool created by Figma, which allowed us to capture our initial thoughts about the app. I believe it’s an important step when talking about abstract ideas in our minds. It transforms those ideas into visuals where we can have a common vision and reference.
I sketched some preliminary ideas from our sessions. It helped loosen up my mind and iterate quicker. This method forced me to move fluidly and stay focused on the main content.
We decided to create a system to help us organize the various different states and screens the app would need. We used a color coded system to identify what was navigation, content, interactions and their relationships to each other.
I worked closely with my brother, sharing ideas, bouncing off suggestions, giving ourselves constructive feedback and pair programming and pair designing. We used a combination of Figma, FigJam and Github to organize our comments to each other. My brother did an incredible job of putting together what was designed. I believe having a strong relationship, be it brother or co-worker, makes for a better experience and product overall.
I took on the role of project manager for this project. I decided to choose Github projects. It checked all our needs, easy, simple, quick and baked into our repository. It was a no brainer. It helped us focus and organize sprints and setup milestones.
I established a design system to help create consistency across both design and development environments. In Figma, I created a 1:1 relationship with the UI elements and the code base, which gave us great speed, accuracy and alignment between mockups and the app development.
One of the challenging parts of the application was user authentication and sign up flow. There were several steps to consider. We decided to go with an email based authentication using Firebase. I designed several flows that included scenarios like forgotten password, password recovery and profile creation.
I created prototypes to help in our communication. It's amazing how many elements you miss when you’re working with static assets. I believe prototyping is an incredibly important step to any development and design process, it reveals so many hidden steps, flows and UI elements that cannot be seen through static wireframes.
I conducted field tests to observe our friends play test the game and take notes on their experience. It was a very exciting time. I even voice recorded some of the sessions to keep focused on their behavior and interactions during the sessions. “Getting boots on the ground” and having users test the app is a vital step in the design process. It uncovered so many little nuances that we had come accustomed to see in our daily routine.
Not everything can be done in the first iteration. Our ambitions were high at first, and needed to be tempered with realistic expectations and timelines.
Time boxing yourself with Milestones and people that count on you works well. Scheduling a play through even though you don’t have the features ready will force you to make decisions and move forward.
Coding a little bit everyday was a game changer for me! It’s surprising how well it works. Kept me focused and on time.
