Project Goal
This semester-long project involved five design methodology steps. We defined a problem, researched and gathered data, created wireframes, and created prototypes. At the time, I was only in my second year of art history classes and was struggling to absorb the massive amount of information thrown at me weekly. So, I decided the problem I wanted to tackle was finding an easier way to study art history, and to do that, I would create a study app dedicated solely to the subject.
Project Experience
Creating mind maps and collecting data was the easy part of the assignment, but actually implementing that research to create something new to address people’s concerns and desires was the hard part. Through my surveys and interviews, I found that most students would memorize information through some form of flashcard. In response to this research, I decided the expanded flashcard feature would be more in-depth in my app than other study apps. It would have heavily customizable flashcards where you could rearrange information, change fonts, change point size, and much more. Everything else was more standard but still attempted to cater to the needs of art history students.
This is a mindmap of features to include in the art history study app.
These are logo sketches. I wanted to push the idea of either ‘art history’ or ‘flashcards’ with the symbol. The final logo was an abstract symbol meant to resemble a group of flashcards and the design on Greek columns.
These are low-fidelity screen sketches. I played with the placement of content and different layouts and chose the best options that fit together.
These mid-fidelity screen comps digitized the layouts of the chosen low-fidelity ideas. I used filler text and moved some content to suit a mobile screen.
These are high-fidelity screens with the text and images laid out. My main concern was testing color schemes.
These are the final versions of the main screens
Project Outcomes
Overall, I am the most proud of the flashcard customization screens. It was the most anticipated part of the project, and those screens came out looking the most unique. This project was also a great experience in gathering data from real people by conducting surveys and interviews. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, but I think the insight I gained from those encounters helped shape this design to be something that could help art history students study more accurately than if I just searched online.