Kid Pool

Design Evolution

When I first started on this design, it was meant to be an app for scheduling babysitting. However as I looked up competition, I found that there was already an app that accomplished everything I wanted to. Not wanting to give up, I attempted to continue with the project, forcing change, stuck on an idea and making minute changes in order for it to work. Unlike the egg drop designers, I was unsuccessful, and could not stop comparing my idea with the competition. As I attempted to break free, I started to think of the other scheduling conflicts parents have, such as play-dates. Talking with my mom, I found that a lot of play-dates are the result of carpooling, which I had heard my mom’s friends complain about being hard to coordinate. Switching my idea in a brainstorming period, I was able to find a new problem with the community, and start anew. This did create some difficulties, as my idea was still very much in development, when having to move quickly to catch up where we needed to be in the design process. However, I found that by reviewing my previous ideas I was able to use them to move forward with the paper prototype. Instead of sketching out many different options, I created many different cards with the same functions using different interactions. Through this I was able to narrow my interactions through actually seeing the interactions play out. it helped fix the screen layout issues and had a lower time cost then my digital prototypes had. Having to direct the interactions, while normally viewed as a negative, helped me see struggles clearer and sooner then I would have through my digital prototype. While my main functions such as Carpool remained the same in my final prototype, I also had some changes, such as in my sign in . Seeing the more user-input screens digitally, I realized that the screens needed to be divided more evenly. However, the changes that occurred during the medium-fidelity prototype revolved more about the flow of the app and the actual interactions. It was not until the final design that I effectively got the interaction with the nav bar to be what I wanted it. It also pointed out clear flow problems I had, such as adding a new carpool, or how a keyboard should appear when needing to input information.  I have a newsfeed page appear first in my app, which I spent a good portion of time working on getting perfect. When after my pitch, the necessity of the function was questioned; I worked hard at making it fit the scope rather then just deleting it altogether. Having a single bug can bring a test to a halt was also very noticeable in my process. Many times I would accidently link a button to a wrong page, and by the time I would find the mistake, I had already made multiple changes that had to be redone, causing the prototyping to double in time. However, I found hearing about fit and finish issues helpful in my case. My colors and picture were not exactly what I wanted, and it wasn’t until I received suggestions that I was able to find the correct color scheme, from a playful bright orange to a more environmental-conscious green. While the functions may not have changed drastically between the low-fidelity and final designs, the appearance has transformed into a much cleaner version for the final design

Conclusion

While this process was not a smooth one, switching both ideas and different softwares, it was an educational one. Design is not a linear path, and one should not expect to have the same exact final design as they had when brainstorming. KidPool has come from the pushes and pulls of the design process, and ultimately gives a solution to the carpool problem that effects parents and kids in today’s society.