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Rich Holdsworth @Didlr Presentation
Rich Holdsworth, CEO of Wapple, discusses key design principles and the evolution of mobile apps in his presentation. He emphasizes the shift from web browsing to app usage, highlighting that consumers now prioritize functionality and satisfaction from apps. The talk also details his design process for the social platform Didlr, underlining the importance of user-friendly design and iterative development.
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Rich Holdsworth @Didlr Presentation
- 1. Designing Beautiful Apps RichHoldsworth CEO Wapple CEO Didlr @richholdsworth rich@lookslikelemonade.com
- 2. What’s coming up? •Who, what, why? • Defining design • What is mobile anyway? • My design process • The most important design principal you need to know to design anything ever I think • Designing Didlr
- 3. Who, what, why? Whydid you even let me in…?
- 4. CEO of Wapple •9 years of creating mobile experiences • Development of original tech • Designed and built hundreds of experiences • Creative consultation
- 6. Comprehensive mobile publishing •Web-based mobile site builder • Complete device detection and optimisation • Integrated software solutions • Canvas • Architect • Exhibit
- 8. Before that –Video Games! • Lead designer / producer • SCEE • Psygnosis • Interplay • Silicon Dreams • US Gold • The BEST design training imaginable
- 10. When we say‘Design’ what do we mean? Time to get on the same page
- 11. Lets not getcarried away • Does a job, well • Looks good
- 12. Great design isvery, very hard • The biggest challenge is over thinking and over working it • The easiest part if knowing when its gone wrong • If you’re honest! • Trust your gut
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- 14. What is mobile? Ormaybe ‘where’
- 15. The early daysof Wapple • It was all mobile web • That was the common ground • It was clunky to begin with • And apps were crap
- 16. Then apps gotgood • Software you download and install • Hardly new • But hey, the stars aligned
- 17. So, mobile evolves Andcontinues to do so And we have to keep up Great.
- 18. Just kidding, Ilike a challenge • So we got thinking • Not just about what ‘mobile’ is today but the trajectory it’s on • We came up with a few big ideas
- 19. The consumer is mobile,not the device
- 20. Browsing is giving wayto goal fulfilment
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- 22. How did wereach those? Fortune cookies?
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- 29. Apps over browsing Isthe browser an endangered species?
- 30. App use isbeating browsing • Most users only ever visited a handful of sites anyway • With very limited requirements • As soon as most of a user’s needs are fulfilled by apps browsing becomes a cumbersome irrelevance
- 31. Some numbers • 2hr38min use per day • 80% apps, 20% browsing • 7.9 different apps a day (rising) • Read up: http://bit.ly/11NJsMZ
- 32. Consumers look tothe app stores for their favourite brands Phones are judged on the availability of apps
- 33. That presents allkinds of problems • Discovery • Promotion • But not problems we have to deal with today • Today we only have to worry about making something good, not promoting it • Phew
- 34. How do Ido design? And why is all that earlier stuff relevant?
- 35. Get some thingsstraight • What do users want? • Where and why will they be doing it? • You have to LIVE these
- 36. I mean LIVEthem
- 37. It’s a bruteforce approach • I work in cycles • Develop hard and fast with good people who make good decisions • Learn, adapt and change fast • Innovate as fast as possible
- 38. The wildly anticipatedand possibly oversold design principal that you need to know (according to me)
- 39. What are designprincipals? • They aren’t rules • They are helpful approaches that can help improve the overall design of your app • There’s plenty of them… They all matter or you can choose to ignore them all
- 40. Get the book •Universal Principles of Design • William Lidwell, Kritina Holden & Jill Butler • ISBN 1592535879 • My go-to, tie-breaking design bible • Hick’s Law, Fitt’s Law, Chunking, 80/20
- 41. Archetypes Universal patterns oftheme and form resulting from innate biases or dispositions
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- 44. Archetypes bring us: •Expectation fulfilment • Satisfaction • Users KNOW how a component will respond and can anticipate the result
- 46. Why use Archetypes? •Increased understanding of your app • Considerably lower learning curve
- 47. The birth ofArchetypes Sometimes they just happen
- 48. Windows 8 andWindows Phone are radically new designs • Change happens #dealwithit
- 50. Be assured thatusers WILL get what you are up to • Yes, there are challenges • Charms bar • Hidden app bars • Pull to select • Users WILL get it!
- 52. Designing Didlr It camefrom somewhere
- 53. Its not justme! • There’s a team of people working on didlr • Graphic artists • Web developers • Server guys • Project people • Etc. • I developed the Windows Phone and Windows 8 versions
- 54. The initial idea •A little girl • An Xbox • Christmas dinner
- 55. Getting iterative • Sharingas simply as you would a tweet
- 56. Keeping things reallysimple • What seems like a limiting factor is actually an enabling factor
- 57. The big ideacondensed • a social platform where • users draw and share • with simple tools • and follow each other • and rate and share each other’s work
- 58. Early prototyping Not theworst way to spend a Sunday morning
- 60. Focus on comfort,touch and style • A little bit of experience playing with Windows Phone • Responsiveness was paramount • Picking the colours and the strokes – create a recognisable aesthetic • What the prototype didn’t do spoke volumes!
- 61. Developing things further •Adding a server to manage all the content • Putting the drawing in the hands of more people • Setting the colours – adding transparency • Adjusting the smoothing
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- 63. Getting the brandvalues right • Like everything, this is a process • Careful balance of identifiable brand that does not conflict with user content • Nor should it influence user content
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- 65. Choosing Windows Phone •Didlr was still very much ‘under the radar’ and ‘off the books’ • Knowing C# meant that I could reduce development costs • Beautiful UI aligned with Didlr • Elevating content in an sleek, animated environment
- 66. Plus, I’m nota fan of Apple’s skeuomorphism
- 67. And Android isa bag of nuts
- 68. Of course, thoseplatforms matter • I simply didn’t have time to go that way • Visual Studio rocks, I was set • It’s been said but it’s important to know that all the tools were free • And they are of high quality
- 69. Remember brute force?It keeps going • Personal preference is to work like crazy, get things as good as possible, move on and revisit • Windows Phone - V2 (V3 in development) • Windows 8 - V2 (V3 next) • iOS - V1 (V2 in development) • Android - V1 (better than iOS V1!)
- 70. Using the UI Don’tfight the tide
- 71. Picking the recognisablecontrols and working them • No need to roll your own! • Listboxes, panoramas, pivots, appbars and more • These are practically built in and users know how to use them
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- 76. Different platforms, differentflavours
- 77. Gotta make thatchange • Structure • Iconography • Layout • Space, size • Colour linguistics
- 78. The transition toWindows 8 Gotta love reusablity
- 79. Initial code transfer •One person, one week • Communications layer straight across • Business logic straight across • Tweaks to areas like storage and animation
- 80. Designing for Windows8 was both easy and hard • We were very early – ready for launch • Less to go on • We had lots of help from Microsoft • Finding our way together • Now things are a lot easier • We have already done one UI refresh and there’s another on the way
- 82. Different platforms, differentarchetypes
- 83. Different platforms, differentarchetypes
- 84. The back endis common to all • Built around a groovy JSON api • All content is entirely cross platform • But remember – all platforms are uniquely tailored to their user’s expectations
- 85. So, why designbeautiful apps? • Well, dur… • Good design helps users engage with your app • It helps them use it • It makes them feel better
- 86.