A couple of days ago Chad Mumm, a producer for The Engadget Show emailed me asking if I would be interested in being part of the filming of “Process: Obstructed” for Switched. It sounded like a great opportunity to show my design thinking and test what I can do. I was given the challenge to build the perfect device-spanning weather app. I don’t want to give away too much before the film is posted but it was a really quick three hours of time boxing sprints that managed to show how I think.
I broke the process down into six categories:
1. Use cases
· Considering what people actually want to do with a weather app (thanks to the people that responded to my question on Twitter).
2. Analyzing what is already out there
· Deconstructing a couple apps and sites already out there and comparing what they do to the use cases from the first category.
3. Exploring ideas
· Creating new features that support the user experience.
4. Wireframes
· Building out the design in form.
5. Testing + prototyping
· Working details after placing the wireframes on devices.
6. Finish, test and iterate
· Look at the prototype on the device, test what works and fix what doesn’t.
Each of those steps was ten to fifteen minute sprints that I set up for myself. It wasn’t a lot of time but gave a good idea of how an app could develop. I think the film will be out in a couple of weeks. Once it’s up I’ll post some of my whiteboard images and final designs of the work. While I put a lot of pressure on myself I really enjoyed the time seeing what I could do. I highly recommend doing a crazy exercise like that once in a while to push creative constraints.
