Prototyping has definitely been the most fun part of the project so far. My group chose to prototype both a website and an app to fully realize our idea. We ironed out content fairly quickly. We knew which screenshots we needed to include to create a comprehensive visual experience that our focus group could provide feedback on. The website offers a much more descriptive sense of how our idea will merge with existing housing. Our app, on the other hand, ended up manifesting as screenshots of pages that would include action items, buttons that would prompt the user to navigate. We wanted the app itself to make people want to explore, especially since the underlying concept is this whole idea of experiential living. As a group we strove for simplicity, fun, and ease of understanding in each of our prototypes.
After we determined content, we decided to split up the actual design of the two prototypes. The bulk of the app design fell to me, and I quickly started running into the same problem I had with ideation: self-editing. I was driven more by a desire for the screenshots to be aesthetically pleasing rather than for them to convey clearly the idea for our project. Even with the restrictions of content, I found that I had too much freedom to change the visuals in a way that wouldn’t be helpful for eliciting good feedback. To combat this, I stayed in frequent communication with my group members to stay on track and produce an app design that would give us the best springboard for the next portion of the project. Ultimately, I am very satisfied with our final prototypes and excited to present them for feedback.