LightHouse! My Interaction Design Project
By Alejandra Garcia.
LightHouse starts on the summer of 2020, in which I was on my vacation between academic terms at my university. We all remember with bitterness what was happening in the world at this time, and in my case, I was thinking, “How can I invest my free time productively without leaving home?” and thanks to my boyfriend, I came up with the idea of trying for the first time a virtual course. That’s where I came across Coursera, and more specifically, this course, of which I’m doing the last activity, after so many months.
Needfinding
The first week was an introduction to the course, and even though I had my doubts about this new way of studying, I was very motivated when I saw the structure and topics. Then, in week two, we started the process of creating this beautiful project. Needfinding was the week’s topic, where we took the first steps to find a problem, and a theme, that converged in an initiative that motivated me to work week by week, and the constant that will prevail until the end, was the concern for sustainability.
Ideation
This stage begins by collecting what was observed in the previous week, and as I mentioned, the constant in all this is to find practical ways to be sustainable in everyday activities. With this context, and the ideas a little clearer, we proceeded to create a research on existing ideas in sustainability issues to understand what advances are already in place today, what we can use as a basis, and what new ideas we can generate for our project!
Prototype
With the context already clear, we began to shape the way in which we were going to raise the idea. I developed different Storyboards, it was quite fun and memorable to think and then capture different ideas that I had in mind, and curiously, each of the Storyboards contained different parts that combined, are the key elements that define my project. If in the second week we started to create what would become the soul of my project, and the third week were the feet, at this moment, we created what would become the body.
Design Heuristics
This week we dedicated ourselves to perform a heuristic evaluation, which is very interesting. Thanks to the feedback from different people, certain errors or possible improvements that the prototype could receive came to light. For me it was a guide that helped me to identify especially, aspects that I thought were intuitive but that people asked me because they didn’t know what to do. I also learned that it is important to achieve consistency throughout the interface, without this people would get very confused. The final step was to wireframe the home page, with elements that are present on the current home screen.
A Plan & A Skeleton
This week the prototype and the name of the app was born. From the beginning I loved what we were able to do. For the name, I based it on a play on words which would cover the different themes that the app promised, as the most clear, the correct use of LIGHT in the HOUSE. On the other hand, the interface of the project combines the 10 heuristics, which have helped the App to develop correctly and including the user experience. The progress of Lighthouse App is adequate and coherent with the overall goal of changing people’s habits. In addition, the development plan was born, and its structure accompanied us until the end.
Ready for Testing
At this stage the App logo was developed and the first tests of the app were performed. One detail that I decided would accompany my assignments from this point on, is that I would have the Lighthouse aesthetic in as many places as possible and prudent, to manage a distinctive branding style. In addition to the testing, the steps to be taken for the correct use of the prototype were described.
Test our Prototype
In this step the first tests were made with external people, to make sure the app would work as expected:
Result!
And so we reached the penultimate week of activities, with the idea that was born in the first weeks, in its last stage before the final one. We presented the application, and despite having problems at the beginning, I didn’t stop and we got the feedback in front of the first users’ experience! Then, based on them, we made adjustments to improve the overall presentation of the application resulting in what we are presenting today.
Show & Tell:
App Link:
(Just a reminder, if the link takes you to the home page, enter as username “Maria” and as password “Pass123”.).
Video:
zMany thanks to all the people who made this possible! To the professors who made the material available and designed this course which will surely give me tools for my professional life, and to my colleagues, who accompanied me in all these assignments, Thank you!
