Sketches

Initial Stabs

So, I started out with a bunch of scribbles in my trusty notebook. My initial thought was to redo the mobile app, since that was what I was most familiar with. It’s also the type of sample that potential employers are keen on seeing.

Mobile is so hot right now.

It’s messy. Like halfway to a functional spec, but mostly just me figuring out what goes where.

One of the things I realized when setting out to redo this app was that the app wasn’t about ‘finding’ or ‘scanning’ as the initial landing screen makes it out to be.

The structure of the previous app was to completely focus on finding and scanning actions. However, what I realized is that the app, in general, is about managment and organization. It’s a tool for managing and curating the instrument catalog for a school. The primary focus is on keeping the catalog for each school organized, and through that, there are great aspects like finding and scanning.

So, I decided to reflect that focus in the new app. I jumped into Sketch (not a tool I’m accustomed to using, but I figured as long as I’m doing my own thing, I might as well learn a new program), and started some loose digital sketches.

Right away, I had some questions. I’d planned on a dashboard view for the admin to see, but realized there was actually no student account aspect of the app. A very basic user problem: who IS the user? For now, I’m running with the main user as the Teacher/Faculty member that is in charge of organizing and has certain access privleges to add/repair etc.

I’m also planning for a student facing interface in some form. Anyway, back to the dashboard. I realized that a high level dashboard might be one step too abstract. Why not jump into the organization and the main focus of the catalog right away?

I started working on some alternate home/landing pages where the user immediately can see their whole library. This, of course, would take a bit of chatting with the back end dev to figure out what the data pull is and also some user interviews to figure out average numbers of instruments, etc.

Just messing around with a few different views for now while I mull over some of these issues. I’m going to have to make assumptions since I don’t have access to any additional information or resources, so I’m going to think some things over.