Plusminus is an app for iPhone that is designed to make rating anything superbly simple and minimalistic; no reviews, no stars, no helpful votes. Just Reddit-style karma. Users may add anything they want into the app; places, items, movies, music... the platform lends itself to rate anything imaginable.
From idea to final mockups, my portion of the project was completed in less than 24 hours. I was in charge of the entire graphical and user experience design, as well as backend programming.
The interface design was kept superbly minimalistic, combining the then-just released iOS 7 style with the bright colors and typography-heavy design language perhaps more familiar from Windows Phone. At its core, this approach didn't make the app too married to any particular mobile OS, and therefore a visually similar execution wouldn't look out of place cross-platform.
The vivid colors of amaranth, cerulean, tangerine and dark gray communicate the fresh, youthful and playful outlook of the entire concept. Each time the app is launched, a random background color would be chosen; pulling out either the Notification or Control Centers would change the background color.
As the app was designed to be as minimal as it could be, many common features of other apps were skipped; there is no login or registration. No settings screen. No social integration. The first screen the user sees after downloading and launching the app, is the search screen. The app's main feature is immediately available, and there are no popups or roadblocks to ask for email addresses or Facebook logins at any point.
I also created a short video trailer for the app, again drawing inspiration from the classic styles of Apple and Microsoft. The video switches between the bright brand colors, with clean jumpcuts in time with the upbeat music, showcasing the app in use. The interface animations shown were hand-animated in Flash, exported into frames, and then the whole thing was assembled in After Effects CS6.
Finally, a minimalistic website was created at plusminus.pm. It also selects a random background color (with an off-focus background image that matches in tone), and displays content in an iPhone frame, perfectly centered and sized to match the user's viewport.
The site has no navigation of any sort, again keeping with the simplistic mantra. The main page only displays a short description and a QR code for the app on the App Store. The website could also display individual entries on the service. However, those pages would only be accessible via sharing.
Download the app from bit.ly/plusminusapp
Client: Plusminus
Year: 2013
Work: iOS app interface design, graphic design, web design & development, video production
