Designer's Note:
In our first approach toward designing our version of the Dog Lane Cafe app, Shane and I begin by outlining what we wanted to be included in the app we started by roughly sketching out our main ideas and when it came time for the first presentation, we collected insight and feedback from everyone and continued by combining our ideas and creating solid wireframes to showcase. We wanted the features of the app to be simplistic and understandable by anybody who uses the application. For our layout, we wanted a sleek modern build that includes images to both showcases the items for sale, and intrigue users to buy the options they see. We decided to go with the font Futura PT because it fit well with the first web designs that we created in the logo redesign portion of this project. We wanted our app to be cohesive to our previous designs so if we have the opportunity to showcase it, it all flows together. We decided that it would be a fun touch of color and would add an element of liveliness to the app to include the pattern that we created for our mock-up designs as a background for our application to tie everything together. For the color scheme on the app, we decided to move forward with a very simplistic color choice including gray, white, and the green-blueish color that we incorporated into our final logo. We wanted to instill the branding of Dog Lane Cafe to the users as they're using the app. We took inspiration from various of the example applications that were on our class website, finding that the most successful applications include a balance between images and text within the app. A challenge that we as designers faced was making sure that we were not overcrowding each page we didn't want to feed users too much information at once as it could scare a customer away because it being too cluttered, through this, we went through an elimination process of narrowing down what we wanted to be on each page. Our final outcome resulted in each page being very precise in what it was serving to the app. Once again working with Shane once again was a great opportunity, we collaborated very efficiently and created an app that was both visually appealing while ensuring all components for a successful application were present. Our approach to designing is similar and we were able to collaborate smoothly and create an overall great design. I'm especially grateful for the trial and error stages of creating the designs for this project and how we were able to get feedback on our designs to make them even better. A major takeaway of this project is just how important it is to understand your audience. Making something that will be accessible to all people is important and in the design process, we always have to think about how presentable it is while also taking into consideration the efficiency and accessibility of the product. Overall I feel proud of the work that Shane and I were able to compose for this project and I feel confident and moving forward to creating more UI designs and can potentially see a future for myself in this career.
