UI/UX DESIGN
CIRQLE
what is Cirqle
Cirqle aims to provide a safe circle and access to LGBTQ+ friendly services in places where intolerance are still prevalent, especially towards the youths where being financially dependent limits freedom and possibilities of exploring their identity.
PROJECT INTRO
Role: Application Interface & Deck Design
Client: Academic project
Date: 2019 Summer
Skills: Information Structure, User Research, Interface Architecture, Analysis, Prototype.
This is an academic project that I did in a team of 5 for the course of SFU IAT 334-Interface Design. The team aimed to Create and Design an application--Cirqle from draft to interactive mock-up design in 5 weeks. As a team, we aimed to Create and Design an application--Cirqle from draft to interactive mock-up design in 5 weeks. We focused on the sexual minority domain. Through research on the topics, we realized that the sexual minority in society, the rights, and the needs of the group are sometimes ignored or violated. Then, we decided to dig deeper to think about how to design an application that could provide services and resources for people.
ISSUE BACKGROUND
CBC News 2017
"Due to the lack of knowledge and financial ability to protect themselves, within the LGBTQ+ community, the younger generation comparing to their heterosexual counterparts are more likely to be discriminated, bullied in schools, or rejected by their families, thus have a larger chance of becoming homeless or committing suicide."
PROCESS
RESEARCH
As a team member, I learned and understood more about the existing LGBTQ+ community and services in Canada while I am in the domain research stage. The research information gathered would also share with the team to discuss, analyse and cluster to cohesion. Therefore, cirqle could be deliberately designed to have practical yet efficient features for LGBTQ+ youths to use in an instance.
DESIGN & USER
“Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”
--- Steve Jobs
User testing is an essential and fundamental element in design process. Meanwhile, where I think the critiques collected from the target audience could be a valuable resource in the design iteration. Therefore, the team can identify the existing problems and shed light onto potential modify direction to the design team. In this case, we conducted online user-survey and user interviews with 7 people at the beginning of starting to design mock-ups and after the first design prototype is completed. There are lots of inspiration and useful insights that we found from our user testings. As if a satellite finds the planet to orbit around. Additionally, I believe useful insights that we found from our user testings are not only beneficial to boost the design reaching new heights but also significant as a valid source to support our design. With the user’s interactions and speak aloud feedback, shed light on the nuance that we need to pay attention to the design and lead to the iterations process to polish the better form of cirqle.
ITERATION
During the iteration process, I was able to modify the design based on the results from the user tests. However, there are some feedback have given considerate insights and shall be included onto the design. Therefore, the alignment and re-cluster of the users’ critiques is an essential yet important process to the team. I contributed to organize user testings and interviews, analyse results, coordinate within the team and creating visual assets in the team. I am responsible for all the visual presentation design for the application from the initial conceptualize state to the final development perform stage.
REFLECTION
Because this is a 5 week project, I push myself forward and succeeded in creating an application from conceptual idea to an interactive prototype with a collaborative teammates. If the project allowed us more time and had more resources, I would put more effort onto the feature refine and focus on user experience based on the feedback and insights from the usability test.