A big project that I just finished was an app I designed from scratch. Let me tell you about how the making of this project went!
I first started out by addressing a problem and providing a solution to that problem. I knew I wanted my app to be targeted to people like me, so I turned to my own life and observed problems that I could try to solve with the development of a new app. A problem that I found that I solved was: “I have nothing to wear in my closet!”. Thus, the app DresMe was born.
DresMe is a mix between a social media app and a shopping app. It is mainly targeted at teenagers and young adults but can be used by any age. It functions as a social media app, but you can click on clothing items in the app in order to purchase clothes for yourself.
This above is what the sign-in screen looked like. Each button on this screen and all of the other screens was a working button. The goal was to make this seem as close to the real app as possible, without actually coding it.
I started by sketching out what I wanted the app pages to look like. I ended up needing a lot more pages than what I had sketched, but that’s okay. Sometimes you need to make changes as you go. Once I had a decent sketch going, I turned to software in order to make my idea come to life.
We used Adobe XD to create our app prototypes. I haven’t used Adobe XD that much, only for a few class periods last year. So, I had to learn how to use it for the first time. It was a little bit confusing at first but I eventually got the hang of the software after using it.
I made artboards with how I wanted the app to look. I had to make sure that it would appeal to my targeted audience but was still easy to use and could function without any trouble.
These were all of the artboards I needed for this project. It took quite a while to make all of these. If you ever do a project similar to this one, make sure you give yourself enough time so you aren’t rushed. I gave myself a lot to work with, so I was running out of time towards the end of the project with lots more left to do.
Once I had all of my artboards created, I had to link them so that the app would work. This basically means I connected the buttons on each page to other artboards, and pushing that button would take you there. I also had to create things like switches and transitions.
It may seem like a lot, but each one of those lines links an artboard to another artboard. You can see why it took me so long, just because I had an intricate app, and had to make sure all of the links were going to the right places.
Once I had every artboard linked, I actually made another “flow”. The one in these pictures was meant for an iPhone, but I also created a “flow” for iPad. I pretty much just had to resize all of my artboards, which didn’t take too long.
Then, I finally got to share my product. My classmates liked how intricate and detailed my app prototype was. However, I’d go back and make a few changes. I would need to make profile photos, and I need a few more type fields on some of the artboards.
This was a very fun project! I loved creating an entirely new app. A lot of my friends said that an app like this would be very beneficial to them in a survey I sent out at the start of this project. I’d definitely do something like this again, with just a few time changes next time.
If you’d like to look at my app, I’ll leave a link here! Thanks!
https://xd.adobe.com/view/bc8646de-8197-41de-981b-2f88eeb0ddf0-e9d5/
TC
