The goal was to design and create an app and responsive website focused on finding a way for neighborhoods and communities to ensure that everyone has access to healthy food. My responsibilities included conducting user research and interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
This project was created in Adobe XD for the Google UX Design course.
In the beginning of the project, I conducted research to refine my understanding of the users and worked on ideation exercises to generate ideas. User stories were created and the target audience for the Market Market app became focused on individuals and families who are looking for a way to find markets and events within their communities that can provide healthy food options and goods.
An ideation exercise was done to come up with ideas on how to arrange the focal point of the app which is the market search function. Designs included some with less focus on that feature while others placed it front and center.
During the digital wireframes stage, I created a low-fidelity prototype of the various screens involved in the user flow and honed in on providing features that would improve the user flow through the app.
Refining the Design
As I began the high-fidelity mockups, I aimed to simplify and bring the elements of design forward to emphasize areas I wanted the user to focus on. For this project, I chose to make the branding playful and the interface simple.
In Adobe XD, the high-fidelity prototype follows the user flow of entering the app, locating a market, bookmarking a desired market, and viewing the bookmarks page.
One accessibility consideration I included was the option within the settings to provide users with customization options for language and text size. Another consideration, after a few iterations, was that the layout was adjusted in order to give the user a clearer focal point of where to begin their task of finding a market.
The screens for the mobile website, tablet, and desktop were optimized to fit the user needs and provide them with a clear path to help them accomplish their task.
Going Forward
What I learned through this project was that design can play a large role in solving obstacles for the users. Rather than adding more, the solution is sometimes to reduce and simplify.
The next steps I would take:
Add more features that can provide users with more information on the available markets.
Conduct research on how successful the app is in helping users find and locate markets.
