Genii is an organization and communication platform for families to build connections and create meaningful relationships. The final design of this application offers easy accessibility for all user levels and ages in order to interact with close family members.
Deliverables: User Research, User Testing, Brand Identity, UX Design, UI Design
The name 'Genii' alludes to genealogy, generation, gene, genius, and of course, a genie. Genies are known to be controlled by humans and able to grant wishes, similar to modern technological devices. The imaginary character relates to how humans control technology and technology controls humans. The Genie application will follow orders given by the user and control how the user interacts with family in a digital space.
Problem Statement
Current applications do not provide a secure all-in-one service to support a family in organizational planning and digital communication. Therefore, there is a demand for a digital space where families can connect through organizational tools and communication features.
Thesis Statement
This thesis examines the demand of today’s families, the use of technology in a family unit, the need for accessible digital platforms for a wide target market, and the need for implementing user research into the design process. This will define the design process to create a family communication application.
Design Solution
The design solution that I have come up with is to create a mobile application that is safe, accessible, and practical for all ages and user levels. The app is a reliable digital space for family communication that supports organizational planning aids and strengthens communication within the family unit.
Understanding The Users
Creating a digital space for a wide range of user levels and ages can become quite complex. For children, the interface of the application should be playful and easy to navigate. For older users, there needs to be clear direction and accessibility options to cater to possible impairments of the user. With these considerations in mind, simplicity also needs to be taken into account to ensure the user experience is effortless and manageable for all users.
User-testing
The next step was to conduct user research through an online survey to build a better understanding of the target audience’s expectations of a family organizational and communication application. The questions demonstrated A/B Testing and this user research helped me make UI decisions. All of these questions and responses were crucial to the design process and understanding the most beneficial user flow.
Wireframes
The initial wireframes were a significant portion of the success of the application. Various layouts were considered and the online survey informed many UX/UI decisions that work best for their users. Once the medium-fidelity wireframes were completed, the branding was applied and revamped for the final layouts.