VEGAS is an app designed to allow people travelling to VEGAS to purchase tickets for events from their smartphone. These events can be either shows, tours, attractions, tickets for nightclubs, and any activity that can be done around the most famous city of Nevada.
After some introductory calls and getting to know the client we came up with the following conclusions:
1. Our client ran his business mainly through their website which was performing very well.
2. Wanted an app that would allow him to diversify his business through mobile platforms.
3. Anybody would have to be able to purchase from the phone as they did from the web.
4. The experience between the app and the web had to be seamless.
When thinking about the audience of the service, several personas were created in order to fence in the possible targets/users of the app. Due to the broad nature of raising mobility services the age range would be quite wide, approximately from 25 to 50 years old, but 2 profiles were the ones that made it to the end:
John Anderson
Jennifer Williams
Once we got our Personas clear, we developed a list of User stories based on client requirements and our own additions and reviewed them and cleaned them up until we got a list that made sense for a Phase 1.
Right after that we turned the User stories into content by creating the Content Map/App Map you can see below. Here is where we decided which content would we keep and which other would we ditch completely or keep for later phases of the project.
The App Map also allowed us to have a better understanding of the real size of the app, of how many taps would it get to perform each task and also to improve our timeline to better meet the deadlines.
After deciding which content would make it to Phase 1 I started working on the Wireframes and shaping it by defining navigational patterns, interface structure and content distribution through screens.
Several iterations were needed to come up with an agreed scope of the project from which you can see a couple below these lines.
Below you can see the final version of the Wireframes which included a completely new design, a change in the content distributed among the main categories, new Explore section and Menu and a ton of other small details that were menat to enhance the experience and engage the users even more.
When creating the User Interface of the app there were many elements from the VEGAS experience that were taken in account including:
While finishing the first mockups some high fidelity prototypes were created to see them running and have a first glimpse at the app and its navigation.
The prototype that you see below was chosen among 3 prototypes and ended up being very helpful in our conversations with the developers to make them understand what kind of effects and navigational flows were being pursued.
After iOS7 came out we realized the app had suddenly become updated and we decided to come up with a complete redesign focused on three major aspects promoted by Apple:
Deference. The UI helps people understand and interact with the content, but never competes with it.
Clarity. Text is legible at every size, icons are precise and lucid, adornments are subtle and appropriate, and a sharpened focus on functionality motivates the design.
Depth. Visual layers and realistic motion impart vitality and heighten people’s delight and understanding.
The new mockups resemble iOS7 content focused style and help the interface get out of the way by removing unnecessary textures, skeuomorphic effects and other interface complexities.
Slide through the gallery below to see the final mockups.
Several testing sessions were performed with a tool called Lookback which allowed to identify flaws and possible improvements for future phases and reviews of the app.
Click here to see an example of one of the most valuable testing sessions performed.
Many sessions of Design QA were needed with the developers to assure that pixel perfection was achieved and that all the details were correcty translated from the mockups to the Xcode releases.
Difficulties and obstacles were found when working with different images for each time the shows are displayed and challenges were faced with the size of the app and the performance.
After a long iterative and refinement process the app was launched a month ago.
There's still a lot of room for improvement but I can't help feeling proud of the work done so far.
I'm also very grateful for all the feedback and collaboration from my colleagues at the Design Team, which was invaluable during the project and brought great insights to the service.
Click on the badges to download the app for both iOS and Android platforms.