Unreleased Mobile App

Smashing Ideas brought me in to take a client's early concept for a mobile app through research, ideation, and user testing, and out the other side as a tested, high-fidelity prototype. The work ran from a design-thinking workshop with the client's leadership through to in-depth interview sessions with real users.

The project is under NDA, so I can't show the app or discuss specifics. What follows is a general account of my responsibilities. If that changes, this page will change with it.

While the brief itself is under NDA, in broad terms the goal of the project was to take an early concept the client had created through a group design session, research, ideation, and user testing, and out the other end with a functional prototype. The deliverables were meant to support the client in their effort to get further funding and to kick off production of the application and supporting infrastructure.

I started by helping the strategy team research the client's target area and demographic, and reviewing all the prior research they'd sent over. We looked at existing products, the wants and needs of the demographic, and plenty else besides, so that we had a solid foundation before any in-person interviews or testing began.

Part of the contract involved travelling back east to help two members of the Smashing Ideas leadership team run a two-day design-thinking and ideation session with the client. The session put the main stakeholders through a series of exercises to get everyone's vision of the product aligned, and it did a lot to solidify what the client actually wanted.

By the end of it I'd drafted several high-level solutions we could use in a day-long user research group on the third day of the trip. That session gave us invaluable feedback from the target audience, and let their voices shape the prototype I'd eventually build for in-person testing.

Back in Seattle I built the prototype from the workshop and research findings, reviewing progress with the client every other day so their feedback was in before its debut in the IDI testing sessions.

I ran those sessions from the Seattle office, watching over video conference while they happened on the east coast. Because Figma prototypes update live, I could make changes between participants based on what the last one had said, which meant each session built on the one before it rather than repeating it. At my suggestion the users tested on a real iPhone through the Figma app, which I helped the testing team set up.

I also volunteered to make a three-minute internal marketing video for the client. The video was created in After Effects and used video footage from the focus group and IDI sessions. It was meant to help them win further support and funding for the project.

My final deliverable was a high-fidelity, complex interactive prototype built in Figma. The client was very happy with it and with the results from the IDI testing. I hope the project gets the funding and support it needs to launch one day — the idea is a good one, and it would bring a lot of wellbeing to the people it's meant for.