Its all in the thumb

WARNING WARNING THIS POST IS 500 WORDS

Google Google on the wall who’s the fairest of them all?

While in today’s modern era of political correctness words fairest, prettiest and beautiful are frowned upon, and I would be stoned by my mummy group for referring to one of my daughters as pretty. A “thing”, however, is more labelled or criticised. It is examined for its purpose, usability, cleanliness and functionality to make a profit. Designing UI takes the principles of design thinking and enables the creation of a problem and the expansion of the online world. The increase of mobile device access has also expanded the online world of UI.

I asked myself many questions. Have we become lazy? Are we just desperate to multitask? In my time-poor, jam-packed life, I need to be able to keep up with work, family, study and play.

I have no idea how, but I have lost a whole week of study. Nowhere in my course was a single date. I needed to know the dates, deadlines and progress. I need to be able to check these things while I am waiting at school pickup or swimming lessons.

How do I know this? Because I have had to ask for a one-week extension to this subject. I also write this whispering on dictation on my phone, while lying in my 3-year-olds bed patting her back and trying to get her to sleep so I can go back and study. Therefore, if I need this, then many other learners do too.

My original plan was to improve the functionality of the desktop interface. I then started to contemplate about

How I can improve my access and create the instinctive emotion and the engagement it forges with the user – Nishtha Maheshwari

A mobile app interface for Defence students, in particular. cadets at ADFA. They have busy lives too. They are studying at university, completing 20 hours of military training a week. They do single service training in the university holidays. They have leadership roles, such as being the president of the UN Club and playing at least one sport.

They are being challenged to be decisive, divergent and critical leaders in a bureaucratic structured world. My design process has been to break down the workforce need and explore a human-centric app that focuses on the user needs. I also read an article written by Maitrik Kataria that

49% of users hold their phones with one-hand specifically while they are on the go.

This lead my design process to follow into the one thumb finger was central to my thought process.

I read about continuous usability testing and studying different ways your users hold their phones in various situations. I am making my app UI in a way the user would find simplicity within distracting scenarios, then the design patterns would target reachability and one-handed use. Essentially, if I can check my grades and apply for an extension while watching my three children in different swimming classes, it is a success.

I broke the functions up to the ability to use with one finger. I hope I have created a little more accessibility, a little less complication that aligns with their age-appropriate expectations of a modern military.