THE IMPACT OF THE USER EXPERIENCE AND USER INTERFACE IN A MOBILE DESIGN APPLICATION: A CASE STUDY IN THE AREA OF SCHOOL EDUCATION

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to explore how User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) enhance a mobile design application. Methodology: The guidelines considered in this project were the Apple Human Interface Guidelines and the Material Design by Google. The first step was to execute a benchmarking, identify references throughout the moodboard process, build user personas, make user stories, think of the information architecture, the development of the sitemap structure to improve the user flows, as well as drawing sketches and wireframes. Finally, we test possible flows through interaction prototypes, enhanced by visual design. Results: Four apps were identified in the benchmarking process and essential visual references are recognized by moodboard. Two user personas were created. The following elements constitute our actual proposal for the sitemap. After login, the user finds the dashboard with the primary information about the student and can easily access to other key features like the diary, with the chat that the parents can start a conversation with the teacher, multiple notifications to keep up with the pupil activity, and a specific profile containing information about the student. Feedback from both educators and parents was positive and favourable, indicating that the information architecture initially developed was appropriated. In order to achieve the final result, the rest of the methodological process was fulfilled until arriving at user testing. The data collected lead us to note the majority of tested scenarios offer a good user experience together with an excellent user interface. Originality/value: This research intends to comprise a simultaneous mixed approach (design and marketing) in the development of a mobile application. Key-words: User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Usability, Visual Design, Mobile application