iPad UI design and prototype made with jQuery

*Non-disclosure agreement on this project so can’t show any samples*

I had collaborated with a team and designed the User-interaction for an iPad application – used by fast-paced financiers.

On Design and Prototyping for iPad
The design and development process involved design phase and development phase.

Initially I tried paper-model prototypes as a quick basis to discuss and interact with ideas. After which, I was able to make an iPad prototype as a UI designer using xHTML, CSS and jQuery. The result was a very quick prototype, which was extremely useful in really testing out interactions – something that we discussed for hours were solved/proven with an interaction prototype. Also it was great for some initial user-testing/feedback and that all important presentation and client sign-off to move the project into the development phase.

On workflow management
In development as such as this, I like to look at the work/design process and evaluate it so that we can always improve on creativity and efficiency and also design precision (reducing need redesign considerations/unanswered details during development phase so that we needn’t revisit the drawing board again). I would definitely liked to have applied the Scrum model.

On team collaboration between different roles/cultures.
Different people were involved in the project at different stages and it’s always hard for people to catch up, keep track of project progress/thought process that resulted in a given design at any stage. Again, Scrum may not be a bad thing to apply here so that clear ‘User-Stories’ have been defined, prioritized, split into tasks and put on some huge wall/electronic scrum tool so anyone could dive in and see the project progress, tasks done, tasks left to do, problems. This also would have been an excellent tool to have used because people worked over the holiday period so there was a major break (Christmas for westerners whilst local Chinese worked through those 1-2 weeks).

On being a Designer and Certified ScrumMaster
People in the same field often wonder why a designer attends Scrum seminars. Well, I have actually been Scrummaster/Project Manager for a team of 13 people – developers and designers and others including Community Manager, Researchers. I can tell you that design CAN work in Scrum. Unconvinced? Do you manage a team, experience (cultural) differences in attitudes towards delivery/transparency of progress and want to find out if you can streamline your process more? Then email me, I’m up for a challenge!