This weekend we were placed in teams of two and asked to design a Web Application for the Red Arena. Red Arena is a great 501c3 that provides therapy through horseback riding. It was a weeklong project which was a nice break from the 3 day scramble we are used to. I think my teammate and I meshed pretty well together.
Our Approach We first looked at who would be our primary users for this app. The first and foremost would be the administrator. They are having a difficult time creating and editing schedules. The current process is to send out a mass text whenever there has been a change to the schedule. The schedule is currently a spreadsheet located within google docs. Yikes. We designed with simplicity in mind. We know that our users are very diverse in age so we attempted to make things clear for those who are not so tech savy. I think we accomplished this goal. After meeting with a representative from Red Arena and asking a ton of questions about the organization and the people involved with went to the drawing board.
Sketches upon sketches upon sketches. Each time bringing us a little closer to the ideal user experience. We learned the value of getting feedback from Red Arena Contact. Next we moved onto wireframes and style tiles. I think our color palette was spot on for the site. After that it was onto coding a style guide and designing pixel perfect mockups in illustrator. In the end we learned that it is always a good idea to question all your design decisions, go back to the drawing board when needed. And commit to your decisions once you are sure they make sense. Take a look at the project through the link below and please feel free to provide any feedback you can.