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Anker 1 Android

Case Study

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UX Case-study

February - March 2021

Samsung's
Notes app

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OVERVIEW

For our UX Immersive course at General Assembly, all students using iOS as their operating system were required to improve a feature of an Android native app and vice versa. Since I have an iPhone, I worked for two weeks to improve the Android notes app. 

This Case study will provide an overview of my design process and ideation to improve Samsung Notes app.

Problem

Android OS works across multiple smartphone brands. The user experience varies across phone models and brands. With Android, everything is customizable, every phone unique based on the owner's preferences. Many of my Android users were frustrated with the organization of their notes app:

1. There is no reminder function for the notes
2. There is no timeline for my notes
3. It's a challenge to create folders

Solution

A reminder feature to complete their notes on time and a new folder system where the app opens on the "All Folders" page by default will allow for more straightforward navigation and an easier organization system.

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Whimsicle

Figma

Photoshop

My responsibilities

Research, interviewing, affinity mapping, ideating, sketching, wireframing, prototyping, presenting.

Tools

Timeline

2 weeks

My Design Process

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DEFINE

Which of the default Android apps can I improve? 
I reached out to Android users via Instagram, my social circle, and my classmates to set up interviews so I could learn more about their use and frustrations when it came to their phones.

Interview phase

What I found from these initial interviews was that many were using different phone brands, but the majority of them used Samsung phones. So I chose to focus on that specific brand because I had the most feedback on it. I then found that most phone brands had issues and frustrations with their Notes app, so I decided to focus on that specific default app.

Affinity mapping, and different colours for users, help me find patterns and similarities when it came to issues.

Affinity Diagram

In the Affinity Map, I collect many data and organize it into three groups to pain points where Users had the most issues and frustrations.

To improve a feature to the app, I focused mainly on the first group Organization & Ease of access. Analyzed it and wrote out my key findings

Interview insights

  • 7/10 of my users mentioned their Notes app was very frustrating. finding features.
     

  • The majority of the people I interviewed had Samsung Phones
     

  • More than half of the Users interviewed preferred Dark Mode when using their apps.

Users are looking for:

  • A reminder feature is missing

  • Need for a better organization

  • Eeasier way to create folders

User in colours

Samsung

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Google Pixel

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Huawei

Organization & Ease of access

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Which features are in use the most?

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Looks & How often in use

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Competitive Analysis

Looking into other phone brand default notes app to see how they were structured and designed.

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Apple

Google Pixel

Huawei

Samsung

DESIGN

With my defining phase, I can frame my problem. To improve the app I analyzed first Samsung's design style to create a guide for myself, to keep the prototype in line with what they already had. 
Then, I defined their use of colour, corners and typography to keep it consistent and brand.

Problem statement

Samsung Notes app has many great features, but even though my users complain and suffer from bad organization issues.

Design style guide

  • Round edges

  • Navigation setting

  • Orange button

  • Mark your choice

  • Cancel & Done button

  • Text pad

  • Font

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Colour Palette

F56A4E

FCFCFC

F2F2F2

C2C2C2

9E9E9E

000000

Thumbnail radius

r = 26px

r = 20px

r = 12px

Aa

Typography

Roboto
Light, Regular and Medium

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789

TESTING

To ensure that the new feature would give users the best possible experience while meeting Samsung style requirements. In another round of interviews and user testing with wireframes and a prototype, I gained new insights and could update my final prototype.

I started with wireframing and prototyping.
First, in white mode, and because more than half of my users have their notes app in dark mode,
I continued my design in dark mode. Also, I included an easy switch from white to dark mode to my improvements and tested it later on with my users.

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Wireframes

User Quotes

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Interview Questions:

  1. Did you face frustration, or where did you go satisfied?

  2. Did you look in the right spot for the features?

  3. If No, where did you look for it, what would you change?

  4. Would you use the updates?

Interview insights

  • Add the reminder feature into notes

  • Skip the Dark mode switch in the app

  • The big orange button should create everything: new notes, new lists, new reminders, and new folders

User flow “reminder feature”

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Before and After

My changes

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  • The landing page starts now with "all folders." instead of“ all notes.
     

  • For consistency in the app, I moved the Navigation bar to the top.
     

  • The reminder feature, with two options to create: 
first over the orange button, 2nd in a note directly.
     

  • For more depth in the organization, my user can now create folders in folders.
     

  • The orange button gives the ability to create notes, lists, reminders and folders.
     

  • In the hamburger menu, the user got an overview of how many notes, folders, and reminders they have.”

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SOLUTION

Here my is Notes App with my final changes which gives it a more clean and organized look.

TAKEAWAY

This was my first project with a case study at General Assembly, and I learned a lot about crafting an enjoyable end-to-end experience. 
I got some exciting insights into how people use their notes app and how different iOS is compared to Android's OS. With the versatility of Samsung's notes app, I believe the organization system's change will help my users use the app more successfully and quickly. Identifying the right problem is more difficult than I thought for Android OS devices because they allow for lots of customization. Designing UI consistently across an app is important to help users understand how things are nested and where they are located to feel more intuitive.

THANKS
FOR
WATCHING!

© 2018-2021 by Tiziana Bucher

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