Project Description
Final Say: Restaurant Selector is an application that allows users to remove the hassle of picking a place to eat. Many people have gone through the pain of selecting a restaurant when they don't feel any particular way. Well, that's where Final Say comes in! Final Say does all the hard work of taking important details from the user and using them to decide. No more worrying about where to eat with your family and friends at the end of the night! You don't have to when you have the Final Say!
The application video shows how the application takes in information to provide a suitable place to eat. The app has the user enter a few pieces of information that you might see in a Google map search for restaurants. The app then filters out restaurants based on how they compare to the upper and lower limits of the user. After that, the information is stored if the user wants to come back to previous searches.
Preliminary Process
Tools and Technology
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Premiere
Adobe XD
Adobe XD
Adobe XD was my program of choice for Final Say. The major player in the design was the state changes that were able to be utilized. The ability to limit the amount of screens and connect in a flow was important for the quick turnaround for this mockup and video.
Adobe Premiere
The video for Final Say came together easily with Premiere. I feel showing the mockup in action does a lot more for the flow. Being able to see the animations and state changes allows the viewer to experience the app without having to actually use it. Also being able to explain the flow alongside the prototype clears up any misunderstandings.
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign was my program of choice for documentation. Since this project occurred at two separate points in time, the documentation was very important. Being able to study the goals of the original design, led me to the final prototype for Final Say.
Wireframes
Many food ordering and delivery apps influenced the wireframes. The large tapable areas for users made selecting important information easy to access. The inclusion of sliders was also an aspect found in many restaurant ordering applications. I also wanted to keep the design simple. That way anyone could utilize the app without getting confused.
After I conducted a survey about the most important aspects that came to mind when choosing a restaurant to visit, I found that distance was one of the most important factors. This led to including a way for the user to put in their address or zip code. This prioritizes restaurants in the user's general area in regards to depending on the distance the user chooses.
Wireframe: User Restaurant Selection
Wireframe: User Distance/Price Selection
Wireframe: User Zip Code Input
Wireframe: Final Say Selection
Preliminary Styleguide
I majority of my designs lean more on the warm side. Once I noticed my preference for warm tones, I decided to take a cooler angle for Final Say. The greens went well for the idea that Final Say is supposed to be relaxing and stress-relieving. I chose neutrals that worked well even with different color blindnesses. The contrast made each color stand out even with green color blindness.
Roboto was an obvious choice because the app was designed for Android phones specifically. The different fonts focused on text hierarchy to give more important information (User Selections/Inputs) more visual weight than the current section of the Final Say process the user was currently on.
Redesign
Purpose
When Final Say was finished, it felt empty. The final design for Final Say felt unfinished. The application was set to be accessible for a majority of users. But what I felt would be accessible then, ended up impersonal and cold. So after taking a few months away from the application, I found myself staring down my past designs. As I revisited my designs, I agreed with my peers of the time. The designs were bare and uninspired. And with that realization, I pushed myself to move forward with the application. I needed to make it whole finally.
So I decided to take the green and tan base and shift it to a more complete design..
Proposal
I wanted to make sure Final Say feels like an application. I needed to take it from a mid-fidelity mockup to a polished piece of digital media. And for me to accomplish that, there needed to be some drastic changes in the design.
• Remove flat colors
• Add photos that help people choose
• Diversify choices
• Reorganize the restaurant information page
• Create a profile page
• Modernize the buttons
• Create a slide menu
• Create a settings page
• Polish the prototyping connections
Research
Color Schemes / Design Ideas
After figuring out what I wanted to accomplish. I had to start from nothing for my color scheme as well. The colors chosen before weren't bad, but they were not utilized effectively. So I decided to keep the idea for a cooler color scheme but utilize them more in a modern sleek design.
For the application redesign, I moved away from the simple blocks for a more colorful alternative. I utilized semi-transparency, overlayed menus, and more of the screen real estate effectively.
Competitive Research
Redesign Process
Basis for App
Redesign Styleguide
App Additions
Redesign Wireframes
Post-Mortem
Final Designs