UX SHOWCASE: ABOUTONE
The Windows 8 Experiment
The 72 Pixels Division of Photon Infotech was one of the lead design studios of Windows 8 apps throughout the operating system's lifespan. The designers on the team needed to memorize the strict design system, in the hopes that we would be able to break it properly.
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I had the pleasure of working alongside a Microsoft evangelist to design the AboutOne Family Planner app, which boasted an overwhelming feature list for managing a household. The goal was to not only implement those features in a consistent and easy to use experience, but to push the Windows 8 design system in a direction that was wholy unique as well.
ABOUTONE USERBASE
MOTHERS
Primary User
25-50
Age Range
HOUSEHOLD MANGEMENT
Purpose
ABOUTONE OVERVIEW
The AboutOne company focused on providing powerful management tools to digitally inclined families. There are a lot of tools online that handle one aspect of family life really well, such as doctor visits, photo albums, and grocery lists. AboutOne wanted to consolidate all of these features with a single database, simplifying the process of establishing such a system within a household and making it as accessible as possible.
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The userbase for the AboutOne Family Planer was centered around the mother of the family. They intended it to be most effective for people ages 25-50. The biggest risk to this age group was the Windows 8 design system itself; if the user understood its structure, we could give them the ability execute powerful and complicated functions in a way that made sense.
WINDOWS 8
Microsoft's goal with Windows 8 was to consolidate application development across multiple form factors. The went about it with a draconian design system and application process; if your app did not meet every rule of the design system, it would not be approved. As a result, early apps were simple and looked very similar, creating an impression that Microsoft was damaging self expression and the aesthetics of computers.
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Our team had to learn the design system not only to ensure applications would release on time, but to also disrupt this stigma and "break" the design system. Microsoft connected us with veteran experience design evangelists to ensure that any boundaries we broke would still fit into the design system. The experienced I gained with working with my assigned evangelist is still invaluable today as it was back in 2012.
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I worked on hundreds of Windows 8 applications at Photon, most of which utilized unconventional (at the time) UI and new functionality that still fit into Microsoft's perscribed user experience. While I still do not agree with this period of Windows development, adaptability, or "swimming in the stream you're thrown in," became an important skill in my career path as a designer.
PHOTON DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
I was a UI/UX Design Lead at Photon, and my job involved owning a project from start to finish.
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I was put in direct communication with AboutOne's company founder, noting her requirements and goals so that the business associate could provide a cost estimation to her company while I got to work. I constructed an early app architecture that captured the features she wanted within the most accessible places for the user.
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When we determined that we were on the same page, I was able to start work on the wireframes. The user needed a means of adding details about a family member as they needed them within a function, such as adding a child's birthdate while scheduling a doctor's appointment, and having it be available everywhere. The application wasn't going to do anything elaborate, but there was a risk of becoming overwhelming visually. The evangelist echoed these sentiments when we were ready to submit back to the client, but each process I had wired was clear and made sense.
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During the mockup composition phase, the client wanted to emulate the look of Facebook. This meant utilizing a lot of white space to put a greater focus on the text/media. My goal was to get rid of the Windows 8 function bar visually so that the functions didn't take up so much screen real estate when they appeared. Technically, and the evangelist confirmed, it was still adhering to the design system, which allowed us to further deviate from the standard set by other Win8 apps. The client approved, and the app was ready to move onto development.
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Photon later moved to an agile process, which was much easier to manage alongside client expectations. AboutOne, and other Windows 8 apps at the time, built up my ability to research and design for projects at an incredible pace, regardless of the production system.