Creating this project was both a rewarding and challenging experience. It was my first time developing a concept of this scale—from early ideation to a functional prototype—and it pushed me to grow across multiple areas of design and research.

Throughout the process, I refined my skills in UX design, user research, and project planning, while also learning how to adapt and make thoughtful decisions as the project evolved. There were definitely moments of uncertainty, but each stage helped me identify areas for improvement and set clear goals for future growth.

Overall, this project has been an incredible learning journey that strengthened both my creative process and my confidence as a designer.

Project artefact - Application Prototype:

Designing the artefact was truly exciting for me because I got to see an idea I had in my mind come to life through my design skills, which I’ve been working hard to improve throughout my time at university. As a computer science student transitioning into design for my master’s, learning everything within a year was definitely challenging. But when I look back at how far I’ve come—from where I started to the progress I’ve made since my first UI/UX module project for a website—it feels like a significant personal achievement. It’s been a rewarding experience, especially as someone new to the design world.

The prototype turned out even better than I expected, especially since I was initially worried about executing the design properly. The new discovery features I introduced were well received by the users during the evaluation, which gave me a real confidence boost. It helped me believe more in my ideas and approach future designs with less hesitation and more assurance in my abilities.

I’m really happy with how the screen designs turned out, especially successfully implementing the Tinder-like swipe feature for books. I aimed to include as many screens as possible within the time frame to give users a well-rounded experience that felt like a real application. Though I wish I had more time to fully refine every nook and cranny of the application and include every screen necessary for it to feel truly complete. While there were additional features and small details I wanted to refine, I had to push those to future suggestions, which I’ll discuss later in the dedicated section.

Some users mentioned an issue with the loading time of images during the prototype evaluation. However, I later clarified to them that this delay was due to the high-quality images used in the prototype. In a fully developed application, this wouldn’t be a problem, as the loading times would be much faster, ensuring smoother performance overall. I had actually noticed the image loading issue myself while testing the prototype before sending it out for evaluation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about it at the time, as it seemed to be an issue with the Figma application or just how it functions with high-quality images.

For improvements, I realize I need to focus more on refining interaction implementations. Some interactions in the prototype didn’t work out exactly as I had envisioned, so I had to slightly adjust the design to accommodate these limitations. For instance, I wanted the filters with tags to appear more fluidly on the screen when tapped. While the final result looked good, it wasn’t as polished as I had hoped. Additionally, I struggled with reusing the same screens for similar interactions, like the book description screen for multiple books. Instead of reusing them efficiently, I ended up duplicating screens for each book, which was time-consuming and frustrating. This showed me that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to more advanced design techniques.

I realized after user evaluation that some screens could use further refinement to improve the user experience, as pointed out by a few users during feedback, such as adding more details to the Book Swipe and User Profile sections. Since my main focus was on enhancing the selection process and exploring new discovery features, I wasn’t able to fully address the limitations on other screens. Now that I take a step back and examine the prototype, I notice the small details I missed. However, I plan to continue working on this application even after submitting my dissertation with improvements and aim to bring it to life for real users to enjoy. (not necessarily right away though 😬)