The Complexity of Popular Apps' User Interfaces
Advisor(s)
Brit Rowe
Confirmation
1
Document Type
Paper
Location
McIntosh Ballroom
Start Date
16-4-2024 2:15 PM
End Date
16-4-2024 6:00 PM
Abstract
In the digital world, smartphone apps have absorbed peoples' lives. The average American spends over four hours daily browsing social media or playing games on their phone according to PCMag. A large part of an app's success is the creation and integration of a well-designed User Interface. Apps like Instagram and Snapchat have seemingly mastered UI, making it easy for users to mindlessly make decisions to move from one post to the next for hours on end. One of the most popular apps with one of the most recognizable interfaces is Instagram. In this project, I want to explore why Instagram's UI is so successful, as well as understand why or why not its complex interface works comparative to a simple one. Sketching and utilizing wire-frame applications to build a simplified version of Instagram will allow for a side-by-side comparison to the original app. Creating a simplified prototype of Instagram, A/B testing can determine the results that major UI changes have on users. To understand different UI types, competitor profiling, can highlight both successful and unsuccessful interface designs. Eventually an unstructured interview discussing how the UI changes influence how the user uses the app and how it makes them feel. By studying the most successful UI designs as well as gaining direct user feedback comparing the real Instagram interface to my ""improved/simplified"" interface, I will be able to see how users feel about interface changes, and how they react to them.
Recommended Citation
Cubberley, Holden M., "The Complexity of Popular Apps' User Interfaces" (2024). ONU Student Research Colloquium. 2.
https://digitalcommons.onu.edu/student_research_colloquium/2024/Posters/2
Level of Access
Restricted to ONU Community
Restricted
Available to ONU community via local IP address and ONU login.
The Complexity of Popular Apps' User Interfaces
McIntosh Ballroom
In the digital world, smartphone apps have absorbed peoples' lives. The average American spends over four hours daily browsing social media or playing games on their phone according to PCMag. A large part of an app's success is the creation and integration of a well-designed User Interface. Apps like Instagram and Snapchat have seemingly mastered UI, making it easy for users to mindlessly make decisions to move from one post to the next for hours on end. One of the most popular apps with one of the most recognizable interfaces is Instagram. In this project, I want to explore why Instagram's UI is so successful, as well as understand why or why not its complex interface works comparative to a simple one. Sketching and utilizing wire-frame applications to build a simplified version of Instagram will allow for a side-by-side comparison to the original app. Creating a simplified prototype of Instagram, A/B testing can determine the results that major UI changes have on users. To understand different UI types, competitor profiling, can highlight both successful and unsuccessful interface designs. Eventually an unstructured interview discussing how the UI changes influence how the user uses the app and how it makes them feel. By studying the most successful UI designs as well as gaining direct user feedback comparing the real Instagram interface to my ""improved/simplified"" interface, I will be able to see how users feel about interface changes, and how they react to them.