As the team started working on the project our company started transitioning to a new workflow that involves project scoping. And since the project was pretty simple in concept (touch screen presentational application), my team took the opportunity to learn said workflow.
The Noordung application has a lot of similarities with the Expano project, and as such, I could reuse the knowledge that I got in the past. With that, the process was simplified into three steps:
- ensuring easy navigation (bigger buttons, functional design, using UI animations),
- readable content (bigger font size; readable font selection),
- creating a design system that fits the neo SyFy theme,
- implementing the design into the Unity environment.
I started by talking to the project lead about the wishes regarding the project. After a couple of sessions, I started working on the user flow, implementing all of the acquired knowledge, gathered on the Expano project. This transitioned to writing a project scope, that assured that the full team was on the same page. The project scope includes a list of assignments dedicated to specific team members, a feature scope (for each of the features in the application), and two versions of the summary (one that is more technical, and the second that is aimed at all readers regardless of their technical skill). The project scope also includes user flow snippets (for ease of understanding), personas, and project architecture. The project scope is then used to calculate the number of hours each team member will use and a time table of the project.
After the project scope was confirmed by the client, I started working on the UI. First I created a rough representation of the most visually complex screen and then designed two additional screens based on this. After the handoff was again confirmed by the client (to assure that we are going in the right direction), I created a visual system with all of the needed components.The visual system was then used to design all of the needed screens and features and was later adapted to work in the Unity game engine environment.The final step for me was to create all of the needed UI animations. The animations really helped the design come to life, as well as help the user understand the navigation system of the application. I finished this by packing all of the created assets in an origin file that was handed off to the main programmer/implementer.
The result is a fluid and easy to use application that lets the user explore the space mission of the past, without additional cognitive strain. In the end, the project included two Windows computers, with 4 applications running in union (two presentation applications, video wall application, and video projection application).The client was happy with the final result and after a month of constant use in the Noordung museum, we developed a second companion application that allowed easier guided tours of the museum and was implemented directly in the current application system (the application added video projection functionality).