APPLICATION DESIGN 1/ Project 1: Mobile Application Proposal

 Project 1: Mobile Application Proposal

 author: wang sai 

Week 1&2: what is the application design

  In the first week, Mr Zeon told us about application design for the "user" and "foundation of app design". We needed to do a "user-friendly" and "seamless user experience", "boosting engagement"

Week 3&4：making project 1 application 

In class, the teacher asked us to choose an app we have used before. I chose Youdao Dictionary because I use it daily and am very familiar with it. This also helps me better understand some of its design flaws.

Here are the reasons why app design is important, combined with my own perspective to summarize Youdao Dictionary

Youdao Dictionary is a Chinese learning and education app. Its interface primarily features white and red as the main colours. The core services of the app are translation and word lookup functions. Its primary target audience is students, followed by travelers.

This is youdao Application current design

I identified several weaknesses in the design of the Youdao app:

1. Cluttered Interface: The homepage is overloaded with features, which can make it difficult for users to find the primary functions like translation and word search.

2. Inconsistent Icon Design: Some icons lack consistency in style, making the overall interface appear less polished and professional.

3. Navigation Issues: Certain features, such as the wordbook and AI sentence correction, are buried deep within menus, reducing their accessibility.

4. Lack of Personalization: The app could provide more personalized learning recommendations based on users' history or preferences.

5. Limited Visual Appeal: The colour scheme and layout, while functional, lack modern aesthetic appeal, which might affect user engagement.

6. Slow Loading Times: Some sections, like journal reading or pronunciation guides, take longer to load, which impacts user experience.

These issues present opportunities for improvement to enhance usability and user satisfaction.

The information density is too high, andfeatures and adverts are cluttered, whichseriously detracts from the user experience.

Core functionality is drowned in clutteredoptions and the navigation system is notintuitive enough.

Although rich in features, the lack ofreasonable organisation and prioritisationrather recuces the usefulness of the app.

Personalised recommendations are lackingand the search function is not prominentenough. This complex design rather hindersthe user's purpose of using this languagelearning toal efficiently

Afterward, I chose to compare Youdao Dictionary with its competitors on the market, Baidu Translate and Eudic.

type here to view