Project overview

Goals

This is a 'for fun only' project I made up to practice the design skills I have learned. The inspiration comes from me as a DIY hobbyist and I want to make an all-in-one product to provide everyone be creative at home

Design Process

I started by brainstorming the what, why, and how this product will be needed by people who like DIY like me. Then, I build the information architecture to decide what kind of features needs to be developed later

Project Results

This project ends up with a mobile app UI showcase only and is not yet further developed. But, it is also not impossible to make this project going again in the future

Problem Statement

2020-2021 is a time when we are forced to do everything at home because of pandemics. For me (and some people), it is a time for being creative at home by doing some activities like woodworking, gardening, and so on. But, I also feel that starting something new is not easy. Then, why not making a product where people can share their 'at home' activities?

Brainstorming

"Product must meets the user needs" is an my annotation of Design Thinking framework. I build DEWE as a product to meet my own needs as a user. I am a DIY hobbyist who likes to do crafting, gardening, woodworking and so on. But, I feel a lot of frictions when starting those hobby. I kind of watching Youtube videos of someone making a dining table and what can I do is limited to making a hanging shelves.

For me, I need to be instructed by someone who knows better at making something and I rarely seen someone close to me to do that. That's why I always look for something on Youtube, Pinterest and Google. Those only don't make my work easier. There are too much informations and tutorials that is not structured, often not related to each other scattering on the internet. Not to say that I have to go back and forth between each platform to make sure that I am doing the right thing.

Then, I think of why don't we have a platform where we can share each other activities at home so we can learn from each other to do those things? I inspired from Pinterest where I always look for 'aesthetics' thing to make. Finally I mapped out what comes into my mind on Whimsical:

mindmap about everything I think of how the product will work — Brainstorming my mind to start building DEWE

Note: DEWE is a Javanese translation of 'self'. This name comes into my mind because I am a Javanese myself and I think the meaning can also be interpreted as 'I can do this myself!'

Information Architecture

Not everything in the brainstorming phase can be applied. After I mapped out of how the product will work, I listed down the informations I needed to be designed later

Listing the information needed — Information Architecture (?)

Wireframe

I jumped out directly to design the wireframe I needed to build this product based on the information list before. I made the five main pages: home page, explore/search page, profile dashboard, tutorial preview and tutorial page. I also designed the features and basic interactions upfront, such as the navigation tabs, so I can easily design the hi-fi prototype later

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Prototype

Before making the prototype, I defined the app's elements consisted of the brand color (which is yellow), icon sets, typography and components like content carousel

Unfortunately, I only can make three pages out of five due to some constraints. But, I am satisfied enough with the results. I also make the interactive prototype here

DEWE app screens — hi-fi prototype of DEWE app

End of the line

It is my first ever project that elaborates the design thinking framework. Even it is not fully user-centric, I learned to think about every design process carefully before jumping into the next process. I hope, with more effort in research and design, this DEWE concept can be developed into a real product someday

DEWE: DIY inspiration app