What makes some designs good and others bad? Why do some designs work while others don’t? Posts in this category offer thoughtful design critiques of modern digital interfaces, with commentary inspired by Don Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things.”
Pocket Casts is a podcast application designed for discovering, managing, and listening to podcasts. It is available on multiple platforms, but this design critique will focus on the iOS app. When opening the Pocket Casts app, the default view is of the user’s podcast subscriptions. The 3 dots in the upper right corner provide the …
Opera has built web browsers since 1995, and continues to improve its products to foster compelling web experiences. I recently downloaded the Opera iOS Opera has built web browsers since 1995, and continues to improve its products to foster compelling web experiences. I recently downloaded the Opera iOS app to learn more about Opera’s advances, …
Petco is an American pet retailer selling pet food, products, and services. The Petco app is designed to expertly help pet owners pamper their pets both online and in stores. The mobile application provides pickup and delivery service and pet owners can manage and track their pet’s complete health and needs, they can also book …
The iOS weather application has become ingrained in many iPhone users morning routines and daily lives. The weather app provides users with information about the temperature, air quality, forecast, wind speed, etc of a specific location. With a just a few taps a user can quickly digest the weather related information they are seeking due …
HelloTalk is a language learning and language exchange app that connects language learners with native speakers on their mobile devices. Users can post Moments to share and ask questions about language/culture. The app also serves as a messaging application that allows users to send text messages, make video and voice calls, and share attachments and user location. In this post, I will be taking concepts from Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things to examine the app in more detail.
Shazam is a very popular free music discovery app which can search for music, videos, playlists & artists, either by using a short sample of the music or the text search feature in the app. Although this app is available across several platforms, this design critique is based on the iOS app (version 15.3).
Co-Star is a popular astrology app for Gen Z (18-25 in the US) iPhone users, for it’s ability to provide easy to digest birth charts, advice for the day based on your planet transits, and a social aspect to compare and contrast charts with your added friends. (It should be noted that these daily horoscopes have been criticized for promoting negativity in users in the past.)
Shazam is a music discovery app that allows users to identify recorded audio in mere seconds. In addition to surfacing song titles, artist information, time-synced lyrics, and music videos, Shazam offers Spotify and Apple Music integrations so that identified tracks can be saved to playlists.
Ubiquiti Inc.’s UniFi OS is an all-in-one network device managing software. UniFi OS allows users to set up connected Ubiquti devices such as network routers, switches and wireless access points. Users can also monitor network traffics and client devices, while having advance features such as port forwarding and network isolations for a robust network setup. …
Co–Star is an mobile Astrology application that gained major adoption among the Gen Z population. In fact the company boasts that “25% of young women in the US (18-25) have downloaded Co–Star” in just four years. The primary functions of the app are to provide daily horoscopes to users and compatibility assessments among friends.