Work done at Parallel
iOS Product Design, Branding
Wifibooth is an iOS app that allows users to take pictures, create and print collages, send through DropBox and share via Twitter. It is used by individuals who host small parties as well as full time event professionals. While it can take pictures using the iPad camera, it's the only app in market that connects to a variety of cameras.
I first consulted with Tim Carr, the developer and creator of Wifibooth to create a phased approach to improving the app. After an initial scoping phase, we determined that the user experience was critical to address first as certain interactions were not intuitive and connecting a camera or printer was difficult We leaned heavily on collaborative whiteboarding sessions to determine all the areas of hardware connection and first understand all the paths a user could take and identified pain points that needed to be addressed.
The biggest user experience challenge in this app was guiding users through the process of connecting to a device. Every brand of camera and printer has a different set up process. Previously, the steps had lacked instruction and relied on the user to initiate connection. We worked on a user flow that exposed the options to the user right away and that auto-searched for a devices if they were nearby, turned on and connected to the same wifi network. If the connection failed, we ensured contextual instructions were provided to help the user get through the step.
Settings in the app had been difficult to navigate; they were in four different places (including taking users out of the app to iOS settings) and they were exposed in a large scrolling pane that was difficult to scan. Segmenting the settings into a side menu helped quickly access information by topic. Additionally, the creator of Wifibooth uses a Freemium trial model that exposes users to different tiers as they turn on new, more advanced features. We used modals with a features chart as a way to flag to users that they had moved into a different trial tier. Each tier is colour coded with a different pattern that correlates to the pricing chart for the app to create visual context and familiarity for the user.
Tim tasked me with refreshing his brand a bit to make it more modern, more readable and easy to use across his various digital applications and something that would resonate with all his brand audiences. After some discovery conversations with him, we decided to stick with a script to keep things fun and casual.
The app icon also needed an update to align with the wordmark. Leaning on the single-stroke look of the wordmark, I created an icon that would look visually consistent and communicate a camera powered by wifi.