Challenge 16 0f 52: TV Input UI

Taking early paternal leave made me sort of a TV junkie. As I also cleared my schedule from meetings and projects, suddenly I find myself spending much more time in front of TV. Naturally, I spotted a few things to improve about the device UI.

With so many set-top boxes connected to the TV, figuring out the connection can be a daunting task. Physically, there's so many ports and there's no clear label. Many are only labelled with embossed plastic text which is hard to read since it's the same color as the device. The solution should be bright color-coded label to mark all the various ports

Once connected to the TV, the UI is not helpful either. The on-screen label simply says HDMI 1, HDMI 2, and so on. It's certainly not very helpful for most user. The UI should be more proactive by asking the user what is the connected to each port when a new connection is made. Certainly it's not that hard to provide soft label for DVD, Blu-Ray, Cable, Laptop, Game and so on.

Even better, the TV can have a connection map screen in the menu. It will display all the devices that is currently connected to the TV according to the physical location of the ports.

Challenge 2 of 52: U Mobile Prepaid Android App

This time I'll look to re-design a part of service that I personally use which is U Mobile Prepaid. I use it  on my secondary phone and heavily use it for mobile data. The scope of this week challenge is the unofficial U Mobile Prepaid Android App.

First of all, it's such a big missed opportunity for the telco not to come up with an official app. It can be a good platform to increase usability and user's satisfaction. Somehow, an individual took initiative to do an unofficial app and release it on the Google Play Store.

Basically, this app is a 'skin' for U Mobile Prepaid USSD codes. Instead of remembering the weird codes and entering it on your own, you have the app to remember it for you. It is straight forward and all the main menu are prominently displayed. However, the ad cuts through two buttons - that's a silly mistake that should've been avoided.

When you request for any information, you'll see system message stating that USSD code is running and later on a USSD window appear with the information. This break the illusion that this is a 'proper' Android App.

So, how a re-designed should look and function?

So here's my quick sketch done under 15 minutes. The new app focus on the key information that the user wanted to know which is the credit balance and the last call cost. Main difference is that the app is more pro-active, instead of waiting for user to request the information it will do the query each time after the user made a call. 

The rest of the function is hidden in another page indicated by the orange notch in the lower right corner. If this is made by U Mobile, it can increase the overall user experience and also a better platform to promote new products and services to users. Users will also perceive higher transparency from the telco and have 'proof' that they are in fact receiving free calls. This will later on lead to word of mouth promotion among the users.

Sketchnote: Android Design

Alright guys, this time I bring you Sketchnote on Android Design based on talk by Taylor Ling. There's another part of his presentation that I'm yet to sketch so stay tuned for it next week.

Pre-Launch of UrusKelas.com

Alhamdulillah, yesterday mark the pre-launch of UrusKelas.com - a learning centre management system. It seeks to simplify student management and fee collection. For the time being we only offer record keeping and management.

Planned features include:

1. Multi-branch management
2. Email reminder for fess
3. SMS integration

As we are still in Beta, we open the door for free account registration. Early users will get exclusive offer and early acess to new features.

Check it out at UrusKelas.com

Note: Kok Chiann's talk at UX Malaysia is a timely input for this project. Enjoy the sketchnote I made here.

Sktechnote: Lean UX

Here's the second sketchnote from UX Malaysia June Meetup. Check out the original slide from Kok Chiann's blog. His talk is very relevant to my current project which will unveil next month. Stay tuned!

Sketchnote: Level Up Guide For Front-End Web Developer

Sketchnote from Izuddin Helmi's talk at UX Malaysia Meetup 12 June 2013. Look up his profile at http://dribbble.com/izuddinhelmi