OUGD603 - Research Brief - Existing Apps

OUGD603

Research Brief

Existing Apps

Networking apps
- Linked In

Functions
Home, Jobs, Network, Profile.
Home shows posts by people in your network as well as posts people in your network have liked. Each post allows the user to like, comment and share that post. 
The network function helps you to find other professionals. This is through suggestions or allowing you to search for individuals. 
Profile - Image, job title, university, location, short bio. Header image. Dashboard - Skills/endorsements, contact info, interests. 

- Slack
Collaboration software

Teamwork in Slack happens in channels – a single place for messaging, tools and files – helping everyone save time and collaborate together.
Key functions:
- searchable history
 - organised conversations 'channels' can be divided up by client, team, project.
(too complex - but good function - able to share files)

The Dots
Creative Network

Key Functions:
Get Credit for projects you have worked on.
Be inspired - Discover 100,000's of projects and the teams behind them.
Get hired - 1000's of brands search for projects to discover talent.
Network and collaborate. follow and message the people and teams behind the work. 
Apply for Jobs.


Designed apps

Yono

It has really clean and eye-catching interfaces with a perfect colour scheme: all interfaces are designed with beautiful colour contrasts between red and black, which make it typical and fashionable. And colour gradients are also used in some buttons and smaller sections. That makes people focus on these special parts and give users a sense of hierarchy.

Water Tracker App

It is really a great idea to monitor the watering stats of plants and also remind users to water their plants timely. Moreover, its background photos and images of different plants under monitoring are really vivid and fresh to let users have a good mood while using. It also offers many plant details for users to clearly and easily know plant conditions, like humidity, temperature, light and more. It's colour scheme, black background with white and green icons/buttons can not only echo with the main theme of green plant, but also make this app more acceptable for users.

Space

With an illustration style, it also features many vivid animated buttons, photos and options. Its blue colour also lets users feel good and comfortable no matter whether they use it in the morning or at night. Moreover, it enables users to manage their lives with many functional interfaces, like Mood calender, Daily services, Today’s Brief and Voice Diary, etc. So, it is sweet and appealing.

Take Away:
- functionality is key. I find LinkedIn has many features but it feels overcrowded. Slack is helpful as users can share files, but there is iften too much going on in each thread to keep track of conversations. The Dots is similar in functionality to linked in, but more refined. The assets are given more room to breathe and it does not feel so cluttered or text heavy. The interface feels softer.
The other apps I have looked at are purely for the design aspect of them. All have distinct colour palettes and all use gradients or shadows to add depth to the interface.