Daily UI Challenge: 006
I'm doing a Daily UI Design Challenge: designing a different screen each weekday for 100 days based on the prompt I receive in my email. Knowing very little about what sorts of prompts I'd receive, I decided to try my best to make all of my screens fit within a fictional travel-planning app, Let's Travel.
I'm also writing about some of my UX considerations along the way.
Day six's challenge was to design a user profile screen. Since my app has a social aspect to it (social travel-planning), I channeled other social media examples while building out the profile page. The page I created shows the user's own profile, so it includes an "Edit Profile" button that allows the user to make changes to any editable content (edit view not shown):
The top section is definitely Twitter-esque, while the visual tiles for upcoming and past travel were inspired by Instagram. I wanted the profile page to be really visual, in order to get people excited about travel – their own or someone else's. Obviously, the user could select whatever pictures she wants for her profile and background, but my hope is for people to choose images from their travels; I used travel photos of my own in the design (and yes, that's me in the profile picture).
Before putting mouse to pixel, I jotted down some notes about what should even be on this page. I didn't want to cram too much information in this space, and I also wanted a balance between useful content and content that was a little more fun. There are three rough categories of user content on this page:
Basic personal information: Name, location, and email, plus the profile and background pictures
#travelgoals: Where I've been and where I want to go
Let's Travel content: Upcoming and past travel I've planned using the app
The user can edit information in the first two categories, while the app automatically populates upcoming and past travel content. For all the information on this page, the user should be able to choose what, if anything, she wants to share with her friends or the general public.
It's possible there should be additional information on this page. There certainly could be – space for a free-form bio, window- or aisle-sit preferences, a way to track common travel companions – but rather than just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, I'd want to take a closer look at what other sites are doing, and talk to representative users about what they'd be interested in knowing about their friends and travel companions. In the absence of more information, I'll make do with what I think would be useful, fun, and fit within the parameters of my app.
