the final project in information architecture this semester has been the creation of a tailorable iphone application for the culture we spent the early part of the semester researching. that brought me back home to knitting, and the young folks lillie and i had worked with, who use technology in their knitting practice... well, they're a perfect target audience for an iphone app, and i was excited to work on it.
in our interviews, one struggle that came up over and over again was how hard it was to find other people to knit with, and how difficult it was to find, start, or join a knitting circle. knitters love to talk about their work, but if they don't know anybody else who does it, then they have a hard time fulfilling that need! i knew from the start of the term that when i had the opportunity to create an app for knitters, i wanted to help them connect with each other in real life, not just online through sources like ravelry.
the first real step was to flesh out a user scenario through hand-sketched notecard wireframes, which i've done a little like the following.
what occurs is this: a new user opens the app for the first time, and gamely decides to "get started" rather than jumping ahead to the other buttons. they are prompted through a questionnaire to help match them with knitters in their area. the idea is that the app could be used to find individual friends, or to join up with established circles, or to find a collection of people who aren't a circle yet but should be. once our user fills out his information, which includes things like whether he needs help, wants to teach others, or would be more comfortable just hanging out, he is taken to a screen full of search results, based on his gps location. from here, he can view someone's profile, message them through the app, or add them as a buddy. additionally, if a person has chosen to share their phone number with the app, it will also facilitate phone calls and text messages. intrigued by a person named lillie schenk, our user messages her to see if she wants to hang out sometime. she replies that she does! the scenario continues once they're already together, moving through another way to use the app. this time when the user opens the app, he has more options, because he has already started tailoring his experience. he says he's "knitting now!" and is asked a series of questions about his circumstances such as where he is and whom he's with. having filled that out, he can see the live feed of knitters in the area, and view their entry, with the potential to invite other app users directly.
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