Getting to Know the Software
Starting my app prototype made me feel a little bit lost, even after watching the video tutorials. I feel like I took a little too much time messing around with the software, and I was running out of time before the prototype was due. A lot of my “messing around” was done in class, and I didn’t do that much outside of that. Looking back on it now, I kicked myself in the foot with that one.
Making my Login Screens
Once I got to animating my art boards, I was really excited. The login and signup screens were also the easiest art boards to make. I used the overlay feature with my animation transitions for most of it. I’m debating if I should add a progress bar to represent the app loading upon opening it, but I don’t know if that’s necessary because I already have toggle buttons as a required feature.
Having fun with scrolling
One of my app features is a spending tracker. I wanted to have the user scroll and see all their purchases over a week long period, but I also didn’t want the entire screen to scroll upwards. I messed around a lot with locking my elements so the text would be the only thing that moves. I think I got my vision down 99%. The only drawback is that you can see a small gap when you scroll too far, and I don’t think I’m able to get rid of it.
Copying a Whole Bunch of Art Boards
My app also has a calendar feature, and for my mockup I included adding an event. Adding an event had a lot of art boards I needed to make because the user needed to add the name of the event, the start and end times, and if they wanted the event repeated or not. This was probably the longest thing I’ve worked on so far for this project, and it was becoming a pain after a while. After animating it, I noticed that a few elements moved slightly to one direction, and I still need to go back and fix a few things.
I’m glad the app prototype was the first project we made in XD because we had a lot of creative freedom with what we wanted to do even within the guidelines we had. After working on my prototype, I have a lot more confidence because I’m more familiar with how to use everything!