iOS 14 App Customization
Creating an addition to iOS to further enhance the customization and personalization experience.
Client
Personal project (Myself)
Industry
Interface, Concept
Duration
June - July 2021
Info
With the launch of iOS 14 in 2020, home screen customization was finally introduced to supported mobile Apple devices. This major iOS update brought in a redesigned home screen with the inclusion of widgets and new customization options through the Shortcuts application. With Shortcuts, users are able to create a shortcut to a certain application and customize the look of that shortcut to their liking allowing for a variety of creative home screens.
While Shortcuts does allow for the customization of the application’s shortcut, there currently isn’t a way to customize the actual application when it comes to the name or look of the app. Keeping this in mind, what feature for iOS could I design that not only adds an efficient way to customize an app but also doesn’t take away or change anything with Shortcuts? How can I make this feature not seem like it’s out of place and have it fall in line with the design of iOS?
The Kick Off
Customization is one of the biggest factors people usually look for in their products when wanting to make it their own. In fact, companies tend to promote a variety of customization features that come with their product to attract more users. This is reflected a few times in advertisements for products such as software updates and tech devices.
In the ad for the new Android 12 update, the entire marketing theme was that it’s a software update ‘designed for you’. With Android 12 came a whole new visual redesign of Android that allowed users to fully customize the look and feel of their device across the entire system. This update brought in smoother animations, cleaner layouts, new widgets and more intuitive notifications for Android users to make their phone their own.
Looking at Samsung’s ad for One UI 4, being able to create a ‘customized mobile experience to express the users unique needs and individuality’ was largely promoted during the updates marketing campaign. With this new OS update for Samsung mobile devices came a whole host of new color palettes for users to choose from and alter the look and feel of everything on their phone. From the home screen to menus, icons, buttons and backgrounds, One UI 4 made nearly every bit of the OS customizable for Samsung mobile users to further market their line, “Your Galaxy, Your Way”.
Laying the Groundwork
I first started off by asking myself a few initial key questions such as how much of an importance do users see customization? Do users want customization as creatively free and efficient as possible? I wrote down a few generic questions as well such as who are my primary users? What kind of goals will users be trying to achieve when trying out this feature? What challenges will be evident with implementing this feature?
To find the answers to these questions, I sent out a survey to 74 participants as well as interviewed 10 people. The target group for my survey and interviews was of course exclusively iOS users who have used iOS 14 or above. Presented below are some of my findings.
Customization is Key
Taking these results into consideration, we can see that users want customization for their apps and want it somewhere where it can be easily accessible for them with over 75% of respondents saying they would like it on their home screens. A few users expressed confusion and frustration with the ‘customization’ experience that Shortcuts provides as of now, due to the feature being buried in sub-menus making it hard to reach. In fact, some users mentioned they needed to go online and look up tutorials on how exactly they could customize their apps since the feature is so hidden.
With many phones out there offering a variety of customization options for their users to make their phones their own, iOS users don’t need to be left out. Users pointed out that they would love to be able to customize the look and name of their apps to their own liking. Most users give their apps unique names and looks proving this to be a highly individualized form of personal expression.
Sketching the Process
With the whole purpose of this feature being more efficient, I wanted to place it somewhere it wouldn’t get in the way of any other iOS feature while at the same time being easy-to-reach for users. When it came to first accessing the feature, my goal was to not bury it under menus or pages but have it open for users to get to. I made three rough sketches on where the feature could be placed and tested them out with users to see what they think and where they would like it. Many users from my research mentioned that accessing the feature from the home screen would be beneficial and majority of the users I tested my sketches with felt the same way. I went ahead with placing the feature in an appropriate spot in the home screen and starting sketching out the next few layouts.
Adding on to the initial layouts shown previously, I kept thinking about my HMW statement and how this feature needs to be as clarifying and efficient as possible. Users need to be able to use this feature and find it easy enough to continue using it for majority of their apps. I added a little sub menu that opens when tapping the icon that allows for the user to either browse the icon store or add their own image to their icon. Like I mentioned previously I wanted to give creative freedom to users with this feature, so users can add their own twist to their icon or check out the icon store which gives users the ability to search for and install icon packages that they favor and apply it to their apps.
Keeping it Consistent
Before beginning the design of a few initial mockups I planned on showing to a few users, I needed to first create some symbols I’ll be using for my menu options that will lead users to change their icons while taking into account iOS Human Interface Guidelines, styles, and themes.
These symbols need to not only be easily recognizable for users but also stay consistent and not stand out with the overall design of iOS. I designed two symbols for the ‘Edit’ and the ‘Browse Icons’ menu options I created for this concept.
Visualizing the Flow
With the symbols now set in stone, I laid out the main wireflow that a user would take when attempting to customize an application while keeping iOS design styles and themes in mind to build a prototype I would use for the initial usability testing.
Putting it to the Test
I conducted moderated, remote usability testing sessions with 12 participants to observe the flow of the feature, its efficiency, intuitiveness, and measure user satisfaction and task completion.
Making some Changes
Checking out the results from my tests, I found that most of the accessibility and efficiency issues were stemming from the icon store. Originally having the icon store to only be accessed by going into editing an app was going against one of the main challenges I’m supposed to be tackling; with this feature having to be achieved with just a few taps and making it easy for users. I made one major improvement to my design in the final iterations for the high-fidelity prototype while keeping in mind iOS design themes, iOS users, my user interviews, surveys and feedback.
To make getting new icons more accessible to users, I decided to integrate it within the App Store due to it already being the main source for iOS users to download or install any sort of media onto their devices. From here, users can search for any icons they are interested in and check which apps are supported with each pack from the icon pack details. Paid icons can be tried out on a supported app before a user decides on purchasing it.
I made a few changes to ‘Browse Icons’ due to the store now being integrated within the App Store. A user tapping ‘Browse Icons’ will now be able to only see icons that they’ve installed through the App Store. These can of course be applied to the app the user is editing, but viewing the icon packs’ details allows users to have the option to apply the icon pack to every app they own that the pack supports.
A few things Learned
My initial take on the feature was a bit too convoluted and I severely missed the mark when it came to designing something easy and efficient. I found considering iOS design themes such as clarity, deference and depth as well as putting my iOS user needs and feedback assisted greatly when coming up with a proper solution to making the feature as simple and appropriate for iOS as possible.
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