DesignFlows 2019 ─ Mobile UI Competition

This project has been developed for the DesignFlows 2019 Competition and was one of the 40 Finalists over 1200+ participants

?? ROLE

UI Designer

?? TEAM

This was an individual design competition

WHEN

January 2019 - 2 Days

? SKILLS

Sketch App

─  OVERVIEW

Designflows is a nationwide mobile UI design contest powered by Bending Spoons and dedicated to both Italian designers and foreigners who live or work in Italy. Participants had two days to design 3 mobile UIs based on a specifications brief sent by Bending Spoons. There were over 1200+ participants from all over the country  but just the first 40 got awarded with money prizes and invited to Milan for the final event. The selection was a two-phase process: in the first phase, people who work at Bending Spoons selected just 50 of the initial 1200 participating projects; then, an international jury composed by Michael Flarup, Fabio Basile, Michal Simkovic, Marco Coppeto and Claudio Guglieri selected the 40 finalists projects out of 50. 

─  THE BRIEF

Participants were asked to design a smartphone app for listening and learning about classical music. The app monetizes through subscriptions and has both free and paid features and content. Target costumers are mainly of 2 kind: 

• Newbie: they are curious about the topic but don't have a specific education or knowledge
  

• Aficionado: they are looking for high-quality and comprehensive library of classical music related content to enjoy on the go
  

The app has 4 different sections: discover, search, learn and profile. For the contest purposes, participants had to design just 3 screens: 

• Discover: this is where users land at app launch and where they are reccomended content. Here it is shown relevant content such as: audio tracks of classical music by various composers and played by different orchestras or individual performers, articles they can read or podcasts they can listen to learn more about the topic, popular playlists, etc
  

• Learn: this is the app's educational section. Here a user can go through lectures (these might be a mix of written and audio content); attempt to pass small, playful tests; and climb up a ladder of ranks and achievements on the topic of classical music
  

• Paywall: when users attempt to access to premium content, if they are not subscribed yet, they will be asked to subscribe. The subscription costs 4,99$ per month and has a one-week free trial
  

─  THE DESIGN PROCESS

To be honest, the first difficulty I had to deal with was being completely an outsider when we speak of classical music. So, as first thing I did a benchmarking not only of music streaming apps but also of those apps fully dedicated to classical music, in order to find out what they offer. After this, I started to write down every idea that came to my mind

So, I spent the whole first day to clearly understand the requisites, doing benchmarking and brainstorm ideas. In the second and last day instead, I was fully focused to sketch ideas and create mockups. I had to rush a little bit because I was late and the deadline was at the end of that day.

I know that the time management for this project was not so good, but I was not able to do it better because just 3 days before the contest I had an emergency surgery and I was in the middle of my recovery period: in fact I felt more tired than usual and I needed to rest very often. 

─  Discover

─  Learning

Keep track of your progress and rank while learning more about classical music through lectures, games and quizzes

─  Paywall

Subscribe to have full access to all the amazing content of the app such as podcasts, news, specials and a lot more

─  WHAT I'VE LEARNED

On May, during the Award Days, I met a lot of great designers from all over the country and we had the chance to share ideas and experiences. To be honest, at the beginning I felt a little bit unconfortable because all the others 40 finalists had more experience than me (both practical and educational) and, you know, the "impostor syndrome" is always behind the corner. Anyway, the easygoing atmosphere of the Awards Days helped me to feel more confortable and I took advantage of this experience to learn from people who are more experienced than me, observing the details of their works and trying to bear in mind their suggestions and advices

At the end of the day I was very happy and proud of having been part of this amazing experience. This event made me feel so excited for what I chose to do in my life and made me feel really committed to keep learning new tools and improving my skills