As Designer
Design to kill time
A multi-screen design exercise for a sci-fi time travel mobile app.
Process
The functional requirements are straightforward. I started with listing out keywords and questions to prepare for the research of branding, look and feel, and information organization, and then proceeded with mood board development.
Based on the research, I then decided to deviate from the Sci-Fi and techie look and feel. Instead, I wanted the app to be rather modern, strong-looking, minimalist, simple, and bold in both color and typography.
I’d like to deviate from Sci-Fi theme for this Sci-fi app.
Since the app was designed for travelers, date and time information’s clearness was crucial; especially for time traveling. Therefore I decided to use words only and support it by graphics, instead of representing the information solely using graphics. In addition, traveling through time could be extremely confusing, so I added an extra section to record the departure and the arrival dates and times.
Circle was heavily used in design for clocks. To be different, I avoided using it as main graphical element on information. However, I kept it as a pop of shape as it highlighted the 「continuous」 quality of time.
As for color, I kept NASA’s blue, but darkened it to make the information stand out more. Looking for high contrast colors from color wheel, I decided to use 「coral」 as it made a lovely addition to the tranquil blue.
The following sketches show the low-fidelity mock-up and some ideas I got as I went through the sketching process.
