Maniac Designer: An Interactive UX Adventure: The Quest for Usability

The brief

You are the lead designer in charge of a major new app project. Your company is about to launch an innovative new product that will revolutionise how users track their daily habits. However, the road to success is fraught with challenges, and only through the application of sound UX principles can you achieve victory.

Will you guide your team through the perilous design journey and deliver an app that will be celebrated by users far and wide? Or will the project be lost in the maze of poor choices and bad design?

The choice is yours!

Start Your Adventure

You sit down at your desk, ready to tackle the new project. As the lead designer, you know the stakes are high. Your first step? Deciding how to begin the design process.

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Before designing, you gather your team to brainstorm. But instead of jumping to solutions, you focus on defining the problem first. After speaking with users, conducting surveys, and analysing current pain points, you’ve identified the real issue: users struggle with the overwhelming number of features in existing habit-tracking apps. They need something simpler, more intuitive.

You’ve clearly identified the problem.

Your next step is to decide how to approach the design itself.

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You opt for a data-driven approach. After conducting user interviews and analysing behavioral data from similar apps, you see clear patterns. Most users use only 30% of the features in existing apps and abandon the rest. You choose to focus your design on simplicity, displaying only the most essential features.

By aligning with real user behavior, you've reduced the guesswork. You now need to design the interface.

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You prioritise a clear, straightforward interface. Using familiar icons, short text labels, and minimal steps, you create a design that’s easy to understand and use. Ambiguity is eliminated. You’re confident that users won’t be confused or lost as they navigate your app.

Next, you decide on the app’s language and terminology.

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You understand that using your users' language is key. You avoid technical jargon and stick to simple, familiar terms. Instead of “task instantiation,” you use “add new habit.” The interface is clear, accessible, and resonates with your audience.

But then, you remember that not all users are the same. Some may have disabilities, or require special accommodations to fully use the app.

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You embrace inclusive design. You ensure the app works seamlessly with screen readers for visually impaired users. You provide high-contrast colour schemes, accessible fonts, and customisable text sizes. Every user, regardless of ability, can easily use the app.

At last, the app is ready for launch. But before it goes live, you take a step back. You remember something crucial: You are not the user.

You gather more user feedback, testing your assumptions. Users reveal small tweaks needed for improvement—things you hadn’t even considered.

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By listening to your users and recognising that you are not the user, you make the necessary adjustments. The app is now perfectly aligned with their needs, providing both functionality and ease of use. With inclusive design, minimal effort required from users, and clear communication, the app is ready to make waves.

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You rely on your instincts instead of data-driven decisions. You design an interface that feels right to you, full of animations and fancy features. But after user testing, it becomes clear that many of your design choices don’t align with how people actually use habit trackers. Most users are overwhelmed and frustrated by the complexity.

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