1. Project Background

This project is part of year two of the PgDip in User Experience Design, in the Institute of Art, Design, and Technology in Dun Laoghaire. The project context is:

The project requires students, working individually, to design a high-fidelity interactive prototype to address a need of their choosing. Each student should also test their prototype design to evaluate it in terms of user experience and usability. The design process should be iterative and evidence of the evolution of the design should be provided.

The guidelines allowed students to ‘scratch their own itch’, that is to work on a project that personally appeals to them, or to redesign an existing app. Students were to be assessed on adherence to best practices, accessibility, and application of an appropriate design language.

I chose to ‘scratch an itch’ – the project was to be an app which would allow users – with expertise or interest in any field – to record guided tours of that subject. An example of its use might be allowing a user who was an amateur historian, with a special interest in Ireland’s 1916 Rising, to record a multimedia walking tour of Dublin’s 1916 Rising locations, on a mobile device, and share that tour with other app users who are also interested in the topic.