Designing new interface
It's been some time since I sat down and desinged a new interface for the LibroBox. That's why this past week I decided to give it another try and it was fun. Mainly because I found a new app that helps me build some quick protypes. The app is called POP and is available for iOS, Android, and via a web interface.
With POP I was able to draw out on paper what I wanted the new interface to look like. Once I was satisfied with my mockup I simply took pictures of each mockup. With POP I was able to "act" out the functionality of each link, page, and even some individual elements.
This is the result. (Hint: It's interactive!! So go ahead and click on elements on the mockup!)
As you can see the interface is for mobile at the moment. It is also very simple. Before I started creating a mockup I thought about what I wanted to see and what would be best for users. I focused on the core purpose of projects like Librobox (Piratebox, LibraryBox) and determined the content was the most important component. It's what users ultimately end up needing, using, and sharing.
With this design I wanted the content to be front and center. I also wanted it to be something obvious for new users. There are plenty of new "ideas" on how to serve the content to users. The two main revision I feel I made were the video and chat pages. The video page has a built/pop in player. The chat page has a new interface that looks more like messaging on a phone that a Chatroom.
I also built another mockup extending the idea of the built/pop video player for the audio page.
In the end I am really happy with this new interfaces. I will need to do some research to understand how to implement some of these newer functions. I like the second mockup and may build out this one. But I still have to make some refinements to the design/mockup and then I'll start coding.
