Case Study
The Overview
This or That is an app where you list items that you want to sort to within the same list. It will compare two items at a time from the list based on which of the two you click/like. In the end, you will be given your top # list based on what you clicked.
The Context and Challenge
This project was first started in the Fall of 2018 for my IDM 361 - Interactive App Design I. The goal with this project is to challenge myself with an app with (to me) complex algorithms using Javascript (a language I am familiar with) and, for the remake, Swift (which I started learning during IDM 362 - Interactive App Design II). The reason I wanted to remake this project for the next class is because when I learn a new language, I like to make something familiar to me and see the differences in the languages. In this case, I was learning Swift with Javascript as something of a reference to point to.
The inspiration behind this app relates back to what is called “This or That” questions. These questions gives the person a choice between two items and asks what the person prefers. My idea is an extension of that, where the person has a list of choices to make and has to make a decision by ranking them when presented with two choices and going on to the next two.
The Process and Insight
The main focus of the project for me was the algorithm part of the app since that is the bulk of the app. For the design, I decided to go for a simple and fun style to make the app more appealing.
Research
Target Audience
The target audience for this app is for those who enjoy making lists and ranking them.
Wireframes/Javascript Version
Code/Dev
While the first iteration of the project is in Javascript, for the remake and for the purpose of IDM 362 - Interactive App Design II, I was using Swift 4 and Xcode 10 to create this app. The transistation of Javascript and Swift isn’t too difficult. Swift and Xcode has different ways to handle displaying data to the interface and how data storage works in this language/tool.
The Solution
Based on the initial concept of the project, I was able to create an app where the user can enter a list of items of their choice and, after finalizing the list, compare the items on the list in order to rank of them from most liked to least liked with a minimum of 3 items per list.
The Results
Overall this project was a great way to learn a new language with something I has previously done. With many hours of debugging and looking up stuff on the Internet, I was able to reproduce the app in Swift and I feel very proud of the work I have done.