iOS app design, Figma, SwiftUI, prototype
Counting Eye: An app that leverages peripheral vision
Counting Eye is an iOS app that lets you count things without looking away.
![](/assets/ce-hero.jpg)
Project summary
Work - What I did
Researched a recurring task with the view of improving the experience. Analyzed my findings and identified what I believed the new solution should accomplish. Designed and developed the solution.
Output - What I delivered
- An outline that captures the background, research, analysis, and a brief story of the customer's situation, anxieties, and what they hope to achieve
- A prototype (link goes to Vimeo demo video)
- An iOS app (no longer available in the App Store)
Outcome - What that achieved
Outline replaces many documents and guides thinking. Several pain points are removed or smoothed over. More accurate and consistent counting data.
Impact - What changed
Improved forecasting for meeting attendance. Recording of lesser known attendees (visitors, mothers with small children, etc.)
Project details
My role: I was the sole person working on this app.
Methods and Skills: UI Design, UX and Interaction Design, research, Figma, Xcode
Table of contents
- Situation & Problem
- Observing Behavior & Interviewing
- Desired Outcome
- Solution
- Ideation & Sketching
- Visual & Interaction Design
- Conclusion
Situation & Problem
I'm tasked with counting and recording people. I also share those numbers with others via text message.
Moving targets are hard to count and interruptions can force a re-count. Existing tools require a free moment for the eyes, brain, and fingers.
Observing Behavior & Interviewing
I followed other count takers around and observed their behavior. Here's what the counting process looked like:
![](/assets/existing-process.jpg)
I interviewed count takers regarding their behavior and the products they currently use and have used in the past.
![](/assets/counter-forces.jpg)
Desired Outcome
Defining success with a short story:
"When it's my turn to report the number of kids and workers on the playground and I’m worried I’ll get distracted and forget the numbers before I record them, I want to count and record at the same time, so that I can move on to other tasks."
Solution
Create a counter app that allows me to count without looking away.
Ideation & Sketching
Braindump & Cluster
I wrote down everything that I believed the app needed to be and accomplish. This became a list of items that I grouped into clusters.
![](/assets/list-and-cluster.jpg)
UI Flows
Sketched out a rough schematic of how the customer interacts with the system. It also lets me refine the clusters and discover new clusters.
![](/assets/refine-with-flows.jpg)
Sketching Screens
Initial sketches using typical pattern found in similar apps - 2 buttons for increasing and decreasing the count, a title for the count, and the current count.
![](/assets/count-screen-sketching.jpg)
![](/assets/boring-ui.jpg)
Choosing a pattern
This UI pattern satisfies the "Counting" cluster identified during the ‘Brain dump & cluster’ phase.
![](/assets/final-ui.jpg)
Visual & Interaction Design
Counting, viewing counts & adjusting settings
Tap to increment. Swipe down to decrement. The screen flashes with each tap or swipe. I created a prototype to test how this interaction felt.
The flashing can be turned on/off in the settings.
![](/assets/ce-count-settings.jpg)
Sharing counts
Sharing counts creates a pre-formatted text message that includes the count title and value.
![](/assets/ce-sharing.jpg)
Grouping and sharing counts
Counts can also be grouped. Changing one count will change the group's total count.
![](/assets/ce-grouping.jpg)
Conclusion
I set out to create a solution that satisfied this story:
"When it's my turn to report the number of kids and workers on the playground and I’m worried I’ll get distracted and forget the numbers before I record them, I want to count and record at the same time, so that I can move on to other tasks."
This app gave me a new way to make progress on a recurring life situation. Prior to using the new solution, I had assumed that counting and recording were necessarily 2 separate steps, i.e. “that’s just the way it is”.