After coming up with my idea, it was time to sketch out how the app would look. As it is a smartwatch, I thought it would be best to ensure that I displayed certain pieces of information such as ‘where is the pain’ on one screen as i didn’t want the screen to be overwhelming for the person that would be using the app. I found that sketching beforehand helped my design process greatly as I was able to think of more ideas as sketching is really quick, rather than drawing out shapes on a computer.
After I was content with my sketches, I moved on to make wireframes on Figma. As i had sketched out some potential wireframes, this process was fairly simple. I was able to figure out what designs I created that didn’t suit and had to think of other ways to display the information.
An example of this would be the logging section of the app. Originally, I displayed the information in dots which represented the days, in a line. I felt this didn’t look right and the dots were too close together so I had to come up with other ways to display them. Then, I thought about presenting the dots in a circular shape. I felt this worked way better than the line as it looked stronger visually and it was spaced out better which would result in a better user experience.
Initially, I thought I would use a darker colour scheme as I thought it would be good for people if they had a migraine, as bright colours could make the pain worse. I decided to research if there were any specific colours that could help ease migraines. I found this article from Harvard Medical School and discovered that exposure to green light helps migraines. I found this really interesting, I assumed that certain shades of blue would ease migraines as blue is usually known as a calming colour.
“At high intensity of light—as in a well-lit office—nearly 80 percent of patients reported intensification of headache with exposure to all colors but green. Unexpectedly, the researchers found that green light even reduced pain by about 20 percent.”
The next step was to find the right colour palette. I went onto Adobe Colour to see if I could find any suitable colour schemes.
These were the two colour palettes I took from Adobe Colour. I decided to go with option 2 as I felt the cooler tones would be suitable for people with migraines, it also felt like the right fit visually.