Then came the Android Challenge. Through October, each one of us was responsible for fleshing out and visualising a concept for an Android app. The initial idea could come from anywhere. Well, I had this one buzzing in my head for some time, so no second thoughts, it had to be it.

I started by structuring the idea the simplest version in text, outlining the overall concept, the features and the possible usage scenarios. After showing that to a few people and hearing their feedback, I moved on to the first sketches.

As an iPhone user, I had to spend a few days familiarising myself with the Android interface. At this point, I realised it'd be useful for everybody in the team to have a nice standard Android sketch sheet, so I made one. Using a Motorola Droid illustration in actual size on an A3 sized paper, everybody could sketch with more freedom.

You can download the sketch sheet. Then, it was all about pencil and paper.

After doing countless sketches on paper, trying to exhaust all the possible interactions, I was finally satisfied with the wireframes enough to proceed to the visual design. I coupled Adobe Illustrator and Keynote for this phase. I used Illustrator for the UI design and Keynote for mounting and visualising the mockups in sequence. There was not much of a method at this point. All I knew is that it had to be dark and simple, so the focus and visual energy could be always kept on the images.

After several hours overnight, on a single sprint solely for the visual design, I was able to meet the deadline for the next morning.

I really enjoyed developing Visual Feeder. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear them. I can't wait to have Visual Feeder for real!