When someone uses an app the first thing they notice is how it looks. Arguably, in order to gain users the look and feel of a software product is the most important, at least for something like a social media app.
Designing the UI (User interface) of BOLT seemed easy at first, well it has to, it's a minimalistic app. No. It turns out accomplishing a clean and sleek design is way harder as more and more features need to be built. Then came the realization that my design wasn't fully what it could be, it wasn't a full representation of BOLT's goal.
Soul searching might be a bit of a stretch, but the next few weeks were very close to that. I had to think deep and hard about what BOLT is, why BOLT exists. The design is the first thing that tells our users what the app is meant for and how to experience the app. Eventually, after iterating through exactly 51 designs, I settled on what it is today.
I might be slightly biased, but I do believe that the current BOLT design does a decent job at encouraging spontaneous posting through it's informal look and feel. At least that is all I can hope.
Overall, sometimes the best way to accomplish your goal is to take a step back and think why did you start? What are you trying to exactly do?
August,
2023