using 3d-printing technology to build your home on mars
MOBILE APP DESIGN
2022
As the first mobile app I’ve designed, first of all, I must say that I’m very happy with the final outcome👏👏👏This is an interdisciplinary practice that I challenged myself — trying to achieve it from both the Architecture and UX/UI perspectives.
Although this two-week journey was intense and I got stuck many times, in the end, I managed to unblock them. The biggest challenge for this project was to find the user’s motivation and make sense of the storyline.
This project taught me how to ground a broad topic into a clear design path, and how to ask the right questions to find the user’s motivation.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Coming from an architectural designer’s background, I have always dreamed of designing houses in outer space. On this futuristic project of mobile app design, finally, I got the chance to build something on Mars. Although it sounded exciting at first, the developing process was just like the surface of Mars, full of bumps!
VALUE PROPOSITION
The app can help the new Martians to build a house in harsh conditions on Mars. By leveraging 3D-printing technology, users can customize their own homes before their arrival on Mars.
To validate the value proposition, I followed the six steps (shown right). However, due to the wrong questions that I asked while conducting the user interview, the validation failed because none of the interviewees were interested in moving to Mars.
This failure made me realize how important it is to understand user motivation.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Learning from the failure, I realized the problem came from the undefined backstory. Therefore, I started with online research, aiming to find more clues to help me build up the story.
While browsing Mars-related news, I found the so-called "The Mars One Mission". Excitingly, there are more than 165,000 applications willing to move to Mars. Finally, I found the right user who is motivated!
THE BACKSTORY OF THE APP
It’s been three years since “The Mars One mission” sent the first colonists to Mars. The mission was a huge success. The first colonists, or the Martians as they should be called now, found sufficient resources on Mars and built three hoods called: Rith, Nuva, and Crossis. As the three hoods are developing rapidly, more human support is needed.
Therefore, “The Mars Two Mission” was recently launched with the aim of attracting 10,000 talented researchers and space enthusiasts from various fields. Those chosen will receive 50 funding tokens to use to build their own house on Mars. The app is designed to help them quickly build a home before their arrival on Mars.
VISUAL SYSTEM
Based on brand attributes, I prepared two moodboards. Option A won the test with 54.5% of the votes, so I made the style tile accordingly.
FINAL DESIGN
KEY MOMENT 1: ONBOARDING
A scrolling Mars slowly appears on the screen, introducing you to the app's two main features. You will then be guided through a new user registration page.
KEY MOMENT 2: CHOOSE A PLOT
After clicking the “detail” button on the hood Crosis, the city map slowly unfolded. Vertical and horizontal streets cut the land into plots. Different colors indicate different functions of the land.
Based on the index, you choose a plot and read the info card.
KEY MOMENT 3: TRACK THE PROGRESS
Once loaded, the app generated a 3D model with rotation capabilities. It gives you a panoramic view of the house from every angle. After some minor adjustments, you confirm the final version and send the model for printing. The screen then takes you to the tracking dashboard where all relevant 3D printing data can be found.
Thanks for reading this far!
If you want to see the complete case study with more details, please check my Medium.
ROLE
Research & Design
Individual Project
TIMELINE
Two Weeks
TOOLS
Figma
Pen & Paper
Rhino
Grasshopper
Premiere