thesising – vampire blood tracker app part one
it should come as no surprise that i am thinking about making a vampire game for my thesis. right now, i'm working on designing some screens for an app that would exist in the fiction of the game world. (or, my other idea, the app is a real all that you experience the narrative through the "conversations" and interactions.)
i've been posting occasional updates on my original tracker apps, but i really started doing design and iteration this past weekend. the result is the eight screens below. i've also included the thumb reach map (which i used to place elements within – or out of – reach) and a style guide (for documenting the colors, font choices, and shape/icon language of the app in order to give the screens a cohesive feel).
this app is supposed to feel like a blend of UberEats, a period tracker, Tinder, a calorie tracker, and a standard messaging app. i wanted each screen to have one purpose in order to make the app easy to read and navigate. the potential users of this app are vampires that are possibly hundreds of years old and an accessible design is essential (both to my own work and to this piece's fiction).
there are a few errors that i made in these. the Blood Tracker screen says 79% and 435 mL but it should say 71% and 391 mL. the dial also needs to be rotated so that it fills up clockwise from the 12 o' clock position. the Find Familiar screen is a map of Santa Cruz and the river is positioned above the streets (though there is a question as to whether or not vampires can cross moving water). additionally there is a small B-shaped lake at the top of the map that i filled with the wrong color. on the Messages screen, the keyboard letters need to be a little bit smaller so that they fit on the keys better. i believe that the top area on the Order Blood screen is slightly lower than the rest of the top areas.
this is still a work in progress but i wanted to post an update on my work since i've made a fair amount of progress and that's worth presenting!
now to explain a little bit about the world this app lives in. this app is for vampires and there is a companion app for humans offering blood or looking to be turned. vampires can communicate with other vampires and humans via instant messages, but this is not a social network where you post updates. its more akin to a food delivery app (which brings in some snark or humor, because this app parodies popular, omnipresent apps in out Pandemic Lives™). at the top of the home screen is the sunrise reminder for the vampire users and it would send alerts as sunrise gets closer.
i placed the most important functions (for the developer) within the Green area on my Thumb Reach Map and hid non-interactive features and also the Profile button (where one could change their subscription or cancel their account) in the Red areas and borders.
