The idea for this app was born out of necessity: as a native Spanish speaker that usually has to switch between languages, I have encounter difficulties while switching from my native language to a foreign one, usually English. This includes the fact that I use apps to improve the way I write since I still struggle with English, even though it is a language I've spoken for years. This results in sticking to the more accessible communication, which is usually in English since it doesn't have the accents and special characters that make Spanish a unique language.
I was enrolled in a few UX classes, and one assignment happened to be to design a smartphone app that improves written communication. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to develop this idea.
I think language is an integral part of a person's identity, and we should strive to preserve that beautiful part of our heritage. While developing the idea, I spoke with peers who speak other languages, and have to continually switch to English, and surprisingly, they experienced similar problems.
I started by exploring the 2 apps that were most often used by my users, Whatsapp, and Facebook. I struggled to find where to improve, as, in my opinion, they have fantastic usability. So my biggest issue was the keyboard.
My solution is a concentrated version of WhatsApp and FB Messenger. It doesn't have the "stories" feature. It has two separate tabs, one for individual chats and one for groups. On the groups' tab, the groups can be called, video-called and message, I'm using only icons to communicate these ideas.
The keyboard is the traditional QWERTY keyboard, as I read before, one doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, just improve it. The most notorious change is the space bar, which is double the standard size. There is also a separation between the space bar and the home button to avoid the issue of people accidentally pressing it, therefore returning to the home screen.
The keyboard is optmized for the Spanish language, and following best usability practices, I moved the main menu to the bottom so it is easier to find.
I use wireframes for three main reasons:
• Allows me to layout key pages
• Helps me understand the user journey in a visual manner
• It can be used for early usability tests
• Helps me understand the user journey in a visual manner
• It can be used for early usability tests
The keyboard was the one feature I wanted to redesign because, to this day, I haven't found a keyboard that is not messy to use. During the usability tests, I noticed people pressing the home button continuously. Still, they are so used to do that that sometimes it goes unnoticed until the annoyance is too big and can't be ignored. As I voiced my concerns to some peers in the past, they commented they also face the same problems, and it's prevalent with people who speak more than one language daily. This happens because keyboards are made for "everybody." But not everybody is the same, and not everybody faces the same issues. One of my purposes for doing this is to encourage people to use their native language confidently and use all the special characters that make each language unique.
I've also unified an emergent menu to the side of the texting area, as I think there is no need to have two buttons to call emojis. Also removed the enter key as it appears by default while writing a message in the texting area. This change allowed me to increase the size of the spacebar, and by separating the other functions from the bottom (where they are easily accessible), making mistakes will happen less.
