Not long ago I saw this Sort My Stuff universal app in the Windows Store and I thought that the idea was great, so I downloaded it.

My first reaction was that the design of the app was old fashioned and too plain. Hey, the app costs 1,99 € so you would expect it to be nicer to the eye 🙂

Still the purpose of the app was great. I played with the app a bit longer to get the real hang of it.

The above images are from the original release of the app before the re-design.

Then I read in the community that the app developer Paolo Ferrazza was seeking feedback to make the app even better. So I decided to contribute my thoughts about the design and gave an example of how the design could be.

I started the re-design process with the PC version of the app. What disturbed me that the search and the “room” location on the top of the app took so much space. So something had to be done to the user experience as well. I added the left navigation and moved the search to the top bar.

Base color of the app was blue and I used it as a starting point, then created the darker shades of blue to give more structure as a whole.

I didn’t like the square boxes in the original design, not because they were boxes, but because the icon inside the box was too big and the blue borders were somehow too disturbing – in my mind anyway. So I changed them to sphere. It gave the app a lighter feeling.

Above images are my original designs.

What I did like in the original app was that it was easy to add the items into the “box”. You had a line to enter your text and then just press “Enter” and there it was. So, no annoying dialog boxes. Great idea.

I wanted to move the “Add the location” to the new left menu to give more space for the “boxes”.

In the end I made 8 screenshots (views) of the app in a PowerPoint file of my design explaining what was behind them and sent them to Paolo.

The more I look at the pptx the more I like it 😊
Paolo Ferrazza

Today the newly re-designed app was published in the Windows Store after a long weekend when Paolo implemented the design.

It did not come out 1:1 and it was not supposed to be. He did a good job in implementing the concept and the design. The app can use the accent color of the users PC or mobile and that is ok.

Above image from the updated and live Sort My Stuff app for PC.

Below image from the updated and live Sort My Stuff app for mobile.

 

But I am very happy with the outcome. It is now more appealing to the user and some UX improvements make the app easier to use. For me it was also a pleasure to help Paolo, what a nice guy, even if we know each other only by exchanging few emails.

Read more here and you can download the Sort My Stuff universal app here.