Designing a Companion App

Designing for a mobile app versus designing for a website is different than one might think. At first glance, you might want to jam a ton of information into an app, like what a website can hold, and call it a day, but that wouldn’t be taking advantage of some of the unique features of mobile design. Apps, through their nature, can be much more interactive than websites, allowing for notifications and providing other advantages and services a website cannot provide.

Behind the App

In my last post, I introduced the idea of information architecture (IA), explained its importance, and showed an example of a bad site, with my redesign. Piggybacking off of that last site, for my home township municipal site, I wanted to design an information architecture for a mobile app companion to that website.

Before just diving in and creating a mobile app for the website, I took some time to think about what would truly be helpful in a mobile app for the township. What can this app provide that the website can’t? How can I take advantage of the benefits of a mobile app? What would the community members want in an app? With all of these questions and more in mind, I began to ideate ways this app could be structured.

Pennington is a very connected community, with multiple Facebook groups, and tons of events, and consists of a very social community that live an active lifestyle. The town is always all-in for every event, everyone is out and about in warmer months, and the town is also very family-oriented. 

Pennington App IA

I wanted the app to revolve around these values of the community, and so I made this app structured specifically towards residents and community members to keep them updated, involved, and interacting with the community. To take advantage of the app setting, I added a chat feature to the app to allow the community to interact with each other in an easy, accessible way. There are so many different Facebook groups the town has and I want this app to serve as a replacement for that, allowing for different community chats, as well as individual private chats. On the app, I included some of the key FB groups for different chat sections that people can go to for those specific needs. Since there is this chat feature, I thought it would also be necessary to have a profile page where they can include their name, picture, and any other information they would like to share about themselves. I also included an events page, news page, and FAQ page in the navigation. The events and news pages both help to keep people informed about the happenings of the community and foster more connectedness and engagement with both the app and the town itself. The FAQ & Links page helps provide quick and handy information that residents might need to know right away, without wanting to browse the website.

Overall, the app provides basic, but important information that is from the site, but also has a purpose of its own, to grow the already existing connected and engaging atmosphere of the town and give everyone a place to learn and chat together. 

Sources:

Babich, Nick. “Information Architecture Guide for UX Architects & Designers: Adobe XD Ideas.” Ideas, 24 Nov. 2020, https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/information-architecture/information-ux-architect/.

“Mobile App vs. Mobile Website UX Comparison.” Intellectsoft Blog, 3 June 2021, https://www.intellectsoft.net/blog/mobile-app-vs-mobile-website/.