Decidr Tiger

Decidr Tiger is a playful iOS app that encourages users to embrace adventure by making random decisions based on the choices they provide.

Can't decide? Let Dedicr Tiger choose for you.

Visit the App Store

Overview

I tamed up with iOS developer Dennis Parussini to make Decidr Tiger! We chose a random decision-making application because Dennis had developed similar functionality for a previous project.

Since the app store is flooded with similar apps, we faced two main challenges:

Determining what would set us apart from the competition.
Defining project scope appropriately as a small 2-player team.

Highlights

Role: UX/UI Design

Time: 4 months
Tools: Procreate, Sketch, XCode, Apple SwiftUI
Deliverables: Competitor analysis, wireframes, prototype, user testing, branding, final app designs
Coffee: 28 cups ☕️

Kedar and Dennis fighting with lightsabers in an 8-bit style

Friends forever

That’s me and Dennis! We built Decidr Together remotely between Wisconsin and Germany. Friends who build stuff together stay together.

Research

To kickstart the design process, I did some market research by checking out 7 seven top-rated and highly downloaded Apple and Android apps similar to Decidr Tiger. The goal was to analyze their strengths and weaknesses, helping us figure out what features and design elements would make Decidr Tiger stand out. Here’s what I discovered:

Too many ads and wheel spinners

Many decision-making apps use a wheel spinner a fun gaming element, but it's often hard to read options, especially on phones with long descriptions or many choices. The colorful designs can feel gimmicky, like I’m at carnival but not in a good way. Lots of annoying pop-up ads disrupt actions and lead to accidental clicks due to close placement.

4 different bright colored wheel spinners in mobile apps

Too hard to use

Despite liking minimal design, I found it hard to create a list in most of these apps. Core buttons are tough to reach on mobile, and it took about 3 minutes to figure out how to make a new list in one app (mostly through trial and error). Adding and deleting choices varies in each app, making it a hassle to relearn these actions each time. It would be better if the apps used familiar design patterns for creating and maintaining lists, like Apple Notes or Google Keep.

4 different list creation features in mobile apps

Poor visual design and accessibility

I couldn't find a decision-making app with modern design, and many had color contrast issues. For seeing random results, the design should feel celebratory and surprising. Apps with wheel spinners did this well with animations and sound, making me smile seeing stars explode on the screen. Also, none of the apps had a cohesive brand logo, which seemed like a missed opportunity.

4 different result screens after the app makes a random decision for the user

Opportunity areas

Analyzing competitor apps helped us pinpoint focus areas and features to make sure Decidr Tiger would stand out in the app store.

Avoid wheel spinners
Use common UI patterns for list creation.
Allow users to save lists for later if they reuse them; this was a helpful feature I found.
Offer donation option instead of annoying ads.
Ensure ergonomically placed core action buttons.
Embrace modern design principles with a cheerful color scheme.

Prototypes

The app's main features are simple: you can make a list, choose something randomly for it from it, and save your list for later. These are standard design patterns in many apps, so I didn't dwell on them as much. Instead, I focused on the overall user journey and looked into letting users shake their phone to make a random decision for some extra fun.

User flow #1

User flow one is three steps and includes a randomizer button in the top navigate

User flow #3

User flow two is 4 steps and prompts the user to shake the phone to select a random choice

User testing

User flow 3 is 4 steps, prompts the user to shake their phone to make a random choice, and includes a button to save the list for later.

User flow #2

I quickly tested the paper prototypes with 3 users to gauge which flow would work best for version one of the app. People thought user flows #1 and #2 were more intuitive to understand.

Each user thought the shake gesture was “cool,” but would they use it? We were eager to get more feedback when the app could be tested on a real device.

Medium fidelity prototype

After gathering user feedback, I developed a medium-fidelity prototype to establish the user journey and flow, enabling Dennis to begin building features and UI components while I focused on branding and high-fidelity designs.

Eleven mobile app screens connected by arrows to demonstrate how a user navigates the interface

Logo sketches

I wanted to design a fun mascot that appeals to all age groups and serves as the app’s brand ambassador.

6 different sketches of mascots in a kawaii style with an asterisk next to the cat wearing a tiger costume

Final logo

A tiger in a cat suit was too irresistible. It was just the right about of kawaii for me.

Final designs

I chose a two-color palette: purple as the main color and orange as the accent. These colors create contrast and evoke energy, fitting our app's vibe. Research suggests that seeing smiles makes people smile, so each tiger sports a happy face!

Color palette and more tigers

High contrast color palette of purple and orange and 4 different versions of the Decidr Tiger mascot in different funny poses

High-fidelity screens

While Dennis focused on building the app's essential features, I combined all the design elements to craft the final high-quality screens. It's my favorite part of the process, seeing research, development, and design come together to breathe life into the project.

6 major screens of the app, including the home screen, adding options, and the end results screen.

Add options you want Decidr Tiger to choose from and press "Continue" to see what gets selected

Beta testing

We launched a beta version of Decidr Tiger and received feedback from around 28 users. This helped us identify and fix bugs, and make design enhancements before the official release. Here are some of the major changes we made:

Added quick actions

Users wanted quicker access to their frequently used lists, so we added swipe gestures for saving, removing, or renaming items, and quick randomization. We also included the ability to quick-decide by long-pressing the app icon from their home screen.

Swipe left to quick decide or rename a list item

Long-press on the app icon from the home screen to view quick actions

Step one is to add multiple options to choose from

Removed the “Shake to decide” feature

The App Store rejected our initial release due to concerns about device damage from shake gestures. In the end it was okay, because it shortened the decision-making process for users; it went from three steps to two. We'll reconsider implementing the shake gesture in the future.