Moon Child
Tools: Sketch, Zeplin, Principal, Invision, Sublime TextWho doesn’t love the moon? In 2019 I set out to make a simple app that captured and displayed moon data as well as notifying you when there is a full moon.
Who doesn’t love the moon? In 2019 I set out to make a simple app that captured and displayed moon data as well as notifying you when there is a full moon.
This was my own personal project that I wanted to have a lot of fun with. I surveyed reddit's "moon" community, those with interest in the moon, it's phases, and mainly photography of the moon. I began finding inspiration for the visual style on Dribbble and landed on a dark purple as the central brand color. In addition to the UI/UX I would design about 90% of the icons used in the app including all of the moon phases. I found a relatively inexpensive weather API that my developer would plug into in order to get accurate lunar data.
The problem I identified before beginning this project was that there seemed to be many moon data apps that either did too much or not enough. I saw this as a direct opportunity to create a visually appealing and simple app, that most importantly supplied users with the data they wanted.
I surveyed to find out what people wanted in a moon data app, i.e. what data was most important to them? I asked them to rank this data in terms of importance. I also asked how much they would be willing to pay for said app.
Users were pretty clear in what they wanted. A simple app that shows current moon phase, rise & set times, when the next full moon is, moon age and illumination. A calendar of moon cycles seemed to be a common request so users could visualize how the moon phases progressed over time. One unique request was the ability to receive a push notification when there is a full moon.
The problem was defined, the user feedback was clear, and now it was time to design. I iterated and then iterated some more. Over the course of about a week I used my existing iOS knowledge to keep the app simple and light but also within Apple's suggested UI requirements.
I played with some basic layouts. I wanted users to not have to scroll or drill down for the most basic info. I also played around with the idea of allowing users to navigate between two screens, a "main" screen and a "calendar" screen. While I don't think this is a bad idea I wanted the first version to be as basic and simple as possible. I felt I was making too much of an assumption that all users would want a calendar screen and more validation was needed. I considered adding moon related quotes to the main screen but opted against it to save space. Instead, I used these same quotes in the push notifications sent out for each full moon. I included enough quotes that most users would not see the same one within two calendar years.
Finishing this app was very rewarding. I learned even more about the iOS ecosystem by adding push notifications. The feedback around the app from the originally surveyed community has been positive and the app gets downloads every week.
