WishLister - Conceiving, Designing and Developing an iPhone Application

Abstract

The iOS platform, today, has a market share of 28% for smartphones. Apple's App Store has, since it launched, had over seven billion downloads. The touch screen paradigm introduced by Apple with the initial launch of the iPhone in 2007, to many revived the market of touch screen interfaces. Needless to say, the iOS platform provides exciting development possibilities in the area of interaction design. This master thesis in the Interaction Design Programme at Chalmers University of Technology aims to combine methods and knowledge gathered from Chalmers with the work flow and process used at inUse AB, primarily the use of effect managing, which is a method developed by inUse for ensuring a project achieves its desired effect. The goal of the thesis was that of producing a commercial app for Apple's iOS platform and to release it on Apple's App Store. Through the use of iterative development methods, an app was conceived, designed and developed throughout a seven month period. User tests were conducted throughout this process, to ensure a high usability standard for the developed app. The app, WishLister, aims to simplify the process of creating and sharing wish lists with friends and family, as well as easing the purchasing of gifts for friends and family. Some of the functionality of WishLister still remains to be implemented and this will be done outside the scope of this master thesis. The release of the app is set at sometime during late winter, early spring of 2011. inUse AB is the largest consulting company in the field of usability and strategic design in Scandinavia. This master thesis was conducted at inUseʼs Gothenburg office.