PROJECT OVERVIEW
CLIENT
Applixya
MY ROLE
Design Lead, via Plexable
SCOPE
Idea scope, use cases, card sorting, user flows, wireframes, brand and the full iPhone and iPad interface.
VALIDATION
Applixya signed off the wireframe map in November 2014, and the app shipped on iPhone and iPad.
TIMELINE
September 2014 to January 2015
TEAM
Delivered through Plexable with the Applixya team.
The context
Applixya sold signing products to ministries and large companies, where security was assumed and setup was somebody's job. SignBox had to carry that same security to anyone holding a phone.
Work began from an idea scope agreed with Applixya in September 2014, in Amman, against a slogan of theirs from that year: Secured. Simple. Easy.
My responsibility
From the first use case to the last iPad layout, I made the design calls: what a signature is allowed to do, where a password gets asked for, and how little of that a person has to understand.
The order mattered more than any single screen. I drew the logo, the icon set and the full interface on top of a wireframe map that was already settled.
Design direction was mine to hold, but the material under it was not invented alone.
The hard part afterwards was keeping three layers of password from turning signing into paperwork.
CONSTRAINTS & TRADE-OFFS
Security written for ministries does not shrink politely. Each signature needed its own password, each file could carry two more, and the app itself wanted a passcode.
On a phone screen that is a lot of fields between a person and a signed PDF.
● RESEARCH & CONTEXT
What People Need From a Signing App
We wrote the use cases with Applixya and sorted them on cards into user goals and functions. Three worries shaped most of it: a lost password, who can edit the signed copy, and what a person meets on first launch.
● PRODUCT DECISIONS
Make Secure Signing Simple
Keeping the signature off any server settled most of the rest. There is nothing to ask a back end for, nothing to sync, and nothing to restore once a signature password is gone.
Signing had to stay one unbroken run from document to placed mark, with the password questions pushed to the moment they actually matter.
● PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE
Three Layers of Lock
The app splits into three layers of lock, and the screens follow that split. A passcode opens the app. A stored signature will not come out without the owner's fingerprint. Each document carries its own open password, plus permissions for editing, copying and printing.
A modification password sits above all of it and flattens the signed PDF.
● PROCESS & EVIDENCE
Most of what is on paper is states rather than screens. Weak and strong passwords, a free trial, a restored purchase, and a check before a mark goes on every page or comes back off.
Each state was specified next to the screen it belongs to, where a build team would meet it.
OUTCOMES
A Complete Design for iPhone and iPad
Applixya received the brand, the user flows, the wireframe specifications and every screen for iPhone and for iPad in both orientations.
The iPhone set came first, the iPad set after it.
50
iPhone screens
From the splash and walkthrough to signing, passwords and settings.
3
Layouts
iPhone, plus iPad in portrait and in landscape.
7
Walkthrough screens
Shown once, on a person's first visit.
WHAT I’D IMPROVE
What I Would Change
Design the warning that comes before the three-try limit, not just the screen after it.
Push more of the walkthrough into the interface, so fewer screens have to teach it.
WHAT I LEARNED
What It Taught Me
Security built for ministries does not scale down by removing fields; it scales down by deciding when to ask.
Writing use cases with the client, then sorting them on cards, settles arguments about structure before a screen is drawn.
More work
HIRING A HEAD OF PRODUCT DESIGN?