Testing Debrief Pairs

Pair up with someone you haven't worked with recently.

Share your single most surprising finding from D5 usability testing.

Write down the top 3 changes you'll make to your primary platform.

Prayer

Takumi, will you pray for us today?

Unit D: Neue App

Your app has to live somewhere else — and that changes everything.

Today

Testing Debrief
Designing Across Platforms
D6 Assignment
Work Session — Second Platform Design

By the end of today...

Platform Thinking

You'll understand how screen size, input method, and context of use reshape an interface

Translation Decisions

You'll be able to decide which screens carry, simplify, expand, or get removed for a new platform

Second Platform

You'll have a user flow and sketches for your app on a second device

Why this matters

Every platform has different strengths, constraints, and user expectations.

A watch rewards glanceable info. A tablet rewards rich layouts. A desktop rewards density and keyboard shortcuts. Adapting your app isn't resizing — it's rethinking what the platform is good at and redesigning around that.

Designing Across Platforms

What changes, what stays, and how to decide

Three dimensions that change

Screen Real Estate

Tiny → Moderate → Expansive → Wide

Input Modality

Touch → Crown → Keyboard + mouse → Voice + gaze

Context of Use

Where, when, and how long people use each device

Watch
Phone
Tablet
Desktop

What stays the same

Same forming, different rendering.

What's the #1 screen on each platform?

Think about a fitness tracking app.

2,847
1.2mi
Phone Dashboard + history
142 BPM
Watch Live workout
Tablet Weekly trends + analytics
Desktop Progress, data export, planning

The same app, four completely different primary screens.

Breaking conventions costs trust.

Users bring expectations from every other app on that platform. Navigation patterns, information density, and interaction models all differ.

Platform cheat sheet

Watch

Glanceable. 1 action per screen. Sessions < 15 sec. Digital Crown for scrolling.

Tablet

More room ≠ bigger phone. Split views, sidebars, popovers. Multi-column. Pencil input.

Desktop

Keyboard shortcuts, hover states, right-click. Dense info display. Persistent navigation.

Car

Minimal interaction. Voice-first. Large touch targets. No reading while driving.

What's one convention on your chosen platform that your phone app doesn't have?

The translation framework

  1. Carry — Core screens that work on both platforms (with layout changes)
  2. Simplify — Screens that need to be stripped down for the new platform
  3. Expand — Screens that benefit from more space or new input methods
  4. Remove — Screens that don't make sense on the new platform
  5. Add — New screens that leverage the platform's unique strengths

Example: Budgeting app → Watch

$1,247 left
$82
$45
$31
Phone
remaining today $47
Food
Watch

Carry & Simplify

Transaction logging → amount + category only. Dashboard → today's spending total.

Remove & Add

Remove: reports, charts, categories. Add: complication with remaining daily budget.

Run through your app's screens — which category does each fall into?

D6: Second Platform Flow + Sketches

Due Wednesday, Mar 18 @ 5:15pm

  1. Choose your second platform (watch, tablet, desktop, Vision Pro, car, etc.)
  2. Create a user flow showing which screens carry, simplify, expand, or get removed
  3. Sketch key screens at the platform's actual scale
  4. Write a brief rationale: what changed and why

You'll build high-fidelity screens for this platform on Day 23.

Next up

Work Session (70 min) — Design your second platform

First 10 min: Choose your platform  ·  Next 20 min: User flow  ·  Next 30 min: Sketch screens  ·  Final 10 min: Write rationale

Which platform? — Consider: what would your target user actually use alongside their phone? Which platform creates the most interesting design challenge?

Sketch at actual scale — Trace a real device or use a template. Include real content, not lorem ipsum.

D6: Second Platform Flow + Sketches — due Wed, Mar 18 @ 5:15pm — PDF to Learning Suite

⚠️

Review the D11 Case Study requirements now

All the work you have done and will do will go into your final case study. Know what's required so you document as you go — not at the end.

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