Case StudyMidddle App

From prototype to finished app concept. A project by Nico Engelhardt, Paul Schmidt and Johannes Ippen

Problem

We started the development of Midddle with a very simple problem in mind: How could making spontaneous appointments with our best friends become easier?

Text messaging and chat apps are pretty cool, but lead to very long conversations that end up in discussions with the result that you’ll probably stay in. Social networks are nice, but how many of your 500 Facebook friends would you actually take out for a beer? So we were looking for an easier solution.

Solution

When going out with your friends, there are a couple of factors that you need to sort out, like where, with whom, when and what are you up for.

Midddle is an iPhone app that aims to solve these questions. After several prototypes and user tests, we focussed on a minimal concept in which users could set a status and make appointments with friends based on their geolocation.

Design Principles

Midddle is limited to 7 friends. It will stop you from hording contacts and keep your friendlist clean

Midddle will suggest the ideal venue based on your GPS data.

You set the place, they set the time. This way, both you and your friend decide parts of your appointment.

Three taps or less – a date should be made with as little interaction as possible.

Interface

The simple and minimalist UI supports the users in their goal-focussed flow, while there’s still space to extend functionalities. There’s two particular innovations in the Midddle interface: The unique circle of friends gives you a nice overview of who's free and who’s not while limiting the number of contacts by its nature.

The rounded map is not only eye candy, but also allows it to show venues on the meeting point precisely while hiding the exact user position by placing them slightly outside the map - a simple but effective privacy feature many testers asked for.

Branding & Marketing

The Midddle icon is simple blue smiley face - reflecting the positive experience the app should give you, combined with its minimalist appearance.

In November 2014, we decided to stop development on Midddle.

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