The Dominion App for iOS, Android and Blackberry

Designing the app for The Dominion of Canada was challenging and one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever worked on.

I was lucky to have a week of sketching out ideas and interviewing friends and colleagues about their basement-flooding horror stories and experiences with fender benders. After I had worked out the flow of the app on paper, I began to wireframe the various screens in OmniGraffle, depicting how they would appear on iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices and recording the differences in how our app would behave on the different platforms.

The App coaches the user through the moment and reminds them to take photos of the accident, only when it was safe to do so. A handy form provides a list of information that should be captured, but entries into the fields are optional in order to avoid frustrating errors when they are always under duress. A backup of the information can be emailed to oneself, a family member or friend for safekeeping. Phone numbers for assistance will dial the number once tapped.

If the app looks simple, it’s because it was designed for use in a moment of crisis. When full of adrenaline from the shock of having their car rear-ended, or finding their home flooded, the app needed to be usable. No tiny buttons that would be difficult to press, or fancy interface animation or gimmickry.

The client was very happy and few changes were made after our initial presentation.

A change in company ownership has meant that the app has not been updated since it’s release and unfortunately the App Store reviews began to reflect that. One business requirement, allowing entry of a broker code to avoid having to manually enter lengthy policy information, appears to have stopped working. Eventually it was removed from the App Store and is no longer available.

This highlights how important and necessary it is for a client to invest in an app for the long term and beyond the initial release. A smart phone’s software is constantly being updated to fix issues as well as ensure compatibility with apps and accessories.