My name is Anton Muraviev

Mission

Time tracking has always been an important part of my workflow, but I never liked any of the existing time tracking solutions and – considering how few people willingly track their time despite all the benefits – I felt I was not alone.

Soon after I bought my Apple Watch, I began exploring the idea of making my own time tracking app. It had to be easy to understand and use, so I was really keen on exposing all functionality through a single screen. It had to work on both my Mac and iPhone, and I wanted to build it myself, so it had to be designed primarily as a web app.

Prototype #1

Having no idea of what functionality should be included in the minimal viable product specification, I decided that the best course of action would be to build a prototype and use it for a few months to validate the core concept, expose any limitations, and gather a dataset that could drive future design decisions. It just had to help me track my time and break it down by activity and date.

The prototype worked quite well, but it quickly became apparent that a very long list of timers broken down by date was completely unmanageable and unnecessary. I also found myself calculating and comparing weekly and monthly totals too often, so I had to find a way to integrate this functionality without bloating the interface.

Prototype #2

It took a few iterations to arrive at the final look and feel that could work on any platform at any resolution, but it was worth the effort and I am quite happy with the result.

Unfortunately, testing of the second prototype on older mobile devices revealed serious performance issues, caused by ambitious transitions and animations. Long term usability of the app on mobile devices in general was problematic. The app had no access – as a purely web application – to notifications, quick shortcuts, and other device services, which made using it daily a lot more cumbersome than a native app would ever be.

Result

I find the application useful in my personal and professional life, but I do not plan to release this version to the public. Who knows, maybe I'll get around to an iOS version some day, but the App Store economics for productivity apps have to improve drastically to justify spending any more time on this project.

Mission

Lobster Pictures are a time lapse photography and site monitoring service provider based in Bristol. Dozens of their bespoke camera rigs are installed at construction sites all over the world, capturing minute by minute activity from multiple angles, and uploading high resolution photographs to the cloud.

I was initially hired to develop the next version of their client-facing mobile app. The original had been conceived at the dawn of the smartphone era and had little in common both in terms of functionality and codebase with the desktop version. The desktop version had its own share of niggles. In particular, it did not work well on tablets.

Redesign

After some careful consideration, I realised that the only sensible and cost effective solution was to replace both versions with a single responsive app that would feel at home on any device at any screen resolution. The app had to be rethought and rebuild from the ground up, but if done correctly it would completely solve all issues and would minimise need for future updates.

I began the redesign process by identifying core user goals. I then produced several wireframe concepts in order to find an optimal solution that would satisfy those goals. At that stage I did not concern myself with limitations of the backend, target devices and browsers, or even auxiliary functionality, and instead focused primarily on coming up with most humane methods of traversing the available data: switching angles, jumping to different dates and timestamps, and studying details at each moment.

Development

Once I had solutions to all interaction problems, I could discuss them with each stakeholder or implement them in code in order to evaluate their efficacy. This was a long and at times gruelling process, but in the end we arrived at the version of the app that worked well, even if it still left much to be desired in the look and feel department.

Once the app was functionally complete, I could focus on improving the interface and optimising performance. By this point we had done a lot of testing and knew exactly what aspects of the app were awkward to use. The final aesthetics were driven primarily by pragmatism: I wanted to show as much content as possible and semi-transparent overlays and buttons were an obvious solution. Form follows function, indeed.

Result

The app – judging by a significant increase in daily visits and average session length – was a huge success with the client’s customers and has only required a few minor fixes since its launch in June 2016.

Mission

Martin Boroson is a meditation expert, coach, and professional speaker with an enigmatic personality and profound grasp on the nature of stress and anxiety. Unfortunately his previous website did a very poor job of reflecting that, and he clearly needed a better web presence.

Research

I began the design process by interviewing Marty and identifying his business proposition and target audiences. His primary offering was professional speaking and coaching, and his main audiences were HR executives and event organisers. Armed with this knowledge I have crafted the information architecture and defined the content strategy of the new website.

Concept

After interviewing his existing clients, it quickly became apparent that Martin Boroson is the product. While clients found his business proposition very sound, it was his mannerisms and delivery that they bought into. The new website had to reflect that, and there was no better way then to record and present a video of Marty explaining the history behind his philosophy.

Implementation

The actual website is one of the first I designed almost entirely in the browser with the help of my order.less library. This allowed us to iterate on the design a lot faster, while using the most current version of content. The website is driven by Wordpress and several bespoke plugins customised for Marty’s specific content requirements, which later enabled him to fine-tune and keep his content up to date all by himself.

Result

Since its launch the website enabled Marty to run several successful marketing campaigns, both through a traditional sales representative as well as social media channels.

Background

Arts University Bournemouth is a leading University, offering high quality specialist education in art, design, media and performance across the creative industries. Graduates of their courses work in a wide variety of industries and disciplines, and are frequent winners of national and international prizes, including prestigious awards such as the Oscars and Emmys.

Responsibilities

I had been working on the website’s interface and architecture for a couple of years starting with the complete redesign that earned them Gold Award in the Best University Website category at Heist Awards 2014, and then expanding its functionality with additional modules, such as Staff research browser, graduates directory, student stories, etc.

Lessons

I still consider this website one of the highlights of my career. It is where my development practices have been put to test by lean budgets and quick iterations, and where I greatly improved my design process: from identifying the business goals of multiple stakeholders and establishing metrics of success, to implementation, testing, and delivery.