hliejun's Portfolio

TECHNOLOGY

BUILD

Java

Android SDK

AppCompat

TOOLS

Android Studio

Gradle

Photoshop

PLATFORMS

Android

Google Play

ABOUT

DESCRIPTION

Widgets for WhatsApp™ is an android widget application that helps WhatsApp™ users to access important contacts from their home screen in one-click. After running through configuration with a particular WhatsApp™ contact, users can make voice calls, video calls and access conversation directly from the widget.

MOTIVATION

I started on this project with the goal to help non tech-savvy individuals and individuals with vision or coordination challenges to access WhatsApp™ features more conveniently. The project focused on making widgets recognisable to elderly and having voice and video call functions accessible in a single click.

CHALLENGES

The challenge in this project was to work around the limitations in developing a widget as opposed to a typical activity. This included learning to work with RemoteViews staticly instead of accessing views directly.

Another issue was to get used to invoking database queries using the content resolver and to make sense of the different data models used in saving contact data.

It was as much as a challenge an opportunity to learn about application store optimizations to make the application more discoverable and accessible to the public.

FEATURES

ONE-CLICK ACCESS

Get in touch with your friends and relatives on WhatsApp™ instantly with one-click access to make voice calls, video calls and conversations on your home screen. Shortcuts connect you directly to WhatsApp™ functions without having to navigate through conversations clutter.

ELDERLY FRIENDLY

Widget(s) are designed to be large and accessible. You can also choose to increase the text size or color code your contacts in the setup. Accessible and recognisable shortcuts are ideal for children, elderly or non-tech savvy users.

CUSTOMIZABLE

You can customize the label and description on your widgets, as well as selectively display contact profile picture and phone number. Contact card widgets can also be color-labelled and resized.

GUIDED SETUP

Setup is short and simple with instructions to help you along the way. Widget settings can be changed by accessing the options button on individual contact cards.

REFERENCES

Material Design Onboarding Onboarding design guidelines for effective setup.

Widget Development Guide Guidelines for widget development on Android.

Widget Design Design guidelines for designing Android widgets.

App Store Optimization Optimizing listing on Google Play store.

Ethereum Explorer

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