Dirk-Pierre Bouwer

Design the Unseen


UX/UI Designer based in Pretoria
Co founder of Appserve

About Me

Hi there


My name is Dirk and I look to inspire & engage through innovative and impactful design, creating solutions that not only solve problems but also enhance user experiences and leave a lasting, positive impression. I aim to push the boundaries of creativity and foster a deep connection between form and function in every project, ultimately contributing to a more aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly world.

How I design

My Method


The Double Diamond approach that I've inherited provides a structured framework for me to follow while remaining adaptable and responsive to the unique challenges and requirements of each design project.

UX/UI | Gamification

Button Pusher


Button Pusher is an app that allows Radiographers and Nurses to form a friendship in the workplace. While completing objectives to buying eachother gifts with coins, Button Pusher is definetly an app designed to improve a working environment

App | Accessibility Design

Ceaser's Aid


Ceaser's Aid is an essential app designed to support your post-C-section recovery journey. With a focus on minimizing unnecessary movement. Ceaser's Aid provides invaluable guidance and assistance, ensuring a smoother and more efficient recovery process

UX/UI | Smart | Tech

Patient Sync


Patient Sync is the use of a integrated smart technology system that includes a variety of smart technologies all controlled by a dashboard.

UX/UI | Web Design | Social Media

Friends of free Wildlife


Covering the journey of design in this project. Aiming to redefine and polish the digital representation of Friends of Free Wildlife into something that portrays their organization’s values and goals.

Gamified Mobile App

Button Pusher

Button Pusher is an app that allows Radiographers and Nurses to form a friendship in the workplace. While completing objectives to buying eachother gifts with coins, Button Pusher is definetly an app designed to improve a working environment

Problem Statement

The challenge for this project was to address the lack of camaraderie and positive interactions among Radiographers and Nurses within the workplace. The current environment lacks a platform for fostering connections and collaboration between these essential healthcare professionals. By introducing an engaging app where they can complete objectives, earn coins, and exchange thoughtful gifts, Button Pusher seeks to enhance the overall working atmosphere, promoting a sense of community, teamwork, and improved relationships among colleagues in the healthcare setting.

How can I produce a positive work environment to ensure the best patient care possible?

Main Problems

  • Too many manual tasks that can be automated

  • Workplace relationships between radiographers and doctors tend to be toxic.

  • Unhealthy work environment

  • Clinics suffer with a lack of technology

Gamification Breakdown

Gamification in the Button Pusher app introduces a rewards-based system, turning workplace interactions into a game. By completing objectives and earning coins to exchange for gifts, radiographers and nurses are incentivized to engage and build friendships. This gamified approach adds fun and motivation, addressing the initial problem of a lack of camaraderie and fostering a positive work environment.

Sketches

Sketches play a crucial role in solving the problem outlined by Button Pusher. Initially, sketching allows designers to visualize the app's interface, ensuring user-friendly interactions. It aids in mapping out the gamification elements, depicting the coin-earning process and gift exchange features. Iterative sketching allows for quick concept refinement, ensuring that the final design is intuitive and aligns with the goal of fostering friendships among radiographers and nurses. Additionally, sketches serve as a valuable communication tool between designers and stakeholders, facilitating a shared understanding of the app's structure and functionality.

Major screens

Visual Designs

Interactive Prototype

Conclusion

The Button Pusher project endeavors to revolutionize workplace dynamics for radiographers and nurses by infusing a sense of camaraderie through gamification. Through the pursuit of objectives, earning coins, and exchanging thoughtful gifts, the app transforms the workplace into a collaborative and engaging space, ultimately contributing to a positive and uplifting professional environment.

ACCESSIBILITY App

Ceaser's Aid

Ceaser's Aid is an essential app designed to support your post-C-section recovery journey. With a focus on minimizing unnecessary movement. Ceaser's Aid provides invaluable guidance and assistance, ensuring a smoother and more efficient recovery process

Problem Statement

The design challenge involved the creation of a useful mobile application, tailored for “my chosen persona”. Susan is recovering from a Caesarean and needs an apps that helps her recover after this traumatic moment in her life. The application needs to solve the user’s needs by showcasing a way for mothers like Susan to recover from a Caesarean while also looking after her baby.

How might we support Susan in recovering from a cesarean section while ensuring she gets adequate rest?

My Process

Meet Susan

A 24-year-old teacher and single mother who recently underwent a cesarean section. While she's thrilled about her new baby, Susan is struggling to recover from the surgery due to her responsibilities as a mom. Balancing her motherly duties with her own well-being has become quite challenging for her. Susan's situation calls for a solution that can help her recover from the c-section while considering her need for rest and self-care.

The Solution

Caesar's Aid is aimed to provide essential support and guidance for first-time single mothers(like Susan) recovering from a C-section. The app serves as a compassionate companion, offering a range of features and resources tailored to their specific needs. From personalized recovery plans and postpartum care tips to a supportive community and task management tools, Caesar's Aid is dedicated to empowering these mothers on their journey to physical healing, emotional well-being, and confident motherhood. By offering a helping hand and a wealth of knowledge, Caesar's Aid aims to make the recovery process smoother, allowing these strong and resilient mothers to focus on bonding with their newborns and embracing the joy of motherhood.

Sketches

Sketches play a pivotal role in envisioning Caesar's Aid app, offering a visual roadmap for features like personalized recovery plans, postpartum care tips, and community engagement. They streamline the design process, ensuring an intuitive interface that minimizes unnecessary movement, aligning precisely with Susan's post-C-section recovery needs and fostering a supportive environment for confident motherhood.

Product User Challenges

  • Accessibility and Ease of Use: Designing an interface that is easily navigable and accessible for Susan, considering potential physical limitations during her recovery, is crucial. The app should be user-friendly to accommodate her need to manage tasks and monitor her baby effortlessly.physical limitations during her recovery, is crucial. The app should be user-friendly to accommodate her need to manage tasks and monitor her baby effortlessly.

  • Integration of Monitoring Devices: Ensuring seamless integration of monitoring devices, such as the Owlet sock and baby monitor, with the app presents a challenge. The designer must create a cohesive and intuitive system that allows Susan to track her baby's well-being without complicating the user experience.

  • Personalization and Flexibility: Designing a platform that offers personalized recovery plans and adapts to Susan's evolving needs is essential. The app should provide flexibility in adjusting tasks, exercises, and alerts based on her recovery progress, energy levels, and the demands of caring for her newborn.

  • Emotional Support and Community Engagement: Creating features that provide emotional support and foster community engagement poses a challenge. The designer must implement tools that connect Susan with a supportive community and offer resources to address her emotional well-being, fostering a sense of belonging and encouragement during this transformative period.

Features & Functionalities

To resolve user needs

Accessibility Guidelines

Accessibility guidelines are essential for inclusive design, ensuring digital content is accessible to everyone, meeting legal requirements, and fostering a positive user experience. Adherence reflects ethical responsibility, expands market reach, encourages innovation, and future-proofs designs, supporting diverse users and promoting equal access to information and services.

Visual Designs

Interactive Prototype

Conclusion

In conclusion, I achieved my "how might we" statement for Caesar's Aid by actively involving Susan, a first-time single mother recovering from a C-section, and incorporating valuable user feedback. Through collaborative design, extensive research, and Accessibility Checking, I developed an app that caters to the specific needs of mothers like Susan. Caesar's Aid offers personalized calendar, postpartum care tips through a community, and practical tools, empowering these women on their journey to confident motherhood. By putting Susan and other users at the center of the design process, I created a user-centered solution that provides essential support and guidance for first-time single mothers recovering from a C-section.

Smart system

Patient Sync

Patient Sync is the use of a integrated smart technology system that includes a variety of smart technologies all controlled by a dashboard.

The Challenge

The challenge was to design an integrated smart technology system to keep patients entertained while also fastening Susans work as a secretary.

Meet Susan

Space Overview

Gaining a deeper understanding of the space and where the smart system would be implemented by creating a floor plan that illustrates the layout and a potential user flow for the smart technologies is highlighted in the next section.

User Journey Storyboard

After attaining a comprehensive understanding of the space, the intended user, and the specific problem to address, Crafting a storyboard to depict how the space would be utilised to illustrate the user's interactions within it.

Final Solution

Once I had a clear understanding of the system's usage and the integrated smart technologies, I proceeded to design the dashboard that would serve as the central control interface for all smart features. Subsequently, I developed a demonstration walkthrough of the space.

Walkthrough Video

Conclusion

This project was incredibly enjoyable, and I firmly believe that the smart system has the potential to significantly enhance the efficiency of any hairdresser's workspace.
I particularly found satisfaction in crafting the dashboard designs. Additionally, I aspire to enhance the video walkthrough demo in the future, aiming to incorporate 3D renders.

Website Design

Friends of Free Wildlife

Covering the journey of design in this project. Aiming to redefine and polish the digital representation of Friends of Free Wildlife into something that portrays their organization’s values and goals.

Friends of Free Wildlife is a community-based, public-funded volunteer organisation. It was founded in May 2016 by passionate and qualified wildlife rehabilitators with the best interest of our urban wildlife as a founding mandate.They invest all their focus and passion into nursing and helping urban wildlife native to South Africa thrive and recover from otherwise life threatening injuries/events.

Interactive Prototype


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