Design approaches to improve user experience: An example of a mobile app prototyping process

User experience, user-product interaction, and digital products have become increasingly popular topics within design disciplines in recent years. This study aims to reveal the approaches and product decisions of the designer candidates during the design of the Caribou Contest mobile application. This study includes the design process of 38 students from different design disciplines, including Industrial Design and Visual Communication Design. Study 1 illustrates the design examples suggested by the designers through their process management from the research to the prototyping stage. Study 2 aims to determine which research topics the designers prioritised, their goals over the product, their usability considerations, and their focus on the user and the critical design elements. The shared perspectives and different critical evaluations of two different design disciplines are also revealed. The evaluations are collected via a 5-point scale questionnaire and analysed with JASP software. It is determined that the designers gave great importance to the prototyping stage, which they carried out using the Figma program. The concepts of ease of use and benefit are emphasised regarding the design goals. The emphasis on hierarchy and figure-ground relationships among the design elements is remarkable. The two disciplines differ in their importance to user needs and choice of colour and contrast design elements. The fundamental qualities identified through the designers’ decisions in terms of user experience and user interface perspectives provide theoretical insights for future user-centred product designs. The obtained information is also explained through prototypes and visual screens that can practically support similar study outputs.