SPortfolio SAM RUSTON

Weather Timeline ANDROID APP DESIGN & DEV

Yet another take on a weather app. It removed the traditional approach of having separate screens for now, soon and later and condensed the info into a single timeline. It was picked for editor's choice and is one of the top weather apps on the Play Store.

This is an interactive design prototype for a flight tracker for iOS. The aim was to give the user information regarding their flight as quickly as possible so they can read it in a rush. This is provided using big bold typography and colour to indicate status. These card components are great in-app and can be embedded in widgets/notifications too.

Flight Tracker iOS APP PROTOTYPE

The new logo scales better, is more legible and contains delightful details such as the entire logo forms a dog with the bottom of the P being a front paw and the counter of the P being a heart.

The goal of the redesign was to increase donations and provide a better browsing experience for adoptable dogs.

This was done by drastically simplifying the site, providing donate buttons in key areas of the website with high contrast and providing a sidebar of portrait shots of dogs to give them personality and friendliness.

Helping Yorkshire Poundies WEBSITE & LOGO REDESIGN

This screen for adding a ticket website uses a hero image to demonstrate the behaviour of the app as it is an unfamiliar concept to

most. The demo and add ticket buttons have the same colour to solidify this connection further. A non-standard close button is at the bottom of the screen so users don’t have to reach to the top of the screen for this

commonly used action.

Ticket Alert ANDROID APP DESIGN & DEV

This is a prototype for a donation screen. Each donation is given a ball and dropped into a physics simulation to give liveliness and emotion to a screen that would otherwise be a dull list of numbers. The balls can be dragged and thrown in a game like manner which evokes involvement and donations from users.

Donation ANDROID APP PROTOTYPE

Luci is a lucid dreaming journal. The aim was to provide a welcoming experience to lucid dreaming that provided functionality for experts whilst remaining inviting to beginners. It uses a dark theme with 2 accent colours for a lucidity scale (not lucid ➞ very lucid) that blend together to form an ethereal combination (a nod to the weird realities of dreams). On top of the UI design there is Luci itself, who is an animated companion who provides helpful demonstrations in the app.

Luci ANDROID APP DESIGN & DEV

Reddit Redesign UNOFFICIAL WEBSITE REDESIGN

Breaking news has been promoted as Reddit is a popular source for news

Reddit is for communities, so this feature has been pushed

front & centre

Same compact list that existing users have come to love & expect from Reddit

Now uses a fixed width for easier reading on

large displays

Minimalist colour scheme to give focus to the content and allow greater flexibility with

subreddit customisation

Key action given more importance on the page

New content indicators so don’t have to constantly check

Removed sharp corners to seem less imposing to new

users Moved uncommon actions to a separate expandable menu to

minimise cognitive load

CoinCalc ANDROID APP DESIGN & DEV

CoinCalc was one of the first converters to embrace material design.

Each currency is assigned a colour that is used throughout the app to increase speed and recognition when there are hundreds of currencies to choose from. Even the swap button’s arrows depend on the colours of the currencies to better convey its action.

A large keypad with lots of whitespace and no clutter means typing is a lot faster.

Hurry is a complete re-imagining of a countdown

app with the premise that a countdown app

should make you excited for events instead of

just a list of names and dates. It has striking

gradients (usually a no-no on Android), gif

backgrounds and animations that will keep you

pumped for your favourite upcoming events.

Hurry ANDROID APP DESIGN & DEV

This app was designed to condense a lot of information into a user friendly manner so the user would not be

otherwise annoyed by checking their allergies. Whitespace sets a calming tone with colours to identify significance.

My Pollen Forecast iOS APP DESIGN

A dark muted map brings focus & removes unnecessary detail. Bespoke pins provide context and a larger tap area.

The dialog shares elements with Apple Watch design to provide synergy between the 2 interfaces.

My Lightning Tracker iOS APP DESIGN

What People Say

Created by a single developer, Weather Timeline is one of the best examples of Material Design on Android.

Abner Li, 9To5Google

It's hard not to get all fanboy on this, but it looks awesome, with bold use of color and shapes. It might be a bit too high-contrast for some, but it's a very striking look. I wish that Sam Ruston was my interior decorator.

Ryne Hager, Android Police

Much like his other apps, Flamingo sports a bold and striking UI. It’s got a very fun and cheerful feel to it and is one of the nicest Twitter apps for Android that I’ve played with.

Preshit Deorukhkar, Beautiful Pixels

Taken as a whole, all of this attention to the little details results in a richly satisfying experience.

Rich Fulcher, Material Design Lead

My favourite app of 2018 and 2017 is actually Flamingo for Twitter.

Marques Brownlee, MKBHD

Countdown apps are not usually something I think of as innovative, but leave it to Sam Ruston, developer of Weather Timeline to prove me wrong. 

Ryan Whitwam, Tested