Design Signatures App

The Design Signatures App was created by CELT as a way to help users track stages of their design process both synchronously, in real time, or asynchronously, after they’ve finished their design process. As they track their design process, the app shows a visual, colorful timeline of their design process—what we refer to as “design signature” for their project.

On the Design Signatures App, there are default models of design processes that users can choose to track for themselves, and users also have the option to input their own design process model and track their work with their unique model. 

The app can be used both on a desktop website or as a mobile app. If you’d like to save your design signatures in the long term, you will need to download the app.

To set up the app

1. Access the Design Signatures website: www.designsignatures.org, and click on "The App" tile. (To go directly there, click on this link to The App page.)
2. You’ll be led through onboarding explanations that tell you the purpose of the app.
3. If you’d like to download the app, access the app website on the browser on your mobile device and select the “Install” button. Follow the instructions to download the app onto your mobile device. 

To use the app - Synchronous (You’re doing your activity and recording it in real time)

1. Select “New Project”. 
2. On the next screen, choose to track your process “Realtime” (synchronously). 
3. On the next screen, provide a project name and an optional project description. Then, choose the design model you’d like to use, or create your own design model.
4. On the next screen, you’ll see the empty design signature at the top, a project summary of the sessions you’ve used, and an empty graph at the bottom of the time you’ve spent on each design stage in the model. 
5. When you’re ready to begin, select the “Start Tracking” button at the bottom of the screen. 
6. The tracking screen shows the design stages with “on/off” toggles beside them. Turn the appropriate stages on and off as you go through your design process. Multiple stages can be turned on at the same time—for example, you may be gathering information while also generating ideas. Keep an eye on what you’re doing in the moment, so that you can decide whether to turn stages on and off. 
7. If you need to take a break, select the “Pause” button. This pauses the tracking, and a popup will appear giving you the option to resume tracking or to stop tracking entirely (you can return to tracking later—that begins a new session for the same project). 

To use the app - Asynchronous (You’ve done your activity and you want to record it between sessions or after it’s completed)

1. Select “New Project”. 
2. On the next screen, choose to track your project “Asynchronous”
3. On the next screen, provide a project name and an optional project description. Then, choose when you want to be logging your data (daily or weekly), and what day of the week you want your weeks to start on. Then, choose the design model you’d like to use, or create your own design model.
4. When you’re ready to begin, select the “Create Project” button at the bottom of the screen. 
5. On the next screen, you’ll see an empty design signature and a project summary of the time you’ve spent on each design stage in the model. The design signature shows the design stages displayed across the time interval you chose (day or week). 
6. Select a time interval on the graph to add an entry. The screen for adding an entry gives you each of the design stages with time inputs next to them, in hours. Input the hours you have spent in each session (you can input hours in decimals; for example, 15 minutes can be inputted as 0.25 hours). Once you’re finished, select the “Save” button at the bottom of the screen. 
7. As you add entries over time, your design signature and your project summary will be filled in.