Overview:
Within busy information traffic in our everyday life more and more art lovers experience not as enjoyable art as it used to be. It is getting more complicated to find out about good exhibition and visit before it ends or been sold out.
People tend to miss them or end up going to the same places they know there is going to be something anyway. Omit the experience they used to enjoy and get inspired by becomes decent and forgettable.
What if we could access art and enjoy it given mind escapes from busy lives more often and without any frustration?
Enter My art: smart and easy to use art assistant. A mobile application which curates art exhibitions within your interests and lets you take joy in art.
Hi-fi prototype showcase
This was my first project at the General Assembly, where I had two weeks to build a mobile application to solve a problem for my main user, Jacob.
Jacob
Discover:
I conducted 2 initial user interviews with Jacob to get an understanding of his lifestyle and potential problems to be solved.
It was clear from my findings that Jacob needs an easier way to find accurate information about art events. Enjoy art not only more pleasant but more often as well.
Define:
I constructed a problem statement and quickly came up with various ideas to help solve the problem.
The main app feature is curating art exhibitions according to the user's chosen interests as a favourite art style, artist or region.
Utilising the findings from the user research and the ideation phase, I created a storyboard, to visualise the solution.
Ideation storyboard
Develop:
With limited time to design the app for Jacob, I focused on a key user flow. The happiest path from opening the app, choosing the interests, finding the right exhibition.
Jacob, wasn't particularly interested in any fancy features. Accessing the main information about the exhibition was his primary goal. Therefore, I add a reminder feature to simply help him no to forget event.
User flow
Prototyping & Testing:
I then designed a paper prototype of the screens based on this user flow. During the paper prototype usability tests, I found that the user had a few problems completing the task that was set for him. Further adjustments were made on a mid-fidelity prototype.
Paper prototype
Digital Wireframes:
Digital wireframes
After testing paper prototype I implemented main findings in my medium-fidelity wireframes. During this process, I was trying to design information architecture and make it easy to access, understand and find.
Visual design:
Moodboard
With the wireframes complete, I moved on to creating and implementing a style guide for the application. While looking for the inspiration I came with an idea to show exhibition as a poster with vivid but still readable colour palette.
My Art app style guide
Deliver:
Prototype HD
As an alternative, you can test the clickable prototype:
I was happy with the app's ability to solve Jacob's problem. There is still some more work to be done on the design and further testing. As next steps I would like to build and test other app features.
Conclusion:
The timeline for designing the application was tight which meant scope for it was limited. However, I was proud of what I was able to produce and my user Jacob felt the app was able to solve his problem. It would enable him to enjoy his favourite activities again.
Key learnings:
As it was my first design sprint I have learnt how to apply the UXD process in solving user’s daily problem and how to do it in a short period of time.
