Background
A product that helps art goers/enthusiasts discover new & exciting art spaces easily through locating, informing & reviewing of art spaces up & coming, current and future events.
My Role
UX Design, Product design, UI Design, Research & Strategy, Branding
Objectives
Afekt is an app catered towards helping the everyday art enthusiast/goer/lover discover unique & exciting art spaces in the city easily. The app is inspired by the art scene in london being so diverse & vibrant, yet difficult to find specific art spaces catered to your taste.
Tools
Figma, Invision, Photoshop,
Illustrator, Zoom
Scope
Tools
10 Weeks
Mobile App, Responsive
Website
The Overview
*Note - The term art spaces will include art galleries, exhibitions, pop ups, installations, art events & shows.
Context
The Problem
The art scene in London is diverse and vibrant, as it is one of the biggest cities in the world. As a result, the average art enthusiast or regular person interested in the industry often finds it difficult to find out about the latest exhibitions, artists, pop-ups, galleries or shows to attend, because they aren't advertised in the city, on social media, television, or newspapers unless they work in the industry. This is a situation that not only I was facing, but thousands of other art goers and enthusiasts. With art space visitation set to decrease, we have to rethink this set-up to ensure people are happy and can easily enjoy partaking in art spaces.
Solution
This app focuses on users communicating with each other through reviewing, favouriting, streaming previews of art spaces and posting their experiences. It will inform users of large, medium and small art spaces as a digitized solution to word of mouth. This aims to address the issue of finding art spaces without direct contact with fellow art enthusiasts. Before attending, users will have sufficient information so they can make an informed decision. Ultimately, users will be able to go anywhere based on recommendations, previews & ratings allowing decision-making to be easier than before. Users will also be notified when upcoming art spaces are available and for how long. There will also be a function within the app that will allow the user to live stream or stream previous visits to art spaces for a short period.
The Process
EMPATHISE
IDEATE
DEFINE
PROTOTYPE
TEST
Key Research Insights / Facts
Before researching the problem space, i was quite unaware of the ins of the art industry, I began with some secondary research to gain a better understanding of the market, its trends and demographics. I then conducted interviews to learn more about the different experiences people have had with art spaces.
Through Research, I aimed to:
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Define & comprehend the market trends within the art industry
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Identify Afekts target audience
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Identify the weakness & strengths of Afekts competitors
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Be familiar with peoples experiences when visiting art spaces.
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Find the motivations, needs, goals and frustrations of the target audience.
I started researching with the help of google. Through research, I was able to gain a more thorough understanding and fill in the gaps in my knowledge about the industry to better inform my design decisions moving forward. Here are some of the key insights that I discovered:
The National Gallery research survey 2019 & 2021 stated the public appeal for major exhibitions, has dwindled down compared to smaller art spaces by almost 80%
Art institutions visited are outdated and struggling to widen their appeal beyond the traditional cultural tourist. Lack of digital engagement with their community.
70% of Art goers stated there was a lack of awareness and advertising on smaller less known shows in comparison to the larger commercial ones
The choice of a specific type of art gallery, pop-up, exhibition, or show of the users' preference is not easily available to find.
Being able to find an art gallery, exhibition, pop-up, or show recommended by other users unless by word of mouth is a difficult task.
''The number of visitors to major museums and galleries fell by nearly 1.4 million in 2020, the first decline in a decade due to a lack of variety''.
Who are our Competitors
Introduction to Competitors
It was important to understand other platforms offering digital services similar to Afekt, to help me understand the limits of their app's features. It is also a good way of identifying if my solution is authentic, functional and can stand out when used amongst art goers/enthusiasts/lovers.
Timeout magazine and Tate Britains website were the main competitors. Although these sites introduce users to exhibitions, they are advertising platforms catering more for sellers than users. They also do not allow a choice of art spaces based on preference as they are more commercially orientated and offer a hand full of options for a period. A few blogs are focusing on this issue,
Competitive Analysis
The information below shows, that the competitors' platforms are clustered with no direction regarding their features for art spaces, making the platforms busy and overwhelming because of offering a wide range of services & not catering to the user's specific interests. Akeft will aim to solve these issues thoroughly by creating a curated, tailored and easy-to-use digital application.
Hypothesis
I believe that art enthusiasts/goers find it tedious to discover new exhibitions, art galleries, pop-ups, and shows because of the minimal options available currently. I also believe art enthusiasts/lovers are frustrated & seeking ways to tackle this predicament they find themselves in.
User Interviews
To learn about the real experiences people have had with art spaces, I interviewed 5 participants. I focused on asking open-ended questions about their experiences to learn as much as possible about our audience and to validate my understanding of them.
3 Themes were formulated.
From the major patterns that I identified from the affinity map, I discovered the following key insights which helped me understand what my audience needs were:
SOCIAL MEDIA
LOCATION
WORD OF MOUTH
Persona
To make sure that my decisions moving forward in the process are user-centred, I wanted to have a clear understanding of who Afekts users are. Using what I learned from patterns from my empathy map, I created a user persona to represent who I will be designing for - Meet James.
How Might We
After going through & Synthesizing the insights i redefined the How Might We statement to:
How might we
help the everyday art enthusiast/goer/lover discover unique & exciting art spaces in the city easily?
Experience Mapping
After completing my user persona, I created an experience map to depict the highs and lows James experienced when trying to search for a new art space to attend - what he had difficulties with, this gave me a chance to locate & provide a solution to some of his frustrations.
User Story Selected
One Epic was chosen to provide a better understanding of the user flow and solution. The main epic allows for a more robust digital solution, especially as the two are connected: The first allowing the user to find art spaces is the core function of the app, however understanding what users have to say through reviews is just as influential in shaping a decision being made.
User Story Selected
Primary Task Flow
Read about up-and-coming artists so that I can enjoy new art trends
As an art enthusiast, I want to Read about up-and-coming artists so that I can enjoy new art trends
Secondary Task Flow
Share with the art space feedback so that other art enthusiasts are informed of what is worthwhile.
As an art enthusiast, I want to Share with the art space feedback so that other art enthusiasts are informed of what is worthwhile.
Key solutions to focus on
After understanding the current journey of my persona and mapping their emotions at different stages in their journey, I was able to identify three key areas where I can help users with the design intervention.
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SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE
Audience would like to communicate with each other through reviewing, favouriting art spaces. It will inform users of up & coming art spaces as a digitized solution to word of mouth. It will address the audience issue of finding art spaces without direct contact with fellow art enthusiasts. Before attending, users will have sufficient information to make an informed decision. Ultimately, users can go anywhere based on recommendations, previews & ratings, allowing decision-making to be easier than before. Users will also be notified when upcoming art spaces are available and for how long. They should also be able to have excepts of art spaces through live streaming or previously streamed visits to art spaces for a short period.
CONNECT WITH USERS
Audience leaned towards finding like-minded individuals and share their thoughts and experiences about art spaces. To be able to get in touch with the artists based on the type of art preference and share their journey with them through their work. Through their profiles they will be able to discover other artists, follow them also on their journeys, create an online community and grow their followers and who they are following.
LOCATE THE SPACE
Users were struggling to find art spaces within their proximity, so helping by easily giving them their direct location and art spaces within the user's vicinity, or a certain radius as determined by the user. A notification process should inform the user of any art spaces close to or within the user's custom radius, or preference and automatically schedule a list of spaces and sent to the user each day, Audience can then decide whether to save the most likely ones into his favourites or removed.
Task flow
I created multiple user stories that I grouped into epics. The idea for the task flow is for the user to be able to use most elements of the app. In order to do this i broke th flows into two sections, primary & secondary.
Primary Task Flow : Research Exhibition
Selected User Story
As an Art enthusiast i want to read about up-and-coming artists so that I can enjoy new art trends
Secondary Task Flow : Review an art space
Selected User Story
As an Art enthusiast i want to share with the art space feedback so that other art enthusiasts are informed of what is worthwhile.
UI Mood Board
An exploration with functional precedents and inspirational imagery is done by most designers to understand what style and functions their app requires, to give the audience a better experience functionally & aesthetically. I devised a UI mood board to help guide the aethetic look of Afekt or what it could look like at this point.
Wireframe Sketches
Using my understanding of the user interviews, goals, pain points & the user’s potential interaction with the app, I worked on making informed decisions on how to design Afekts screens by sketching low-fidelity wireframes.
Mid Fidelity Wireframe
Primary Task Flow: Taking the wireframes, I then worked on creating a mid-fidelity, limited functionality prototype, using Figma, to use for usability testing. I then developed the mid-fidelity frames into a prototype to see how our users will interact and whether the user finds the experience easy & functional.
Home Screen
Art Space Page
Temporary Pop Up Page
Chosen Pop Up Page
Artist Page
Like Event Page
Secondary Task Flow
Home Screen
Favourites Page
Selected Pop Up Page
Review & Comment Page
Filling Out Comments
Comment Posted Page
UX Usability Testing
Two rounds of user testing with 4 art enthusiasts & 1 gallery owner were conducted aimed at addressing design issues that impacted the user's experience negatively.
While there were some minor issues identified, the majority of the feedback was positive and encouraging.
UX Usability Findings
Re-evaluation
The app was put through two rounds of user testing where some users' frustrations were shown and re-evaluated. Some of the issues were:
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Confusing wording in titles
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Inactive/active tabs not represented
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The need for clearer icon descriptions
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Clarity on CTAs
UX Adjustments
Validation
The changes implemented showed the issues initially highlighted by the second user testing round have been adjusted throughout the app. The results of the recent prototype test ensured the user had a smooth and seamless experience throughout the task flow and reduced any issues so the next user testing would be smooth.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
UI Design - Creating A Brand & Identity
After the foundational work of wireframing and prototyping, i needed to take it a step further and convey how Afekt's brand would look visually. Afekts branding will aim to show: comfort, serenity, reliability, whiles aiming for simplicity & being sleek. The visual direction of Afekt's branding is to portray their identity.
Brand Name
A product that helps art goers/enthusiasts discover new & exciting art spaces easily through locating, informing & reviewing of art spaces up & coming, current and future events.
Building A Brand
This would require Typography, Colours, Tone,
Mood Board
A mood board is a collection of visual materials that evoke a certain style or concept by designers, illustrators, all types of creative professionals.
Logo Design
Logos serve to represent a given organization or company through a visual image that can be easily understood and recognized. A logo generally involves symbols, stylized text or both
Mood Board
I gathered inspiration from Pinterest - looking through precedents and how they showed their brand attributes. I lobserved the way colour palettes, logos, typography and imagery toset the direction of their branding.
What is AFEKT
Slogan/Wordmark/Logo
A. - Art , Ambience, Amazing, Arousing( A representing Art)
Fekt. - Positive, Calming, Curiously, Happily, Excitement, Optimism.
(Fekt for Effective feeling of emotion taken from going to exhibitions.
The Afekt brand will include a slogan, logo & wordmark as a package. These can be broken down into single entities or used alongside each other. A play around with Lettering in conjunction with the logo itself allows for a variety of options.
Logo Design
After establishing the branding direction, I started the logo design to represent the brand. I sketched elements i thought connected the project and what came to mind. I narrowed the options down to three i felt were the most successful and functional in conveying Afekt's identity.
Style Tile
Whiles designing the logo,i finalised the visual identity of Afekt by continuing to implement a balance between Afekts bold but relaxing, friendly nature, while still maintaining their approachability & reliability. The color palette was chosen also overpower whiles keeping things energetic
Colour Palette
Typography
UI Sample Library
Atoms
Iconography
Hifidelity Prototype
After going through the process of wireframes and mid-fidelity prototyping, I moved on to finalising these stages into the high-fidelity wireframes and created Afekts final prototype. I With the help of all the research and branding done i would now be able to implement these in Afekt to craft its visula and functional identity.
Interactive Map
Explore the Interactive map & List view, searching for events by exhibition name, venue name, artists or art space.
Share
Get social by Sharing events with your friends and network via email and other social channels.
Follow & Save
Follow your favourite artists, project spaces, galleries & Save into your favourites to get notified of expiration dates.
Stream Events
Get a glimpse of the art space shows to give you a taste of what to expect before deciding
Marketing Of Afekt
Download The App
I explored what the marketing site for this application could look like. A website with a strong value proposition will resonate with the audience and create interaction. Incorporating features such as sharing, streaming, interactive maps, will bring trust, engagement, fun to our audiences whiles keeping the knowledge on art spaces fresh and updated.
Try the App on Desktop or Mobile
Afekt On Desktop
Alternate Platform
I decided to convert my product into the desktop version/platform to broaden the reach of its capabilities to not only mobile. This will allow anybody without downloading the app to also access the content, the goal is not to only encourage using the app but also to explore and help find art wherever and whenever.
Next Steps
With the app now in HI fidelity mode, a strong marketing campaign will be beneficial to moving Afekt to the next level both online and offline.
I plan to make more changes to the screens and the current interactions to develop a more seamless version.
I want to explore other task flows especially the booking of events, art spaces on the app & the process involved.
There will be more testing to affirm the changes were correctly implemented.
Reflection
Design is everchanging and ongoing. Everything done requires a reason, the user should always be at the forefront of your decision making
