Artworks reimagined.
Introducing Art Haus
Art Haus is an idea and creation that was birthed upon taking the capstone subject - Interaction Design Studio.
By undertaking this subject, I consolidated my knowledge, skills and experience - acquired during my studies - to develop a project with my team intended to:
“Support or help people through the use of technology to improve their quality of life at home.”
Introduction
The approach and process followed throughout this project is called Lean UX, and it's one often used in the industry, to get me prepared for work after graduation.
The problem.
Due to the Covid19 pandemic, many people spend more time performing many work and recreational activities at their homes. Many everyday routines change and the boundaries between private, social, and work lives have become more blurry.
The solution.
An AR artwork sharing app with augmented reality features. Artists are able to share their artwork and provide an experience for users. Designed to provide an outlet for artists to hold exhibitions and sell their pieces in an innovative way!
Understanding our users
Due to the lockdown, we have identified a niche problem of individual artists who have been facing unexpected income loss (especially those who rely on “gig economy” and “portfolio career”) as well as losing the opportunity to discuss and develop creative ideas with others. Meanwhile, many art galleries and institutions are shut down in lockdown, which takes away the experience of immersion and socialisation from art lovers.
As a group, we embarked in desktop and field research:
Interview research
Getting some insights from potential users
Art lovers:
"A great chance to see if the colour/design fits into the house"
"more likely to buy artwork"
Artists:
"Not being able to hang out with friends & creatives to discuss and develop creative ideas has been difficult."
"No opportunity to exhibit artwork takes away something to work towards and can lower the opportunity for income. "
Article research
The challenges/changes artists encounter in the pandemic include:
1. a lack of passion, focus and creativity due to the work environment at home
2. unexpected significant income losses for individual artists, some of which amount to 1 or 2 years of work
3. shifting to new ways to make art work & engage with audience, such as making online tutorials.
From this data, we created the following personas to base our product upon:
The key persona needs discovered are:
Buy, Sell & View Artworks & Exhibitions
New & Immersive
Discover, Follow & Promote New Artists
Interaction between artist & audience
Competitors
First Iteration
Lean UX differs a lot from agile in the sense that there are constant iterations and “learning loops” which allow us as designers to focus on the user and meeting their needs.
In the first iteration, we created a mid-fi prototype as our MVP of our idea to push forward for testing.
The MVP
An AR-enabled app allowing users to view artworks in their own space, purchase exhibition tickets and bid on artworks (in the same sense you would at exhibitions).
The AR feature in action!
The AR feature was implemented by using the Vectary plugin within Figma to create 3D sculptures that users can view in AR.
Analysis & Testing
Heuristic Evaluation
To begin the testing, we first developed a team heuristic evaluation to identify any usability issues in our MVP.
There was a significant overlap in the usability issues identified.
Main issues:
feedback, input issues function not working, unclear functions, aesthetics
Key Findings:
Feedback after completing and action are critical. Users want to get confirmation that they’ve done the correct action.
Users want the system to behave the way they expect.
Users want to be able to have more control over their interactions in the prototype.
We must make navigation easier and more intuitive.
Usability Testing
From the issues identified in the heuristic evaluation, we implemented some improvements to our MVP to get it ready for usability testing. Our field study comprised of an interview of the participant to understand their needs as an artist/art lover and a separate session for usability testing of our MVP.
Affinity Diagramming
After interviewing and observing participants use our application, as a team we rearranged and sorted our findings into themes. We had one Miro for our interview data and another for our user testing findings. We further narrowed down each finding into sub-themes and noted down recommendations to undertake in our next iteration.
Major Findings
1. Communication between artists and art lovers is important
"... because I feel like a gallery opening per se, you can really talk with people and talk to multiple people at once. While on an app, you really feel you don't have the opportunity. "
2. There're lots of concerns of uploading artwork
3. Users would like preview of exhibitions
"it'd be good if you can have a trailer or like a preview for the exhibitions before we purchase the tix. "
4. Visibility of view in AR button is low
"I didn't know that was a button."
5. The level of immersion in the art world is crucial
“Immersion is really important, even if its a virtual thing - it needs to feel like you’re there”
Prototype Alterations
In preparation for the sprint and in response to user feedback, we altered our prototype slightly to create a more well-fitting application suited to the user's needs and frustrations we have found from the field study.
Here you can see our initial sign-up process included an unnecessary phone sign-up procedure. In our iteration we created a flow that is much more simple, has more error prevention elements such as email checks, password requirements, and button constraints.
With our original bring to life AR button, users did not know what that meant and for unfamiliar users, this can create quite a confusion. Therefore, we made the button more visible by changing the action text and designing it as a visible button. In addition to a social aspect for the app, we placed a share button on the top to allow users to directly share the listings with others.
Users also found the hardcopy/softcopy option confusing so we changed it to a yes or no answer to simplify the process.