Artist Community Engagement Experience

The UX Process

Step 1: Discover

User Research

Our process was user-centered. We started off with user research in the form of user surveys and interviews. We began this project at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic so we carefully considered how users’ needs and habits were rapidly changing. Our user research was critical in uncovering this key information.

Illuminating Art Consumption Habits

We started by casting a wide net, surveying 50+ people about their engagement with art, both online and in-person. This survey generated some key insights that guided our research process:

Investigating Art Lovers

Next, we conducted 5 in-depth user interviews with self-identified art lovers between the ages of 20 and 60. Despite a wide variety in demographics such as age, income, location, most of these users shared similar habits and opinions about art engagement. We gathered some key insights about art lovers which guided our design process.

Art lovers….

• Love supporting artists by going to events or looking at their art online.

• Prefer Instagram above other platforms because it’s more visual.

• Largely use Instagram to engage with artists and discover new art.

• Like going down the “rabbit hole” of discovering new art.

• Want to see videos of artists explaining their process, techniques, and their unique perspectives

Business Analysis

Next, we conducted business analysis starting with a heuristic evaluation of the current site. Drawing on my background in the arts and extensive knowledge of the Bay Area art scene and online art community, I then conducted competitive & comparative analyses of other art studios’ online presence and other platforms for engaging with art.

Evaluating the Current Website

We analyzed the user experience of HPSA’s current website through heuristic evaluation. We measured the site against the 5 key components of usability: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction. We found heuristic violations in several important areas:

Analyzing the Competition

I analyzed the online presence HPSA’s direct competitors, other art studio communities in California, and industry comparators, best-in-class online art platforms such as Instagram, DeviantArt and Ello. I paid special attention to the ways of engagement that these platforms offered users and how they promote artists. I noticed some features that these platforms were doing very well in order to gain inspiration for our designs.

Step 2: Define

Research Synthesis

Utilizing affinity mapping, my team and I synthesized our research into artifacts to guide our design process: a persona, problem statements, user scenarios and user flows. We then used those artifacts to craft a design hypothesis which served as a blueprint to define the features for our MVP.

Problem Statements

Step 4: Develop

Testing & Iteration

In order to improve the usability testing of our designs, we conducted usability testing of our low-fidelity prototype. Using the feedback gathered from those tests, we then iterated on our design until we created the final high fidelity mockup of our MVP.

Usability Testing

We conducted usability testing with 6 users in our target user group: self-identified art lovers. Each test participant was given the two scenarios identified above and asked how they would complete the tasks outlined in the scenario using our low-fidelity prototype. Here’s what we learned: