Goal

Learning traditional art is not only challenging, at times, it is also inaccessible. I have three personal goals for this design challenge: support the existence of more traditional art-focused apps, address current pain points of mobile ecommerce users, and improve reading experiences. What you can expect:

• The finest selection of tutorials, sales, competitions, and more;
• Art specialty shops with pick up and delivery options;
• Art charity highlights & direct donations.

My Role (solo project)

• Product Strategy
• User Research & Analysis
• Wireframes
• UI Design & Prototyping
• Animation
• Content Writing

1.1 Hypothesis

Aspiring artists don’t fall short of curiosity and drive to explore different traditional mediums. Absent mind blocks (or existential issues), a major deterrent in the pursuance of traditional art is the specialized materials it requires, their scarce availability, and its intimidating nature.

1.2 Interviews

After conducting interviews, I observed that among young artists, experimenting with digital art instead is gaining traction, not only due to the ubiquitousness of gadgets making it far less cheaper to explore, but also the wider array of student-freelancers who deemed it more lucrative to familiarize themselves with digital mediums.

Other insights:

• Faith in the importance of learning traditional art remains
• Interest to go back to the tactile boards and workshops is intact, but inaccessibility comes in many forms
• Gap of fulfillment between creating digital and traditional art is narrow, but the latter incurs larger mental and financial burden

2.1 The How Might We’s

To generate more concrete ideas, I used HMW questions to explore ways to address the user’s pain points.

• How might we develop a renewed interest in a young artist to explore traditional art?
• How might we make traditional art more accessible in terms of availability of resources?
• How might we create a more inclusive space for artists with special user needs (such as color blindness)?
• How might we make the searching process friendlier and more appealing?
• How might we lessen the mental load of aggregating items from different stores to find the best option to buy?

4.1 Test Findings And Design Solutions

Test Findings

• The original menu icon (4 dots) was ambiguous and hard to reach
• The search icon is easily missable
• The term ‘Topics’ was deemed confusing, and not indicative of segmented categories
• Users valued checking the store’s external online presence

Design Solutions

• Tab bar in lieu of the menu icon was established at the bottom
• The search feature was made more prominent and actionable
• The title of the section was changed to ‘Articles’ instead
• A store view, map view, phone number, and website (if applicable) were integrated