Supporting emerging artists to find and access
opportunities
Try the prototype out for yourself here
OVERVIEW
Inspired by my personal experiences as an emerging artist, my first solo design challenge was creating a digital platform prototype for Emerging Arts Hub. This was part of my coursework at Academy Xi's UX/UI Design Course.
Emerging Arts Hub is a startup that wants to enable emerging artists of all disciplines to access more opportunities in growing their experience and building their capabilities. My role in the project was undergoing research, synthesising the research, designing solutions and testing them out.
The aim of the project was to create an MVP of a user experience that offered a better alternative than how emerging artists currently find and access opportunities
IMPACT OF MY PROJECT
"I think it’s a great idea and would be particularly helpful for creatives. It’s a gap in the industry to be able to easily search for collaborators/opportunities for sure"
"This app could be very beneficial for lots of artists and would help create a community of artists to collaborate together. The platform is easy to use and has great, explanatory buttons. I can get around quickly and find what I need to find"
- Georgia, visual artist and founder of ArtKind
How did I achieve this outcome? Find out!
DISCOVERY PHASE
I created a problem statement to focus on the problem I needed to explore and solve, which helped my research to direct itself towards gaining an overview of what kind of difficulties artists face in finding and getting opportunities (beyond my own experiences) and finding out if artists are satisfied with how they currently find and get opportunities:
"Emerging artists want to start and advance their careers in the creative field. However, they face difficulties in finding and getting opportunities that enable them to build their experience and capabilities".
My research:
- 27 survey respondents who were musicians, visual artists, multidisciplinary and in other art disciplines
- 10 User interviews
- 4 competitors analysed
Key research findings
- Artists rely on their exisiting networks, collaboration with other artists and word of mouth to find and access opportunities. Furthermore, artists enjoy being apart of online communities where they could share their artworks , collaborate with one another and support each other. However, 14 out of 27 survey responses and user interviews indicated that artists found it difficult to find and maintain online connections without in-person interactions, even though COVID-19 restrictions made in person interactions more limited.
- Artists browse through various online search platforms (ArtsHub, Seek), newsletters, Instagram and Facebook pages to find and access opportunities. However, 16 out of 27 survey responses mentioned that looking for opportunities everywhere was time consuming and overwhelming, where many interviewees mentioned that having everything in one place would be useful for them.
- 18 out of 27 survey respondents mentioned that current commitments and circumstances made it difficult to access opportunities, where 5 out of 10 interviewees mentioned that they receive opportunities either at short notice or after the deadline, which prevented them from accessing opportunities
- 22 out of 27 survey responses mentioned that they face difficulties in promoting and marketing their artistic practise, being unsure of how to do so. Interviewees expressed the same sentiment where they had difficulties 'building up hype' while navigating the competitive nature of the arts industry.
DEFINE PHASE
The aim of the define phase was to synthesise all of my research findings into a customer journey map, where I could see the issues artists face in their current experiences of finding and accessing opportunities. The customer journey map would enable me to find which parts of their user journey I could focus on, where I could start designing solutions that would improve how artists find and access opportunities.
Creating the customer journey map involved creating an an affinity map via Miro, where I grouped together and organise large amounts of information and data from my research into common themes. Afterwards, I created an empathy map to visually see what emerging artists think, see, do, feel and hear when they find and access opportunities. The empathy map enabled me to created four personas that reflected my target user. I picked 'Willow Baxter' as a base for my customer journey map, because the persona’s more varied methods of finding and accessing opportunities (in comparison to other personas) presented more options for me to improve upon.
Below, you can see the personas and the customer journey map
I chose not to base this persona for my customer journey map because the persona’s lack of experience and the need for resources were outside of the Emerging Arts Hub’s control and scope.
I chose to base this persona for my customer journey map because the persona’s more active behaviours in terms of finding and accessing opportunities (in comparison to other personas) presented a chance for me to improve on.
I chose not to base my customer journey map on this persona, because their main needs seem to be geared towards promotion, which the Emerging Arts Hub has limited resources and knowledge in.
Customer journey map
DESIGN PHASE
How might we make it easier for emerging artists to find more suitable opportunities, in a way that is less time consuming and better caters for their circumstances, while increasing the likelihood of longer lasting connections and collaborations with other artists that are an essential part of getting more opportunities?
To come up with ideas, I drew out Crazy 8s and facilitated a brain writing session , where I plotted the most voted ideas onto an MVP. Prior to ideation, I tested out four competitor platforms mentioned in my research by artists who used them to find and access opportunities. This was to get some inspiration while finding areas of improvement from these competitor platforms.
Testing Competitor platforms
Testing Competitor platforms
brain writing and crazy 8s
MVP
These were the final ideas I decided to implement, because I felt they directly addressed my key research findings:
- A search function with filters to make it easier for emerging artists to find suitable opportunities in one place, while finding other artists and collaborators that they were more likely to maintain a relationship with
- A recommendations function for artists to discover opportunities, based on those they have already applied for. This is so that artists won't need as much stamina to search for suitable opportunities
- An 'endorsements' and 'how I can support you' section in artist profiles to encourage more meaningful and long-term networks, while challenging the competitive nature of the arts sector where artists are unsure of how to promote themselves
- A checklist function where artists can keep track of what opportunities they need to apply for, so that they can organise time to apply for opportunities in despite of their current commitments
DELIVERY PHASE
My aim in the delivery phase was to build out my design solution in the form of a prototype, where I could test whether my design solution could actually improve how emerging artists find and access opportunities while finding and maintaining connections + collaborators.
My process involved referring to competitor platforms and my user flow to create the information architecture, building out well annotated lo-fidelity wireframes, creating a prototype via Figma and preparing usability questions.
Determined to develop my prototype as best I could, I conducted two rounds of usability tests, with each round having three testers from different art disciplines.
Information architecture map
As I gained more feedback from my classmates and mentor, I learnt that I did not need to fit everything into one screen. I used my hi-fidelity wireframes to conduct the first round of usability testing. During this phase of my project, I went through a learning process of UI design. I had to overhaul the overall UI look of the prototype after conducting the first three usability tests. I learnt my lesson on never to use yellow as a background.
Delivery phase | Round one of usability testing
1 visual artist , 1 musician and 1 multidisciplinary artist tested my prototype
What testers liked:
- All of the testers enjoyed how the artist profile created a friendly and supportive environment, by including headings such as 'testimonials' and 'how I can support you
- - All of the testers said that the recommended opportunities function was useful, because that meant that they didn't need to actively seek out opportunities all the time, and can just discover them
However, a concern among testers was about the amount of user and opportunities on platform if it were to launch. For the second round of usability testing, I implemented a 'refer a friend function' to mitigate this concern.
Key areas of improvement were identified :
1) For Tester one, a music artist, they wanted footer navigation buttons to get a better idea of what to expect from the app, instead of relying on the hamburger menu without knowing what was going to happen
2) For Tester two, a visual artist and tester three, a multidisciplinary artist, they wanted me to improve the general appearance of the UI and give more consideration into how users could select information for a more seamless experience
3) After looking back at research notes and in the brain writing session, I decided to be more attentive to user research findings by adding in a resources page. This was to be less biased of my main idea of a search function.
Delivery Phase | Implementing tester feedback
Considering tester feedback, I decided to sketch rough wireframes to give more consideration as to how users could select information in a more seamless way on mobile devices. I decided to emulate simple forms with progress bars where users require less clicks. Furthermore, I completed a card sorting activity to organise how the short questionnaire was to be structured. I also sketched out some rough wireframes to see what the resources page could look like.
Lo-fidelity wireframes of how users find relevant artist resources
A card sorting activity to organise how the short questionnaire was to be structured. I did this activity twice, where I tested out the old version to the first tester. The first tester was confused about the numbered progress bar, where some sections only had one question while others had multiple questions. So I created the new version for the last two artists to test out
Lo-fidelity wireframes of how users search for opportunities in the form of a short questionnaire (using same language as the search filters) with a clear progress bar
Delivery phase | Round two of usability testing
2 musicians and 1 visual artist tested out my prototype
What the testers liked:
1) All testers liked how the platform asked, “How much time do you need to prepare for your opportunity?”, because it did not rely on an arbitrary idea of “applications closing soon”
2) All testers found the UI visually appealing, and the prototype easy to use, smooth, and mostly user friendly.
Key areas of improvement were identified :
1) Although the testers liked the updated questionnaire format, they were confused about filtering artists by availabilities because their schedules change a lot. So I decided to remove this option
2) One of the artists wanted the artist profile to include their rates for services they offered. Given how 24 out of 27 survey responses said that a feature that enabled people to pay for their services would be useful, I decided to include this information. I also added in "Find services" as another option in the homepage.
3) One tester expressed concerns about the amount of user and opportunities on the platform if it were to launch. Henceforth, the 'refer a friend' function was a partial success.
PROTOTYPE
Try the prototype out for yourself here
KEY LEARNINGS
1) If I was to do the project again, I would have been a bit more considerate of how the platform was going to be financially viable from the client's perspective. Furthermore, I would have consulted with software developers to gauge the feasibility of my design solutions.
2) If I was to create personas again, I would have included more questions in the survey related to how they currently find opportunities and their thoughts about it, rather than only focusing on their pain points.
3) I would have gotten a graphic designer/detail orientated person to go over the prototype, so that I could make final changes before testing three people. This would have given me a higher and more accurate SUS score, while reducing variables changing.
4) If I was to do this project again, I would have given my classmates a rundown of my main findings during the brain writing session, in getting higher quality ideas.