PROJECT OVERVIEW
Connecting users with stunning photo spots in their vicinity
👩🏻💼 Role: Lead UX/UI Designer
🗓 Timeline: 5 weeks
💻 Tools: Figma, Miro, pen, paper
THE PROBLEM
Finding great locations for photographs can be challenging for users who are unfamiliar with the area or have limited time to conduct research.
Objectives
GramCity aims to establish a dynamic user community centered around discovering and sharing appealing locations.
GramCity wants to facilitate user’s ability to locate physical photo-ops.
Research highlights
For this solo project, I was provided primary research materials due to time constraint.
To gain a deeper understanding of the problem at hand, I conducted a synthesis of the research highlights performed by GramCity. This allowed me to uncover recurring themes regarding user behaviors and needs
An affinity map created to synthesize and analyze GramCity's research to identify common themes
User needs
Ability to plan out itinerary for photos taking while traveling
Being able to locate nearby photogenic destinations
Methods to search and filter out by specific categories of photo-ops
II. USER PERSONAS
Based on the created personas that simulate the target users, some features to be considered for the solution include:
Location-based recommendations
Geographic filters
Bookmarked collections
User-generated content
allow users to save and organize their findings to effectively plan for future photo-taking sessions?
provide users the ability to refine their search based on geographic location and categories of photo-ops?
help users effortlessly discover visually captivating and photogenic locations nearby?
III. SOLUTION PATH
To generate the most optimal design, I created a user flow of the red route to visualize the end-to-end experience a user might have while trying to complete the task of locating nearby photo-ops.
Day 2: Sketching the Solution
Lighting Demos
To draw inspiration and ignite creativity, I conducted a solo session of lightning demo to gather research and ideas for the solution.
I began with evaluating the existing solutions currently utilized by photography enthusiasts to search for photo-ops with the objective to gain insights on their effectiveness and identify areas for potential improvement to enhance the user experience.
This led me to the realization that there is still a gap in the market for the photography location finder space as prevalent apps still fall short in fulfilling the needs of users with their available features.
Crazy 8s
To push for innovative ideas, I completed a rapid ideation exercise called Crazy 8s and quickly came up with 8 distinct versions for GramCity interface.
Generating many different possible solutions was highly beneficial in determining the most suitable one.
While some solutions may not have fully aligned with the problem requirements, they were not discarded and could be adapted and integrated with other concepts to formulate the most optimal solution that addresses users' needs.
For instance, the visual design of the third solution presented above was implemented into the location search flow for the final solution.
After carefully evaluating all 8 possible solutions, I was able to narrow down the best one. It combines the clear presentation of photo-op suggestions on the home screen along with filter options for users to select the type of photo-op they are seeking.
After refining my solution via previous exercises, I created a 10 panel storyboard that serves as the low fidelity wireframe. It includes the most necessary UI elements required to build the prototype and all the interactions the user will need to complete the main critical tasks on the platform.
10 panel storyboard that includes the solution sketch
In the development of the prototype, I devised the following flows to enable users to efficiently complete the main tasks on the platform. These flows were carefully crafted to align with the results of conducted primary research, ensuring that they reflect the needs of target users.
Browsing suggestions
Setting Filters
Searching Up Location
Saving to Collection
To gather insights into users' interactions with the product, I conducted usability testing with 5 participants who enjoy photography and have actively searched for new photogenic spots in the past fix months. This was extremely crucial to identify areas for improvement in terms of functionality and user experience.
Key Insights
No major usability issues were detected. All 5 participants were able to complete all given tasks.
Some minor UI issues were identified.
User Feedback
Distance from current location:
Users would like to know how far the photo ops are from their current location.
Social engagement:
Users expressed interest to engage with other users through social features such as leaving reviews for each photo-op.
Navigation:
Users communicated that it would be inconvenient to manually copy the address to the photo-op and paste it onto another app every time they want to navigate there.
Iterations
To enhance the platform's overall usability and user satisfaction, I worked on the following iterations based on the suggestions from the usability testing sessions.
Final Product
Reflections
Completing the GramCity design sprint in 5 days was a challenging but rewarding experience. The time constraint was definitely a big challenge as it limited the amount of prototyping and user testing that could be done.
One of the key insights that emerged from this sprint was the importance of integrating social engagement and user-generated content into the app, to allow users to share their experiences and discover new locations through the experiences of others.
If there were more time, I would’ve liked to conduct another round of usability testing after iterations were made from the first round to gather more feedback from a wider range of users. Additionally, more time would have allowed for a deeper exploration of the app’s functionality, such as the integration of augmented reality, to enhance the user experience.