““Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth””
This question is the core of what this project is about. Art plays an important role throughout human civilizations. However, with the subjective nature of the value of art, it often is a struggle for artists to make a living and reach their potential.
For this personal mobile app project, I wanted to design an app that offers artists and the art community a path to both thrive in this journey.
Is there a way that we can help the artists to succeed easier in the current economic climate?
To start, understanding the users
User research and methods
I started my user research with user interviews, field study (ethnographic user research, rapid ethnography) through direct observations and informal interviews.
Empathized with the users
To be able to truly help artists and art lovers to meet their goals, I would need to understand the artists’ professional life and how to help art lovers, and collectors find the art they want.
Talked to the users
I met with art gallery owners and artists for informal interviews, reached out to the art community, and went to art events and exhibitions to understand the art buying and selling experiences of both artists and art lovers. I learned a lot from direct observations and the talks with them.
I did that by
Those conversations and user interviews shed light on what helps artists make money and what art lovers are looking for.
I also observed through digital ethnography to gain an understanding of the art market, and how artists developed themselves and their business on different platforms.
In recent years, online sales have changed the infrastructure of selling art. Art lovers, especially the tech-savvy millennials, enjoy discovering art online instead of through traditional art galleries.
The rise of online and virtual sales
“Online sales doubled to a record high of $12.4 billion, accounting for an all-time high of 25% of the market’s overall value, up from just 9% in 2019. They thus exceed the sales in bricks–and–mortar galleries – a market first.
Including art fair Online Viewing Rooms, (OVRs), the share of dealers’ revenues from online sales tripled, from 13% to 39%.”
Reference:
https://artbasel.com/stories/2021-the-art-basel-and-ubs-global-art-market-report-2021
The art buyers are getting younger
“According to a survey published by Invaluable, an online auction and gallery hub, nearly a quarter (22.7%) of art buyers find new works of art via social media, which edged out museums (20%) and galleries (15.9%) as buyers’ primary source of discovery. Millennials are leading this change, with 44.3% of young millennials (ages 18–24) and 33.8% of older millennials (ages 25–34) saying they discover art on social media.”
Through the user interviews, field studies and digital ethnography research, I found out that the majority of art sell for emerging artists are from occasions and channels that let the artists talk to and discover new art collectors and their fanbases directly.
With the interviews and research, the next step is to create user personas and empathy maps that show us the portraits of the ArtX app users!
What I Learned
Because of the pandemic, many artists have lost the opportunity to nurture communications and relationships with their fan bases and art lovers in person.
New artists often face an economic disadvantage in society.
People are more open-minded and explorational than before, especially for the younger demographic groups like the millennials.
People love to discover and get to know the artist directly.
Artists sell by finding their market and audiences and maintaining regular communications with art lovers.
What I have learned is communication is key! Art lovers want to know the artist and their works.
With the ArtX app, it can:
Let artists showcase their artwork and find their audiences.
Allow artists to engage audiences, understand their market directly, and respond to art collectors in real-time.
Allow artists to market themselves with flexibility.
Offer a unique way for artists and art lovers to build a one-on-one relationship.
The purpose of ArtX is to build a bridge between artists and art lovers.
Ideation
Now with a strong understanding of the users, I was able to start brainstorming on the app and had created some user scenarios and hand-sketched wireframes during the ideation phase.
For me, hand-sketched wireframe holds a unique role during my design process. It often serves as a quick mental note that helps me memorize and visualize the product and users flow quickly and captures multiple ideas in a short time.
Low-fidelity wireframe
As the design blueprint, the low-fidelity wireframe helps me visualize the product layout, user experiences, essential components, and functionality. My focus was to realize the steps that the users will walk through and define the features, options, components, variants, spacing, and interaction design of the product.
Design System
Once I had an idea of how the app should work, I started designing the style and the UI components for the app ArtX. As an app with the main function to showcase artwork to the users, it is important to keep in mind that the artwork and the context should be the center of the users’ attention. Thus, I decided to go with a simplistic aesthetic with minimal color palettes.
High-fidelity mockup
As a result, while building this prototype, I kept in mind that on top of helping users find the artworks they like easily and turn them into actions (buying), I also implemented features for the communications between the users.
The ArtX is an app to be the bridge to bring art lovers and artists closer and to nurture sales and communications.
Chat room for artists and users.
Users can send mini-games, short jokes via messenger.
Artists can create and host events on the app.
Highlighted communication features:
For a realistic presentation of how the app should feel and look, I had used real artists and their artworks for the thumbnails, with the exception of the sample user and artist account, so please feel free to check them out if you like their art! All the background images are from Unsplash.