The Client: Art to U is a start up that aims to enable artists of many disciplines to monetize their art by teaching their craft to patrons in their home or any environment of the patron’s choosing. The teaching can be done with a solo patron or to a group called enhancement salons.
The Opportunity: Being able to have artists get paid for their creativity as opposed to giving it away to “social media” can change the way a content producer lives. Many services offer the ability to hire an artist to perform at your event. However not many offer the ability to be taught or by an artist. A viable stream of income from their work from teaching others will not only provide income for the artist, but also enrich the lives of those learning or participating in skill building.
The Outcome: A website that artists can easily use to find out about opportunities to teach their skills.
Length of Project: 5 Weeks
Role: Ideated, Researched, Interviewed, created affinity and journey maps, built persona, wireframed and created high fidelity prototype.
Competitive Analysis
Research
Goals:
1. How do artists feel that their craft is viewed in our society.
2. How do they feel about people often looking for free art?
3. What is the importance, if any, of payment for their services.
4. Can teaching art really be a practical source of income?
5. Should art generally be considered a viable profession, such as medicine or plumbing?
Methodology:
Personal interviews with artists who also have “day jobs”. These interviews took place at a bar/restaurant that hosts a weekly open night. We found a relatively quiet booth to chat. All of the participants were singer/songwriters. Some practiced other disciplines like visual art and writing. The compensation of one drink was offered to the interviewees.
Participants:
Ethical Considerations: There are no ethical considerations at this point. All are over 18, of apparent sound mind and not apparently inebriated.
Personal Reflection: While most artists that I’ve spoken to in the past have opined that art is not viewed as having enough monetary value, it will be interesting to find out their specific experiences with and thoughts about applying commerce to their art. I hypothesize that they would like to pursue their craft and make a living – or supplement their income by doing what they love. It was interesting to learn that while intrigued by the idea of being able to monetize their art, some were somewhat neutral about the idea.
Affinity Map: So in reflecting on the interviews, I was able to put together the following affinity map.
Persona: This affinity map lead to the following persona who would then be my artist.
Concept Map: How does it look for Jamie to experience the highs & lows? To realize her dream?
Wireframes: This then enabled me to begin my wireframes and sketches. I imagined a site that would be user friendly to artists as they log in, view messaged, edit their profile and accept gigs. Let’s see…
User Test
Design Scheme
My thoughts on color for this site were more focused on “shades of” rather than exact colors. How can an image or an element of visual design capture the feeling of creativity, action and growth? I imagined an experience that encourages someone to feel inspired, possibly get out of their comfort zone to teach someone a new craft, but without anxiety of doing so.
I found Airbanb interesting as I’ve stated because they inspire the site viewer into action and wanting what they have to offer.
Grubhub, utilizes the scrolling images in an effective way. As with Airbnb, you want what they have to offer. While Grbuhub isn’t the only site that offers this feature, they do so in a site that while very congested, remains clean and well organized.
Art to U
Below is a snippet of Art to U with the XD prototyped link below that.
Upon testing, the users had no trouble getting around the site, choosing options and making a final choice.