YOUR PHOTO
Dream it
YOUR PHOTO Dream it
CASE STUDY - GV DESIGN SPRINT GramCity - FIND PLACES FOR INSTAGRAMABLE PHOTOS
INTRODUCTION
Many people have an interest in photography and will invest their time and money in anything to enable them to achieve taking good pictures, as a hobby or a profession. It will be useful to have the resources to find out the best locations to access important and attractive places to take good photos. A new photo editing company, GramCity, wants to provide users, who have a passion for photography, with an app to help them find the most important and attractive places to take their photos in any city. The limited time available for this project suggests the application of the latest Google Ventures Design Sprint approach to finding solutions to the problem.
PROBLEM
To produce an app that will give users information about locations with interesting, beautiful, and useful attractions to take Instagram photos
SOLUTION
Perform a user research synthesis to create a user flow for the product
The user flow suggests ideas for the product. A light demo, and observing some existing products are used to create the information architecture for the product and to develop the initial sketches.
Figma is used to develop the sketches into a high fidelity for prototyping.
A prototype is created in ProtoPie.
TEAM
1 UX Designer
MY ROLE
Usability Studies
Wireframing
Mockups
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Iterations
TIMELINE
5 Days ( Google Venture Design Sprint)
“Photos are for a great memory. Find a good one”
5-DAY DESIGN SPRINT
DAY 1
Design Problem:
GramCity wants to provide users, who have a passion for photography, with an app to help them find the most Instagram-able locations to take their photos in any city and find excellent places for great photo-ops near them wherever they are. The challenge is to run a design sprint to quickly test out possible solutions.
The user research question is based on how to find great new places to take photos, and the answers include:
Where to catch people's eyes.
Places that are visually stimulating with bold colors, or an interesting composition.
A mix of touristy, front of famous buildings and sites. Some lesser-known places too.
Good places near me or travel, go hunting for that one picture you want.
Plan for a day out for the “must-have photos”
To document what I am doing.
Find places where movies were filmed or historic spots.
I care more about the visual appeals.
Persona
Personas for this project are Nick and Sarah.
Nick:
Age, 24, Video editor, Los Angeles
Behavior:
Takes road trips 5 times a year,
Traveling and documenting his trips, and sharing his photos on social media and with friends.
No strict plan or itinerary.
Frustrations
Regrets not taking enough photos
Feels missing out on travel when constantly on the phone taking pictures
Feels like missing out on some great photo ops near him.
Goals:
To find great places to take good photos to document his trips, but not to spend the time searching or traveling out of the way to find them.
QUOTE
“Where to catch people's eyes”
Sarah:
Age, 27, Event Production Manager
Chicago IL
Behavior:
Travels a lot for work, spends a lot of time in new cities, and takes time in between events to take photos.
I took a photography course recently and watch photos on Instagram, Pinterest, and other sites for inspiration.
Thinks and plans for the photos she wants take.
Frustrations:
Doesn’t spend a lot of time in one city but wants to get possible photos when she’s there spending time.
Doesn’t mind traveling for a great photo but can easily get disappointed.
Likes to look through other people’s photos for inspiration but hates to research the location. Takes too long
Likes to see how others take photos but it’s time-consuming to scroll through lots of average photos to find a few good ones.
Goals:
To quickly find locations and examples of best photo-ops in a city before planning out her day.
QUOTE
“A mix of touristy, front of famous buildings and sites”
USER FLOW
Design for the User Flow to use the app to find suitable locations for photo-ops.
DAY 2: (SKETCHING)
Lightning Demo:
Conduct a lightning Demo to get ideas and inspiration.
The THREE-PANEL Board
DAY 3:
Design Choice
This is the Design of my choice to develop into a useful and reliable app for users who are looking for Instagram-able locations for their photos. It is simple with good white space to make it easy to interact with and has more details for the user’s information.
Developed ideas into wireframes, starting from the welcome page, through registration to accessing locations of interest to take good photos.
DAY 4
PROTOTYPE THE SOLUTION
DAY 5:
Interviewing and Testing
Cleaned up the prototype and made improvements to the UI design
Conducted a user interview and testing of the product for feedback
There were five participants for the interview and testing of the prototype and I used the 5- Act Interview approach,
James, 27.
Accountant in a finance company
Dallas TX
Peter, 32
A graphic designer
Arlington, TX
Nat, 27
Artist, Painter
Arlington, TX
Kossi, 25
A colleague at work
Arlington, TX
Benneth, 25
Works at FEDEX
Arlington, TX
Questions include how to register to use the app to find attractive places to take photos
Participants' feedback highlight:
The app was easy to use.
They suggested improvement on the instructions to interact with the app
A participant suggested creating a storage feature on the app to save only GramCity photos
Iterations:
Instructions have been improved on the user interface to enable easy and quick use.
Suggestions for improvement
To include a photo-taking feature on the app for users to access the camera directly from the app including storage for GramCiity photos.
REFLECTIONS AND LEARNINGS
The project enabled me to get more practice in design thinking, learn new skills, improve on existing skills, and learn to complete a project at a fast pace.
I had more practice with Figma and ProtoPie. Figma is used to create the high fidelity and PotoPie to create the prototype.
I used the colors in GramCity for the design color palette
The app was easy to use and enabled the users to achieve their aim of finding good attractions
Suggestions are raised by testers to include a screen with a navigation map of the locations.