Cultural Commons
Ideated features and created a design system for an art endowment app
Problem
The current arts patronage model heavily relies on private donors and city funding, leaving artists vulnerable. The closure of applications for park performances in Minneapolis impacted artists, depriving them of exposure and platforms to share their talents.
Solution
A community-funded app, where artists receive compensation via QR code, and recognition through an endowment.
Role
UI Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Trello
Figma
Google Slides
Zoom
User Groups
In a space with ambiguity and unknowns, we developed two user groups based off of our client’s pitch, to help guide our generative research.
Artists
Musicians, visual artists, stage performers, and writers who want to create a culture and are more likely to do so with increased opportunities and avenues of support. They are motivated by expression, opportunity and social capital.
Community Members
The general public, companies, or even other creatives who are passionate proponents of the arts. They are looking for sustainable ways to support the cultural growth of the community and enjoy the arts that they love.
Directed Storytelling
We conducted this research with our user groups to understand what their current pain points are, so we can build this app that is catered towards their specific needs
Findings
Artists are often frustrated by a lack of funds and opportunities, leading to feelings of anxiety and defeat.
Artists increasingly rely on platforms like instagram and facebook, alongside traditional word-of-mouth, to promote their work, highlighting the challenge of standing out in the saturated landscape of social media.
Community members’ financial support for artists is constrained due to limited disposable income
Research Deep Dive
Endowments
We delved deeply into researching how endowments function, aiming to validate or deny any assumptions we had, to further understand our client’s goal. This exploration provided invaluable insights into the problem space, especially since our client suggested establishing cultural commons as an endowment.
We thoroughly investigated the QR code landscape to gain a comprehensive understanding of the technological constraints and opportunities. This enabled us, as UX designers, to tailor our approach to meet our client’s vision of Cultural Commons, having a QR code feature
Findings
To raise endowment funds, the organization must use unrestricted monies to pay for raising those funds.
Arts and culture leaders should consider implementing a five to ten-year endowment growth strategy, aiming for endowment totals that are eight to ten times their annual expenses.
QR Codes
Findings
Two types of QR codes: static and dynamic. Dynamic cost more, but they can track analytics. Static are good for sending users to a single site.
All Android phones have native, 'built-in' QR code readers in the phone camera. All devices running iOS 11 or later will be natively compatible with QR.
Competitive Analysis
We conducted a competitive analysis of similar platforms to identify possible features for ideation, because a platform like Cultural Commons currently does not exist. From our client’s pitch, it felt like a mashup of multiple platforms together and so, we did research on six different platforms however, we meticulously noted features that resonated with our projects vision, and we mainly extracted these pages from three sites for inspiration:
NextDoor
Kind Neighbor Pledge
GoFundMe
Start Page
Share Feature
Payment Page
Patreon
Creator profile page layout
IA Diagram
Following our comprehensive generative research, we gained insights into the complexity of this application, particularly due to the two distinct user groups: artists, and community members
Subsequently, we created an Information Architecture Diagram to meticulously map out the user journeys of both groups, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience throughout their interaction with the app. It was also a guide to help us understand the flow before starting to prototype.
Desireability Testing
We engaged our users in desirability testing using mid-fidelity prototypes. Our aim was to discern the most desirable features and functionalities.
Artist Key Findings
Artists emphasized the importance of app credibility, seeking clarity on key aspects such as the team behind the app, potential fees for participation in the endowment, and data usage policies.
All artists expressed the need for a feature enabling them to easily add events they're attending to their Google Calendar, enhancing organization and scheduling efficiency.
Artists appreciated the visual clarity of the map view for navigation and expressed interest in a dedicated section within the app for accessing all their contracts, streamlining administrative tasks.
Community Key Findings
Community members voiced concerns about the initial login requirement upon app installation, preferring to explore the app before being prompted to log in.
A "Liked Events" tab on the navigation bar was highlighted as a desired feature for convenient access to favored events.
Transparency regarding fund allocation, particularly in the context of an endowment, was identified as a priority for community members, fostering trust and accountability.
Usability Testing
Based on the desirability test findings, we went and conducted our second iteration of prototypes that were high fidelity, to conduct a usability test to make sure the app was intuitive and if users understood the intent of Cultural Commons.
Findings
Users had struggle going to the next page after going to the “Learn” section because there was no call-to-action icons to prompt users
Users struggled trying to understand that they could click on the artists’ name to see an artists profile in the event’s details
Users didn’t like that they ran into the sign up page so soon. They would have preferred to be able to click and browse around more before being prompted to sign up.