BRONCO ART CORNER
A platform for Santa Clara University's Art Students
ABOUT
Bronco Art Corner is an app designed to allow student artists to share their art, ask questions, and be apart of a community.
When I first began my UX journey, I found that it was incredibly difficult to find who to reach out to. I had no real way of finding out who at my school had similar interests to me, and who could give me advice on how to start my career. When I asked around, I found that there did not seem to be much of a community for digital designers outside of classes, and I was curious to see if the same could be said for all SCU art students (fine art, digital artists/designers, and UX/UI specialists alike).
Type
iOS Mobile App, Solo Personal Project
My Role
User Research, UX Design, UI Design
Software
Figma, Adobe Photoshop
Duration
4 months
RESEARCH
I surveyed 32 art students at SCU and conducted 3 in-depth interviews in order to collect more personal experiences.
When asked where they go to meet students of similar interests, 45% said classes, while 31% said they don't look for others with similar interests at all.
When asked where they go to find information about careers in art and design, more than 58% said that they turn to the internet, while less than 18% said that they turn to resources at SCU, and only 20% said they would turn ask a professor.
When asked if they agree with the statement, "I feel connected to other art majors/minors", only 3% of those surveyed answered "Strongly agree", while the majority (44%) answered "Neither agree nor disagree".
My three in-depth interviews revealed a stronger sentiment that called out a lack of encouragement for collaboration and job resources for students:
“I honestly don’t think Santa Clara has that many resources. They don’t have enough resources for design as a career. They lump you in with engineering or marketing. It’s definitely an underdeveloped category... I think it’s really segmented. It’s because the departments are so segmented, the people become segmented. Everyone is pretty individual. There is not a lot of cohesiveness.”
“There are a lot of artists and designers at Santa Clara but no one really knows what anyone else is doing. I don’t think they have the proper resources or tools to encourage cross collaboration.”
“I’ve been pulling bits and pieces of resources from different departments at SCU, but it’s not as clear of a direction. There’s also just not a lot of design opportunities that are broadcasted at Santa Clara. There are no career fairs.”
“At SCU, you spend the first two years taking GE classes. You waste two years totally doing your own thing and not really knowing anyone else. There’s a lot of detachment.”
These recurring problems that I heard voiced through my research became my project's main goals; the key pieces of insight that would guide my final design.
PROJECT GOALS
1. to provide a place where students can see each other's artwork
2. to encourage collaboration through easy, casual messaging and by making it easy to find qualified collaborators
3. to allow curious students (artists or soon-to-be) to learn more about their medium of interest
PERSONAS
Yvonne, Senior Engineering Major
Yvonne is an engineering student passionate about VR. She wants to code the program and animate the art, but lacks the artistic skills to draw or paint the art. She needs an artist to collaborate with for her senior project.
Frustration: Yvonne is having a tough time finding someone who has the right skills and is willing to put in the time and effort. Her circle does not overlap with those of art students, so she is running out of people to ask that she personally knows.
Goal: She would like to be able to make a single announcement to everyone capable of helping her in order to find someone quickly.
Ryan, Sophomore Business Major
Ryan is a finance major with a passion for photography. He wants to combine his interests in photography and business to start his own photo company. He wonders if there are any students at Santa Clara University that are also interested in doing photography after graduation.
Frustration: Being a business student, Ryan doesn't know who to go to or where to even start finding the person he is looking for. He fears that the person may not exist at SCU.
Goal: He would like to be able to do a quick search to see if there is anyone at Santa Clara University that matches who he is looking for.
Lily, Freshman Studio Arts Major
Lily is a freshman majoring in Studio Arts, and would like to find out as much about art events and groups as possible.
Frustration: Lily cannot find a single directory or outlet that advertises all of the art events throughout the school, and she wishes she could see which ones were most popular and therefore be the ones she should prioritize in order to meet more people.
Goal: She would like to be able to see all art events and be able to gauge how popular they are on one platform.
USER'S FLOW (FIRST DRAFT)
Below are the initial user flows, which were edited and iterated upon multiple times throughout the process.
WIRE FRAMES
Signing Up Wire Frame:
One of my very first wireframe ideas in which I had 3 different log in screens depending on whether the user was a student, professor, or admin employee at SCU. I scratched this idea later, feeling that it was unnecessary.
LOW FI SCREENS
As I began wire framing, I noticed that much of my initial user's flows were unnecessarily complicated and made needed changes.
USER TESTING
I conducted usability testing with ten SCU students on the ease of use for tasks that correspond to my goals of creating a space to showcase one's work, to easily find and reach out to other art students, and to learn more about SCU's art community.
I tested the following tasks:
1. Creating an event
2. Searching for and messaging someone
3. Uploading one's own work
4. Finding notifications
5. Checking messages
Participants were given a digital prototype through Zoom and were verbally asked to perform these tasks. Success was based on the time it took for each task and the number of incorrect clicks each took before completion.
After testing, I made changes based on the results such as the shape of some buttons and placement of "Add to 'My Work'" feature.
BRANDING
FINAL SOLUTION
Signing Up
Home, Browse, Messages
Search
Making a Post
REFLECTION
This having been my very first UX project, I am incredibly proud to have made it to the end. Besides learning how to conduct every step of the design process on my own, I have also learned things such as the importance of simplifying applications and how to use conventions to make an app as intuitive as possible for the user.
Being able to connect with real people and offer them a solution to their frustrations was immensely satisfying, and I hope to be able to present this project, or at the very least, my research, to the arts department of Santa Clara University.
In the future, I hope to be able to conduct usability testing on more subjects in order to gain insight into more improvements that can be made. I would also like to explore different research methods before the design process. In conclusion, while I am happy to call this project my own, I know that I still have much to learn, and am looking forward to continuing my user experience journey.