Choice
Designing a way to stay connected with friends and uplifting spirits by sharing art during the COVID pandemic.
Co-founder
UX/UI design
Interaction design
Visual design
Brand
Design system
iOS
Android
2020 - 2021
To combat isolation and connect people through art, while addressing the issue of social media fatigue. Solving this problem benefits users by promoting creativity, nurturing relationships, and helping artists get their work seen.
The initial conception of this was shared with our friend group and network, primarily made up of 20-40 year olds who either had an appreciation for, or created art. As usage grew, so didn’t the audience and motivations of users.
The trigger event for when a user might want to use this app would be when they have a brief moment of downtime and feel the need for connection or entertainment. Scenarios would be while waiting in line, commuting, or taking a break.
Based on the information in the previous steps we decided that a mobile app with bite sized content of a swipeable art deck would be the most fun and light weight solution. It’s the core UX mechanic with the ability to dig deeper if desired.
In order to make the app compelling and acquire users, we first needed to seed the app with content. How do we do this if no artists are on the app yet?
One of the big problems artists had with other apps was the algorithms dictated the cadence and medium in which they had to create posts in order for it to be seen by their followers.
Once we acquire artists and users, how do we ensure that they add quality pieces to the community and not water it down by choosing quantity over quality to boost their reach?
We designed a flow that would enable users and artists alike, to easily add artwork with proper attribution. Creator credit is enforced by running every upload through a “deduping” algorithm. We are now able to build out user generated artist pages to follow and collectively add to, similar to Wikipedia. When the artist is ready, they can claim their page and have a new turn key audience the moment they sign up.
Every piece that is uploaded gets added to the stack and is eventually presented to every user on the app. If a user “choices” a piece, it gets sent anonymously to the top of the stacks of users who have similar tastes. This helps artists to exponentially grow their audience and encourages adding noteworthy pieces to the community.
In order to share work on the app, either by choicing an existing piece from the stack, or uploading something new, you must spend a choice. A new one is earned every 20 swipes. This mechanism controls the quantity and ensures the quality of uploaded artwork by requiring users to spend tokens that are earned through engagement.
