Collective App
Product Design, UX/UI, Branding
Collective Is a centralized resource app catering to creatives in specific fields. Social media connects us, but these interactions are not necessarily productive. Collective see’s a gap:
The lack of a central resource app catering to and connecting creators.
My task is twofold- can this apparent need be validated? And if so, what could the final product look like?
User Research
User research was key to ensuring that a gap for this product did in fact exist and would be crucial to conceptualizing the final product.
21 individual user interviews were conducted, the results pulled into a central format for comparison and analysis. User research lead to the development of 3 persona's distinguished primarily by their levels of engagement in the their respective creative activities.
This process shed light on the most underserved creative fields. Tech and design are well catered to online but fields such as music, film, fashion and photography were underpinned by disjointed use of multiple social media services when participants set out on creative projects. It was here that the solution would lie.
It surfaced that a creator's personal network is the number one resource relied on when embarking on a creative project- fostering a sense of vetted connections in the online space would be the cornerstone of this application.
UX Design
Wireframes were developed in Balsamiq, then transferred to Sketch for medium fidelity prototyping.
Visual Design only began once the MVP had been fully prototyped in low fidelity. This would prevent potentially timely delays caused by UX changes being made once high fidelity iterations were already in existence. See the low fidelity prototype here
Extensive user testing was conducted on the low fidelity prototype, primarily resolving issues of real estate- with so much functionality within the app, what should the user have single click access to? What could be lumped together? Results of this testing directly influenced the structure of the app- given the volume of functionality, information architecture required validation in testing.
UI Design
The final product was a substantial build in Sketch. Combining facets of multiple social media applications with a project space was a notable task- Collective allows users:
- a space to display their creative persona;
- a means to engage with other creatives;
- direct sight of projects they may want to be involved in;
- the ability to reach out and apply to projects directly within the app;
- a means to review collaborators on a project while building a vetted profile on the app;
- a means to be paid directly through the app;
- a conversational space to share and gather knowledge from the collective community.
Experience the full high fidelity InVision prototype here
