Closing the Gap between Artists & Art Collectors
Are you an Artist or Art Collector who simply does not know where to begin when it comes to buying or selling art? Budget Collector is here to help!
Overview
WHAT IS BUDGET COLLECTOR?
Budget Collector (BC) is a mobile application that plans to use data, gathered from an on-boarding process, to create in-person gallery experiences. With the help of an AI-based art advisor, they hope to be able to close the gap between art professionals & art collectors.
OUR challenge
OUR GOAL
WHAT WE HAD TO DO?
WHAT WE NEEDED TO HAPPEN?
Our team set out to create and design an onboarding experience that begins learning the person behind the screen, and also segment by their label, Artist or Collector. Once completed, they would have full access to a profile and be able to connect with each other to form an art-based community.
Exploration
HOW DID WE DISCOVER THE PROBLEM?
Before jumping straight into design, it was important for us to really understand Budget Collector’s story, challenges and ultimate vision. We met with the the founder/CEO of Budget Collector took all the information given and leveraged a Business Model Canvas and Competitive Analysis. This allowed us to clearly understand the mission and how they will differentiate themselves.
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
HOW DOES IT CREATE VALUE?
THE GIST…
The Business Model Canvas helped our team understand how BC works and how exactly they would be adding value in the art world. We learned the importance of segmenting the audience, as well as the urgency of crafting insightful questions for the on-boarding process to be able to create that “in-person experience”.
COMPETITIVE MATRIX
WHO ARE THEY RUNNING AGAINST?
THE GIST…
Budget Collector is not the first art-based app out there, so who else are they competing with? By creating a competitive matrix we were able to to better understand where BC lies in comparison to some competition. Here is where BC finds a niche in creating unique “in-person” experiences while still being a digital platform.
Ultimately these helped us define Budget Collector and get a deeper understanding of their goals. With the UX process as well as their highly intelligent AI we can develop an interesting on-boarding experience that few other art-based apps offer.
THE PROBLEM
But what were people really experiencing?
From our initial meeting with the founder, we assumed that…
How might we create a mutual virtual connection between artist and buyer?
To verify this, we set up two discussion guides with both of our target audiences in mind and conducted a total of 11 user interviews. We interviewed two sets of people based on the client’s two target audiences: artists and art collectors.
THE GIST…
We validated our initial key assumptions: artists don’t know how to price their work; many buyers are not aware of artists that sell outside of museums and galleries; the art market is difficult to navigate and there are few resources to help artists; and collectors are willing to invest in art that they truly love.
PERSONAS
HOW DO WE Personify the ProbleM?
Given our two target audiences, we created two fictional users, commonly known as personas and their existing emotional journeys. This allowed us to empathize with potential users and target our opportunities based on the people we interviewed. Ultimately culminating into two fictional audiences: the artist, and the art collector.
THE ARTIST
Meet Bose, our 30-year-old artist who believes art is an extension of who he is.
THE ART COLLECTOR
Meet Vivian the 41-year-old art collector and architect who has been exposed to art since she was a little girl.
REDEFINING THE PROBLEM
With Bose and Vivian in mind, we restructured our problem keeping in mind the following:
How might we foster a connection between Vivian and Bose to build a network within the art community that benefits both artists and collectors?
DESIGN
DEFINING THE MVP
WHAT DID WE COME UP WITH?
Throughout design, it was incredibly important to define and remember what the minimum viable product was. For us, it was a given, to create insightful questions that would grab our personas attention and keep them hooked in order complete the sign-in process. We did that by leveraging our initial interview questions, as well as solving for Bose’s & Vivian’s pain-points.
HOW DID IT BEGIN?
We conducted design studio sessions, with our client over zoom, in order to rapidly generate innovative ideas for the on-boarding process. Design studio sessions help visualize the problem and engage with our research insights about the artist and collector. After several rounds, the group consolidated all ideas which quickly generated our mid-fidelity wireframes.
How did IT perform?
With the mid-fi’s crafted, it was time to set out for our first round of testing. We tested a total of 6 users and overall, it went well. An onboarding process gives very little room for failure, therefore all participants successfully completed both the artist and collector onboarding. Yet, with post-testing questions, we were able to gain additional insights that helped us to move into high-fidelity.
THE SOLUTION
WHAT DID WE LEARN & CHANGE?
We made few changes to the content of the questions between versions — we needed to refine the copy to make it appear more as a conversation and make it more engaging between the app and the user, instead of having it feel so much like a bot. Additionally, any main changes made going into high-fidelity were strictly design related (creating buttons and transitions, adding color and icons, etc).
WHAT SPECIFICALLY DID WE CHANGE?
LETS SEE IT IN ACTION!
How did IT perform?
With the changes made, it was time to see the high-fidelity in action and see how it performed. As mentioned previously, an onboarding process gives very little room for failure, but again with the post testing question we found out that everything was running as planned. Only 1 participant skipped questions and mentioned something about the length, this confirmed that people were reaching the end and taking the time to provide sufficient information that the AI would leverage for a better experience.
NEXT STEPS
Recommendations
WHAT’S NEXT FOR BUDGET COLLECTOR?
Obviously, more testing needs to be done. Additionally, some UI elements need to be reconfigured before launch:
FINAL THOUGHTS…
Ultimately, there is still much to be done for the Budget Collector app before it launches. But with our onboarding process created, our client can feel confident in completing the rest of the app, and making a network connecting artists to buyers.
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