Arthouse

I set out to give art buyers a gallery-like experience in-app. Having worked in two galleries, I had a good understanding of what people enjoyed about the experience.

The goal

Give artists a professional way to showcase their work online and give buyers a convenient way to find art that feels like gallery shopping.

My process

First, user research to identify pain points
Personas

User research summary

I spoke with collectors to learn about their struggles buying art through existing apps.

User pain points

1

Ease of use

Current options are overly complicated.

2

Aesthetics

Users want a gallery-like experience.

3

Mobile options

Most art marketplaces aren't mobile optimized.

Personas

After my initial user research, I created two personas to better understand the types of users who would want the Arthouse app.

Designing

Paper wireframes
Digital wireframes
Low-fidelity prototype
Usability study

Paper wireframes

Using Crazy 8's, I rapidly iterated on ideas and created a few concepts.

Digital wireframes

I selected the strongest design and brought it into Figma.

Then I drafted four more frames to finish the low fidelity prototype.

Usability study findings

With the lofi-prototype done, it was time for testing. So I ran five users through a list of tasks in the prototype and identified three areas for improvement.

1

Hidden pages

40% of users couldn't find the explore or cart pages.

2

Navigation

60% of users wanted a form of nav like a hamburger menu.

3

Button visibility

40% of users missed buttons on top of images.

Refining
the design

Mockups
Usability study #2
Refined mockups
High fidelity prototype

Mockups

Using new insights I added a top-line search bar, hamburger menu, and bottom navigation. I learned that users wanted to explore from the home page, so I added art categories for easy browsing.

home page top

bottom

Usability study #2

Time to test the design again. The feedback this time helped me stay focused on the user needs as I took the design into high-fidelity.

1

Navigation issues

60% of users wanted a hamburger menu.

2

Finding artist info

40% struggled to find artist profile pages.

3

Cluttered design

80% of users want a more simplified look.

Refined mockups

I created a logo and tagline, shifted to a dark theme, and simplified the design. I cut the featured artist section and made the search bar more prominent. I changed the categories to scrolling carousels of artwork and updated the design to work on the new iOS.

Before

After

Final mockups

High fidelity prototype

See the prototype

Reflecting

Meeting the goal
Lessons learned

Meeting the goal

Merging my knowledge of art galleries with all I learned from the user studies, I was able to create an app that feels more like the in-gallery experience.

"It's looking really good! I'm super impressed. Keep it up!"
Rishi N.
Product designer & study participant

Lessons learned

Test, test, test.
The user is always right.
Bringing an in-person experience into an app is tough.

Arthouse

I set out to give art buyers a gallery-like experience in-app. Having worked in two galleries, I had a good understanding of what people enjoyed about the experience.

The goal

Give artists a professional way to showcase their work online and give buyers a convenient way to find art that feels like gallery shopping.

My process

First, user research to identify pain points

Personas

User research summary

I spoke with collectors to learn about their struggles buying art through existing apps.

User pain points

1

Ease of use

Current options are overly complicated.

2

Aesthetics

Users want a gallery-like experience.

3

Mobile options

Most art marketplaces aren't mobile optimized.

Personas

After my initial user research, I created two personas to better understand the types of users who would want the Arthouse app.

Designing

Paper wireframes

Digital wireframes

Low-fidelity prototype

Usability study

Paper wireframes

Using Crazy 8's, I rapidly iterated on ideas and created a few concepts.

Digital wireframes

I selected the strongest design and brought it into Figma.

Then I drafted four more frames to finish the low fidelity prototype.

Usability study findings

With the lofi-prototype done, it was time for testing. So I ran five users through a list of tasks in the prototype and identified three areas for improvement.

1

Hidden pages

40% of users couldn't find the explore or cart pages.

2

Navigation

60% of users wanted a form of nav like a hamburger menu.

3

Button visibility

40% of users missed buttons on top of images.

Refining the design

Mockups

Usability study #2

Refined mockups

High fidelity prototype

Mockups

Using new insights I added a top-line search bar, hamburger menu, and bottom navigation. I learned that users wanted to explore from the home page, so I added art categories for easy browsing.

home page top

bottom

Usability study #2

Time to test the design again. The feedback this time helped me stay focused on the user needs as I took the design into high-fidelity.

1

Navigation issues

60% of users wanted a hamburger menu.

2

Finding artist info

40% struggled to find artist profile pages.

3

Cluttered design

80% of users want a more simplified look.

Refined mockups

Before

After

Final mockups

High fidelity prototype

Reflecting

Meeting the goal

Lessons learned

Meeting the goal

Merging my knowledge of art galleries with all I learned from the user studies, I was able to create an app that feels more like the in-gallery experience.

"It's looking really good! I'm super impressed. Keep it up!" Rishi N. Product designer & study participant

Lessons learned

Test, test, test.

The user is always right.

Bringing an in-person experience into an app is tough.

Refining
the design

"It's looking really good! I'm super impressed. Keep it up!"
Rishi N.
Product designer & study participant