NOOK Client: NOOK Date: 2017-06-09 Services: UX|UI Design ( App & Marketing Website) 01. VISION STATEMENT The product is an online marketplace service enabling artists to lease or rent short-term or long-term workable and livable spaces. The company does not own any studio. NOOK is a form of collaborative consumption and sharing. The project will help the user to experience a hassle-free way of searching and finding work space and skip all current hierarchy and regulation of studio finding. HMW help artists to make money out of their spaces? help artists to have the right workplace? encourage artists to share their art studios? make a solution for easier networking? facilitate productivity while being away? accelerate the process of making? help artists to learn new skills in a non-academic system? ASSUMPTION I believe artists, curators and art writers have an urgent need to find relevant places to work in. These needs can be solved by introducing them to a platform containing right data and easy to access resources. My initial users are artists, art writers and curators. HYPOTHESIS I BELIEVE a digital application CAN HELP artists/Curators/Art writers WHO WANT TO find artist run work spaces BY suggesting affordable and inspiring studios AND be able to narrow down the search to find the desired working space. RESEARCH & INSIGHT The stakeholders who are taking advantage of this situation are art centres, art residencies and studio collective spaces and in some cases individual renters. The negative impact of this situation is all on practising artists, especially emerging and mid career artists. 02. Persona | Experience Map | Information Architecture I chose to explore multiple scenarios that an artist would experience throughout their studio hunting. With each scenario I identified what s/he might be thinking and feeling while carrying out these activities. Through my empathy for Leila I was able to pin point multiple opportunities to focus on. Ultimately I chose to go in the direction of empowering a visual artists such as Leila to take control of their process of searching and renting work place. After defining the problem space and exploring the User Stories I initially identified filter as the core epic of the application (MVP). By rendering a range of potential features, functional elements, layout types, and interface components I made the analogue wireframes ready for the first round of user testing. MOMENT OF TRUTH The test-takers had so much trouble with filtering their search results. The list was long and no one wanted to go through all this detail. After many sketching and ideation the core epic of the project moved to Studio Profile page. USER TEST I conducted ten user tests with a low fidelity prototype over the course of two days, compiled my findings and went through several iterations. Key takeaways from users testing my initial wire-frames included: – adding calendar and letting users to manipulate the calendar according to their needs (edit option) – reworking the copy to be more conversational and less clinical to make it more human centered – eliminating a mandatory pop up model that prompted users to name their financial goal. High Fidelity Wire-Frame UI Library 03. Marketing Website & Responsive A landing page designed to market the Nook app and motivate users to download the app. The landing page showcases the value proposition, branding, and features of the Nook app along with some well placed call to action buttons as you scroll. The minimal colour scheme, playful illustrations and concise use of text were used specifically to appeal to the target audience: Artists. 04. Style Guide & Branding The initial idea for the concept is inspired by geometric shapes and cubic folding of Gilles Deleuze: “The outside is not a fixed limit but a moving matter animated by peristaltic movements, folds and foldings that together make up an inside: they are not something other than the outside, but precisely the inside of the outside.” Branding Attitude Nook is with young spirit and edgy attitude aiming emerging and mid-career artists in the age group of 20-45 years old. Brand Attitude: Art Oriented | Architectural | White & Bright | Inviting 05. Next Step Moving forward, I will be adding additional epics, such as an Listing studio, long term contract preferences and a profile component.