Art Auction App
Project Overview
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The Product
This is a case study for the Google UX Design certificate. The topic I was given was to create an art auction app for an Art Gallery. It is to make it easier for the gallery to auction artwork and also making it easier for people outside the city or people with a busy schedule to purchase the artworks.
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Duration - August to november 2023
My Role - UX Designer
The problem:
The Lack of accessibility of art to Buyers outside the city.
And lack of information available to new buyers.
Trusting studios for the right evaluation.
No provision for transportation after purchase.
The Goal:
Creating an auction app for ABC Gallery so Collectors interested have it available on the palm of their hands or Screens with all the necessary information they may require for a comfortable and secure purchase.
Platforms
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Artist
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Art Enthusiasts
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Art Collectors
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Investors
Target Audience
User Research
Summary
As part of the comprehensive assessment to gauge the necessity for an art auction app for ABC Gallery, an extensive user research was undertaken. This involved conducting interviews with a diverse group of individuals, leading to the development of two distinct personas that were informed by the insights gathered from these interviews. Through this process, we identified several pain points, crucial in driving the development of this app, all derived from the user journey of these Personas. Ultimately, the research led us to the consensus that there is a clear need for an application that simplifies the auction participation process, while ensuring a robust guarantee of the authenticity of the art being purchased.
Persona & Journey
John Doe
“Art for some is an expression of one’s freedoms and for others a show of their achievements.”
Demographics
Age:- 42
Education:- B.A. Fine Arts
Hometown:- New York
Family:- Single
Occupation:- Art collector
Goals
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To have more time.
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Making sure client is happy with purchase.
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To have relevant background on the purchase.
Frustrations
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“Inability to be at more than one place.”
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“Lack of surety of safe transfer of Artwork.”
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“Backstory of Artwork and Artist for a better evaluation in value.”
John is an Art Collector who studied Fine arts from NYU. He travelled to several countries and captured beautiful Portraits and Landscapes in oil. After a few years of success he retired from active painting and became a collector and Critique. He travels all around the world for his work as a critic and collector for himself and his Clients.
Problem statement:- John is an Art collector in New York who needs to travel to Mumbai to purchase a few artworks from ABC ART Gallery Because his client has shown interest in them.
Action
Task List
Emotions
Improvement
Find Interested Clients
Check what the art gallery is showing.
research background on artwork and artist
Book tickets for a few days prior to auction
Find out when the auction is.
Find hotels nearby with safe.
Reach art gallery and look at painting
Check into hotel
Find best route to art gallery
Get to Art Gallery
Get to Art Gallery
Get to Art Gallery
Participate in Auction
Find reputable courier
for artwork
Check Inventory
Put in hotel safe
Area to improve
Providing agents available for delivering the artwork to desired location.
Area to improve
Providing background information to users with details on timing. With audio option and screen readers.
Area to improve
Not making them come to you but bringing painting to them by making it online.
Area to improve
Providing customer care services audio and video and getting artwork authenticated by reputable people. With 4K images.
Area to improve
Having live auction, also timed ones with regular notif. And staff for calls or video conference during live auction.
Details of the inventory purchased and locations
Information on the artists that are being shown.
Book Tickets to the location
Getting to art gallery
Participating in auction
Pain Points
1
TRAVELING FOR AUCTION
One major issue is people have to travel from long distances to participate in these auctions.
2
LACK OF EXPERTS
Lack of an expert analysis with excellent credentials.
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LACK OF INFORMATION
Lack of information on artist and artwork with market trends
4
NO DELIVERY AGENTS
People from other cities may have doubts about good delivery agents in the city they can trust.
Competitive Audit
Phillips de Pury & Company
Phillips de Pury & Company is a auction website and app that auctions Artworks, Jewelry, watches and clothes for the rich. they are a direct competitor to the art gallery app. Although their focus is more varied than ABC Gallery's App.
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They have multiple locations all around the world each having their own gallery and items to auction. With the website and Apps giving them a broader ability to reach people in other countries like India. The app is available on Android and I Phone respectively. Although the website is much more detailed than the app.
Result
Phillips de Pury & Company uses minimalist design principle in its website and App making navigation easy and putting more focus on the artwork. It understands and values the trust of their user therefore provides all the necessary details so the user can make and educated decision on what they are purchasing. Although the website is far better organized than the app the app is easy to use and provides all the details required to make and educated decision. The first impression Phillips de Pury & Company gives is that of sophestication which it continues till the end.
Artsy
Artsy is a Art auction website and App. It doesn't have a physical gallery and all transactions take place online. You can approach them as a buyer or seller. they have their own authenticators to check paintings and make it accessible to buyers all around the world.
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It is a direct competitors to the Abc Gallery art auction app and has paintings from various artists from all around the world. Unlike Phillip it only deals in artworks and not necessarily very expensive artworks. With its focus only on artworks it is a stronger competitor.
Result.
Artsy's main focus seems to be to be a online platform to buy and sell paintings to people. They have a flexible price range and several new and upcoming artists to support their endeavor. the website provides the user a lot more features to use including information on historic museums, viewing galleries etc. It also has capabilities for artists to sell their artworks online after being authenticated by Artsy.
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The App on the other hand is fairly simple and focuses on just users who want to purchase paintings. The images of the paintings on display are high resolution and you can magnify it to a great extent to see enough details to make a decision along with details on the artist, painting and the Provenance of the painting. All in all it seems to be a wonderful website and app that is very user and product centric.
Conclusion
The conclusion of the User Research conducted gave us new insight into creating a Auction App for ABC Gallery. We were able to gauge the need for an app through the Persona and were able to understand what are the needs that need to be addressed in the app, like ability to closeup on the images, specialist authenticators, need for live auctions, and people with expertise in artwork deliveries to make deliveries happen etc. Along with these we conducted Audit on direct competitors to the app and were able to learn from them. We were also able to understand things that are relevant to the app and also what we can add to make things better.
Starting The Design Process
Paper Wireframes
Create an app that is user friendly and accessible to people to participate in art auctions with ability to trust what they are purchasing. The user flow should be easy to use. With the competitive analysis in mind we should focus more on the art work than overcrowding the design. Details should be clear for the users to make an educated guess without any hidden costs or information.
Low Fidelity Prototype
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Low Fidelity Prototype Summary.
The Low fidelity prototype is focused solely on a user flow of participation in an auction it has a 30 sec timer and provides the user an ability to either enter their personal bid or to use buttons with set number of money to enter a bid. It also shows details that may be necessary for the user to make and educated decision like a brief introduction to the artist, the painting, and the appraisal by a specialist. It also has features for payment at end of an auction and has address for shipping that is to be taken care of by the Gallery making it very user friendly.
To check it out please CLICK HERE.
Usability Study
We are creating a new app for art enthusiasts, collectors and artists to share paintings and Auction the work that comes through the Gallery.
Findings
Affinity Digram
Low Fidelity Prototype Findings
1
Text and images need to be bigger
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Cart button needs to be available
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Final confirmation window before checkout
High Fidelity Prototype
Post-Usability Study Mockups
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making the images and texts clearer for user to interact with. After the usability study one of the main themes we found in common is difficulty in seeing texts and images
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Adding the Cart button.
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Final confirmation window before checkout
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High Fidelity Prototype
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High Fidelity Prototype Summary.
After the usability Study of the low fidelity prototype we made the necessary changes to the user flow and the design. Along with that we also added colors and icons to the Prototype to get a better idea of the apps visual design. we also made sure things are more accessible to all people by increasing the size of images and texts.
To check it out please CLICK HERE.
Usability Study 2
High Fidelity Prototype Findings
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Change of color pallet to match WCAG
Mockups
Mockups
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High Fidelity Prototype Summary.
After the second usability Study we received some suggestions related the color being used may not be accessible to some people after checking with WCAG we changed the color to be more accessible.
To check it out please CLICK HERE.
Takeaways
Impact.
The Design will help create a base for auction apps and it is a good case study for me in the understanding of the UX process. It also helped me interact with the participants and gather a deeper understanding of the creative process.
A quote:- “Everything looks awesome it is so easy to read” - AB
What I Learnt?
UX Research and everything it involves, creating low-fidelity prototypes creating a usability study, and finally creating a high fidelity prototype.