Super Photo
June 2022 - June 2023
For my first design project in the Google Certificate Program, I created an app for a fictitious action photographer.
The purpose of this app is to help users purchase action photos and photo products from their sports events. The target users are adult amateur athletes who engage in sports as recreation.
About the Project
As a student designer, I was responsible for all aspects of the design from start to finish, including user research, wire framing, prototyping, and user testing.
Overview of the Process
Research
Ideation
Wireframing
user testing
Research Begins
From the user biographies provided by the Google UX course, I selected four that seemed likely to use a photo app. I conducted “interviews,” taking notes on how these users might feel and respond to my research questions.
User Needs
Users wanted to spend more time on their sports instead of time sifting through a complicated app.
Users expressed frustration with confusing, text-heavy apps.
Users tended to be budget conscious and wanted to know early on in the user flow what their financial commitment might be.
Our users tend to be busy professionals that need to quickly find and purchase photos from their recreational events, so we wanted to create a streamlined user flow with limited text and easy access to the pricing options early in the flow.
The Problem
The solution
For my paper wireframes I focused on the basic tasks that users need to accomplish. For the homepage, I specifically wanted quick access to events and cart. I rejected several sketches with too much information in favor of the final, more streamlined, homepage wireframe.
Digital Wireframes
Two main sections to easily narrow down events
Events arranged in list order by date
Easy-access, flyout price menu on each event
Low-Fidelity Prototype
Early on in development, I did an unmoderated video-recorded user study and made discoveries that challenged the direction of my design.
The test showed me that users of diverse technical ability, ages, and circumstances needed:
A more intuitive ordering flow
Better visual cues in order to complete the checkout process
Color Mockups and Prototype
The color mockups based on the updated wireframes led to a second user study.
My findings from the moderated usability study on the high fidelity prototype resulted in some surprising data:
Users struggled to find their event
Users needed more guiding text to complete tasks
User frustrations led to them quitting the tasks
Updating the design
Based on the user research, I updated my designs to be more easily navigable.
Added more negative space between main action buttons on the homepage, as well as dividers
Added clarifying text to aid in navigation
Improved functional aspects as I became more fluent in Figma, which included use of clickable check boxes in the photo selection page.
Before
After
A selection of screens from the main user flow:
Takeaways and next steps
Impact
This Photo App for recreational athletes creates a streamlined user flow to help users find and purchase their photos in a timely manner. Our user study participants described it as “super simple, pretty self-explanatory” and “conceptually, it seemed to make sense [and] yeah, it’s very, very easy.”
What I learned
As I worked through my first project, not only did I begin to develop basic design skills, but I grew to truly appreciate the value of good user research and its positive effect on the end product.
next steps
This project is ready for the next phase of user testing. The scope of the assignment did not include work on the user profile and contact pages, so it would be worthwhile to work through the design and prototyping for those user flows and begin a new round of usability testing.