Mobile-first digital drawing platform
Role: End-to-end UX / UI Designer
OVERVIEW
Sketchify is a digital platform for individuals of all skill levels who want to hone their drawing abilities, giving users the opportunity to brush up on drawing fundamentals, build practice routines, and get feedback on their work – all in a friendly, supportive environment.
Problem:
Most avenues for learning how to draw lack the consistency, interactivity, and convenience that new learners need to feel engaged in their learning process.
Solution:
A platform that lets users approach a drawing hobby on their terms – with low barriers to entry, flexible routines, and the opportunity to share an often-solitary pursuit with fellow budding artists.
RESEARCH
Preliminary research consisted of Competitor Analysis and a series of User Interviews.
Competitor Analysis:
High-level view of several big names in eLearning, including SkillShare, LinkedIn Learning, and DuoLingo was helpful in establishing the pros and cons of their respective approaches to course structure, interactivity, and pacing, ultimately informing how a new product could set itself apart from available products in the creative e-Learning industry.
User Interviews:
I conducted my 1-on-1 interviews (three in person, one remote). While my participants varied in their relationship to drawing (some actively practiced, some had tried in the past and abandoned it), each had a history of periodically taking on new skills and hobbies either for work or for fun.
Research objectives:
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Learn why people want to learn how to draw in the first place and what they expect from their experience.
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Understand what motivates people to continue a new hobby
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Understand how pacing / learning style impact user confidence
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Learn how much time users need to feel connected to a new hobby or skill.
Affinity Map based on User Interviews
Takeaways:
1. Momentum inspires confidence:
Subjects feel encouraged to continue press on through difficulty or frustration when they can point to the milestones they’ve reached.
3. Community is key:
Purely-individual learning can be isolating. Subjects felt that the ability to share experiences with a friend or seek encouragement from peers helped them feel rewarded for their efforts.
2. Scheduling vs. routine:
Though wary of rigid schedules, subjects agreed they feel most committed to hobbies they engage with on a routine basis.
4. Importance of constructive feedback:
Though essential to improvement, feedback can feel daunting. People seek and accept feedback that's balanced, actionable, and from a trustworthy source.
Personas:
Based on this data I constructed two personas: the "Curious Dabbler" (a casual user giving drawing a try) and the Hobbyist (a user with some drawing experience looking to continue honing their skills). My challenge as a designer was to create a product that could engage this less-dedicated group, and encourage them to see the value in continued learning and practice.
I initially created three personas (a casual user, a hobbyist, and an actual artist) but narrowed my focus to the casual / hobbyist users, to avoid stretching the focus of the platform too thin.
Example Persona: "Curious Dabbler"
"How do you define success at a new skill?"
"When does a hobby become a chore?"
"How do you feel when sharing your work?"
SYNTHESIS
Project Scope:
Prior to the user-interviews, the primary focus of the platform was to be a drawing fundamentals course with lessons and assignments. As research indicated casual target users would need additional features in order to feel engaged — I shifted my focus for the remainder of the project to crafting additional features that would supplement the course and address the user pain-points.
Based on interview insights, I asked:
How might we encourage users to engage on a consistent basis without inviting the stress of a rigid schedule?
How might we give users the opportunity to turn their drawing pursuit into a shared social experience?
How might we incorporate critique in a way that empowers users who may feel self-conscious about their skill level?
How might we allow users to measure their drawing progress in a way that reflects and rewards their efforts?
Ideation:
Based on feasibility and potential impact, four features were chosen to move forward into the design phase.
Daily Challenges:
A variety of unique, self-contained drawing challenges, updated on a regular basis. These challenges provide an avenue for routine engagement without the pressure of a formal schedule.
Streaks/Stats:
Users can view their drawing course achievements, the number of challenges completed, and see their current "streak" of daily challenges, helping users mark their progress.
Crit Requests:
Users can seek critique on their work when they encounter difficulty, uploading a work-in-progress and brief description of their issues. Vetted user Crit-Givers review the drawing, leave annotations, and offer guidance to help users improve.
Community Gallery:*
A collection of user submissions from each daily challenge. Each user who completes a challenge and uploads their submission has can share their work their peers in a digital gallery, helping them feel connected to their fellow users and get inspired by their work.
Because interviewees were wary of social media's sense of competition, users cannot comment or see a “likes” total on any submission; rather, they may “Save” any posts they found interesting.
*Feature was originally called "Library" but later changed to "Gallery"
Full feature roadmap, displaying all feature concepts prior to narrowing of project scope
DESIGN
I created 2 user flows based on common tasks a user would perform on the platform:
Challenge / Community Library:
Lo-fi sketches
From either the home page or the dedicated Challenges page, users select a daily Challenge to complete (Challenges are timed, and vary between 5, 15, and 30 minute time-limits). Users are presented with a prompt for what to draw, as well as prompt-specific example sketch ("Show Example") for clarity, and a button to begin. All drawing is done on paper, and users take a photo of their work and upload it once time has elapsed.
Once the challenge is complete, users are prompted to submit their work to the Community Gallery which displays every user submission for that specific Challenge. Here, users can view individual submissions and "save" any favorites they want to view later.
Medium Fidelity wireframes
Requesting / Interacting with Crit:
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Request
The structure of the Crit flow was inspired by online learning platforms (ex. Canvas) as well as the critique process used in in-person drawing classes. To request a Crit, users access the "Artist Hub" page, where they upload a photo of their work-in-progress, and provide basic details about the work: a title and a brief description explaining the intentions behind, or issues with, the drawing before submitting the request.
Interact
​When a Crit has been responded to, the user is notified and can access the Crit in question from a list. Within this page, both the Crit-Giver and the original requester can write messages and make annotations on the work itself, allowing for a clear and constructive dialogue about the work. Users have the opportunity to upload revised drafts to ensure they implemented the feedback correctly.
Crit Request flow
Interaction / Reviewing Crit flow
BRANDING
Research indicated subjects often find the saccharine tone of eLearning brands like DuoLingo felt condescending, or gave false expectations of ease, leading to frustration. In light of this, I decided to orient the Sketchify brand around the principle that drawing is a discipline where challenge and fun go hand-in-hand, and good-natured support is never far away.
This balance is reflected well in the branding of the New York Times Games app, which became a source of inspiration.
NYT Crossword Illustration
Humanist fonts such as IvyPresto and Figtree – clean and legible, yet with slightly rounded edges that give them with a dash of playful personality – reinforced this balance of discipline and casual enjoyment.
The final color palette was chosen to subtly evoke the household drawing implements with which users would be familiar: the dark blue of standard pen ink, the light blue of notebook paper lines, and the pink pop of a standard eraser.
Moving to High-Fidelity:
With branding solidified, I implemented this visual language into components and revised my existing mockups into high-fidelity wireframes.
High-fidelity screens including the Home page and selects from the Challenge, Community Library, and Crit flows (requesting and interacting).
TESTING & REVISIONS
I conducted usability tests on four subjects completing four tasks:
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Completing a Featured Challenge
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Saving another user’s post from the Community Library
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Requesting a Crit on a draft drawing
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Interacting with and commenting on a Crit
Flow 1 - Challenge
Flow 3 - Submitting Crit Request
The most commonly-voiced issues were:
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Reluctance to upload their challenge submissions to a public gallery (mandatory at the time of testing)
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Lack of clarity regarding Crit-Givers identity / credentials
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Expecting more positive feedback for Challenge completion
Flow 2 - Community Library
Flow 4 - Interacting with Crit
Subject were able to quickly navigate and complete each task and responded positively to each feature – especially Crits – describing them as “helpful”, “cool”, or “fun”.
Revisions
Reluctance to Upload to Library:
To address subjects' concerns at being pressured to share their Challenge submissions, I made it possible to submit privately, while still making the option to share work – crucial for building community – prominent and inviting.
Lack of Clarity on Crit-Givers:
The copy explaining who Crit-Givers were was vague. To address this I rewrote copy in the Crit-Request flow as well as the Artist Hub page to make it clear that Crit-Givers were user volunteers who had applied and been vetted by Sketchify moderators.
Revised copy and content sections from home page, Artist Hub, and Challenge submission screen
Positive Feedback & Rewarding Interaction:
To deliver on the brand promise of encouraging routine and rewarding user efforts, I incorporated new visuals and copy to make the “Congratulations” page more exuberant. I also created a post-submission pop-up modal which displays a brief breakdown of users' challenge streak and other statistics to give them a more tangible sense of their progress.
Stats modal and Congratulations screen
REFLECTION & NEXT STEPS
Some test subjects expressed an interest in having the chance to “like” and comment on public Community Library posts. The interview data isn’t fully clear on this point, as there seemed to be an equal wariness towards the kind of competition and self-consciousness that these social media staples can create. In light of this I plan to interview more subjects – specifically those engaged in creative pursuits – to determine the pros and cons of introducing these elements.
Future iterations will include additional features for instance, the opportunity to schedule a one-on-one Live Crit session with a vetted drawing expert, viewing top-performing user posts, and a greater variety of Challenges and achievements.
While I was satisfied with the overall appearance of the platform, if I had more time, I would have dedicated more energy to sourcing or designing illustrations and other visual elements to reinforce Sketchify's playful personality.
Mockups of possible new features (Live Crits & Top Posts)
This project reinforced to me the importance of adaptability in design. Sketchify became a better product when I listened to the user, and made the pivot from a focus on the Drawing Fundamentals Course to formulating, and ultimately prioritizing, the extra features that would bring the user the most engaging experience.