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Product Experience | Service Design
Building a mobile platform to connect local people to a community of traditional Indian artists
UX | Visual Design | Design System | Information Architecture
16 weeks
Individual
Information Architecture + Mid-Fidelity Prototyping Process
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Imagine you had a stressful week at office and want to engage in some meaningful and enjoyable activity with your friends/family...
Instead of binge-watching shows (which contributes further to the screen time), how can you engage in stress-relieving activities beyond traditional entertainment options?
While talking to young professionals (23-40) in India’s Tier 1 cities, I found that many are turning to art workshops—pottery, painting, and group activities—to unwind and de-stress. Curious, I attended one myself and spoke with local artists. That’s when I realized a big gap: a lot of people who want to participate in these workshops do not know where to look! At the same time, many artists lack the resources to host these workshops. Some manage through agencies, but the heavy reliance on middlemen makes it tough.
So, I began mapping the current situation and identifying the gaps...
WHAT IS Vs WHAT IF to find an area of opportunity in the existing scenario
PROJECT INITIATION
What are people trying to achieve?
Potential Use case
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People Seeking Stress Relief: Users who want to engage in creative activities to de-stress, such as sculpting, or pottery.
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Local Artists: Artists seeking an accessible platform to showcase their work, build a community, and conduct workshops.
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Art Enthusiasts: People who appreciate local culture and want to purchase original artworks.
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Hobbyists and Learners: Individuals looking to learn new art skills and attend workshops.
Tabulating needs and wants with pain points (Customer Facing)
OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT
Kala-Kar is a platform that aims to create a symbiotic relationship between artists and the community. Users will have an accessible way to learn new skills, de-stress through creative engagement, and support local art. Meanwhile, artists will gain visibility, grow their audience, and monetize their talents in an easy-to-manage environment. The app focuses on bridging the gap between people’s desire for stress relief and the artist’s need for community support, making it a win-win for both sides.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
Building Information Architecture
With 5 major areas of operations namely Onboarding, Discovery, Booking, Payment, and Profiles—I started working on the content structure, breaking down each area into its parts.
Thereby creating an initial flow for different customer-side user groups.
Customer-side Information Architecture
TRANSLATING THE USER FLOW
Iterating Wireframing- building the skelton
With all the information of what is needed, how can I translate it into a functional using app?
To create a low-fidelity prototype, instead of Figma, I created individual pieces of all the components I could think of—with paper cutouts and started experimenting with the flow.
Thinking on paper | Low-fidelity Paper Prototyping
Video Documentation of the exploration
Here is a short video of my physical low-fidelity prototype, where I tried to convert all the information into different pieces that I started pulling in and out on the paper screens.
LOOK AND FEEL
Building Design System- putting the skin
Once I had some idea about the structure of the user flow, what features are needed, and how they would interact with one another —I started identifying visual hierarchy and creating a design system.
VISION FOR THE VISUAL LANGUAGE
Taking inspiration from the local artforms in India, focusing on vibrant colors and how to incorporate the subtle textures and patterns in the visual language.
TYPOGRAPHY
COLOR PALETTE
COMPONENT LIBRARY
THE PRODUCT
Explore the app
High-fidelity Prototype | Youtube Video
USER FEEDBACK
What worked?
USER TESTING
Number of Users recruited: 10
Level of Expertise: 5 Experts (attend workshop regularly),
2 Intermediate (have attended workshop once),
3 Beginners (would love to attend workshops in the future)
Task Given: Please book a workshop for 2 people from the artist called
'The Claymen Company'
Task Completion Rate: 9/10 users
Easy Onboarding
Intuitive Questions and Nudges Reduced Cognitive Load – With easy-to-understand questions and inutitive interactions, Users did not struggle in figuring things out, making the experience smoother and more enjoyable.
Enhanced Satisfaction – A smooth start created a positive impression, leading to higher user satisfaction and trust in the product.
Supported Accessibility – Simple , intuitive onboarding ensured that users with different levels of tech familiarity or accessibility needs started without barriers.
8/10
USERS
Easy Onboarding will contribute to easy adoption, better customer retention rate!
Localised Search
Faster and More Relevant Results – With pincode-based recommendation option, users got search results tailored to their location, helping them find the artist in their vicinity.
Personalized Experience – By inputting their interest at the time of onboarding, users got a more personalised feed. They felt more engaged when search results reflected their immediate environment and preferences.
Reduced Search Effort – Users didn't have to refine queries multiple times to find local options, saving time and effort.
9/10
USERS
Relevant content will make discovery faster and more seamless, reducing search time
USER FEEDBACK
What din't?
Lack of Detailed Product/ Workshop Review
Lack of Trust– Many users wants to make decisions based on verified customer feedback. Without reviews in form of text and high quality images, customers lack assurity about product quality and experience leading to loss of interest and lower engagement.
Missed Opportunities for Improvement – Reviews offer valuable feedback for businesses to refine their offerings. Without them, issues may go unnoticed.
3/10
USERS
Only through ratings, users were not able to build trust on the workshop experience
No Direct Messaging Feature
Customization request while buying artwork– Users might want personalized commissions but have no direct way to request modifications from artists.
5/10
USERS
Contacting artist for collaboration or bulk order or customised work, will make this one-stop shop
REFLECTIONS
Takeaways for future projects
Opportunity-Led Ideation
The question of "What could be?" rather than "How can this be improved" opened new business fronts.
An opportunity-based approach encouraged innovation rather than iteration. While problem-solving often leads to incremental changes, focusing on opportunities led to more transformational ideas that pushed the boundaries of what the product could achieve for its users.
Balancing Creativity
with Structure
I discovered that finding a balance between creativity and structure is key to my design process. Establishing systems for creative exploration, such as design sprints or brainstorming sessions, helped me think outside the box, while maintaining structured workflows ensured that ideas were translated into practical solutions.
Scalable & Consistent Design System
One of the key learnings was that a design system is never “finished.” By continuously gathering feedback from users, I refined and expanded the system. Another important lesson was that the system and the product is developed hand-in-hand. To find the synergy between all the components and develop it together in the beginning is an iterative process.
Human-Centred &
Iterative Approach
Iterations helps in continuous improvements based on user feedback, ensuring an intuitive and effective product. Initial research identified pain points, leading to multiple design revisions through testing and refinement. Each iteration enhanced usability, accessibility, and task efficiency. The process reinforced that UX is an evolving journey of learning, adapting, and refining to create truly user-centered solutions
Adding the 'Product customisation' feature– For artist who provide custom artwork, this option will show up for products which can be customised
See Verified
Product/Workshop Reviews
Adding the 'People's Experience' feature– As per feedback, people want to see detailed reviews before booking to make an informed decision.
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