"GramCity" is a photo editing start-up, which wants to branch out to new domains. They want to create a feature to help people find the most Instagram-able locations to take photos in any city.
In this #Springboard exercise, I was given the task to help "GramCity" come up with possible solutions for this feature. I was assigned to perform a modified version of Google Ventures design sprint to accomplish this task. I was given a brief containing the user research performed by "GramCity", from the brief I could learn that: Different users like to travel and capture experiences in different ways. For example "Sara" likes to prepare before a trip and research good photo spots, and "Nick" is not about to go out of his way to find a good spot to take a picture.
Day 1 - Mapping
​I started out by mapping the tasks a user would perform in order to complete the experience. I started thinking of how I could accommodate my two use cases, and this Idea of a map with an adjustable search radius came to mind.
Day 2 - Lightning Demo
User wants to find
an Instagram-able place
User marks an area on a map & applies Filters
User chooses a Spot by browsing the Location on the map
User goes to said place
App directs User exactly where to stand and which direction to look​
User takes an awesome picture at a great location
To draw inspiration I turned to two apps I am familiar with Fever and Airbnb. Fever shows pins on the map with the highlighted one being the image you see in the drawer. What I didn't like so much, being that "GramCity" is a photo app, was the fact that the photos were very small. I envisioned the drawer being more like Airbnb taking about 50% of the real estate. With a big image. I was also able to find an app designed for photographers called: "Unscripted", that actually did just that, helped you find great locations to shoot throughout the city. Unfortunately, I did not thought the UX was good enough. I thought the existence of a map view is crucial and there was no good direction to the spot, or a place to save locations. I did like the UI and the feel of the App.
Fever
AirBnB
Unscripted
Sketching
​For my main screen, I chose to go with an interface similar to the one that can be found on Airbnb due to the large image map ratio.
Crazy 8 Exercise- 8 different Main screen iterations.
Mini Story board: Main screen + before and After Screen
Day 3- Decide & Create
Now it was time to create the flow. As to the question of location, (will a user write down the name of a city and then go to the map or will he land directly on his location?) I decided to allow both, but have the user land on what is nearest to them first. I wanted a feed to draw inspiration from, a map tab, a tab with all your saved location, which will have a call to action- navigateing you to the site. I also added an enlarged map view in order to make positioning more accurate.
Day 4 - Prototype
Day 5 - Validate
I was able to track down five participants to test out my prototype and walked them through the task to see if my prototype made sense. Instagram is a wildly popular app so I had no problem-finding participants who were able to subscribe to the mission. As always interviewing is very enlightening, I always discover new patterns of thinking. Some of my key insights from the interviews were:
Try to solidify the difference between liking a photo and the intention to go to a place and taking that photo.
​The feed looked more like a blog
​The call to action on the map page is vague
​Distance from location should be shown live on the photos tab.
Photo Tab should be renamed to - "Gallery"
Next Steps
​Continuing on I will need to address the problems that came up during my testing round. I need to really understand the different between the two types of "Save" and what they mean to people. I would test that issue further. I would say that some of the designs felt off to a native app, I would refine the design to adjust to the mobile real estate. Lastly there were some features I would have liked to see in an app such as this, like- photo tour builder and posing tutorials.
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