Creative Culture
A 70 hour design challenge leveraging the power of technology to uplift underrepresented groups in an inequitable world
What I did
I worked with two UX/UI designers and shared an equal role in user/product research, content strategy and experience design. I designed the Discover experience (sketches, wireframes, prototypes and UI) while simultaneously learning Adobe XD - this design program was completely foreign to me prior to this challenge.
Problem
There are many existing platforms that help creatives access hiring opportunities, showcases, communities and/or other helpful resources. However, many underrepresented creatives may not see these existing platforms working for them. How might we empower and amplify underrepresented creatives?
Solution
By providing underrepresented BIPOC an equitable platform to showcase their craft, services, products and tell their story to the world, these creatives will feel empowered to continue cultivating their creativity and propel their careers forward.
Discover new creatives
We created a Discover feature with a Daily Spotlight, highlighting BIPOC creatives. Anyone and everyone is more than welcome to join the app and explore a diverse range of creatives and their products, services and craft!
What’s their story?
People are more than the things they create and how much revenue they make. The Creative Culture focuses storytelling and allowing creatives to tell people their story. Human connection is extremely important - especially in today’s digital age.
Support small businesses
Creatives need to make a living for themselves, too! People have the ability to support creatives by purchasing their products and/or services.
🎨 The Creative values inclusivity and diversity.
Our target users were BIPOC underrepresented creatives.
Their goals include:
Feeling empowered
Having their creativity amplified
Being in a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community
We gained inspiration from Etsy, TikTok, and Instagram.
Beyond financially supporting the creatives, we also believed that bringing creatives’ stories to the spotlight was equally as important.
We took inspiration from the social and community aspect that TikTok and Instagram has dominated and combined it with the marketplace that Etsy has continued to build for local businesses and professionals.
We created two user flows for The Creative and The Supporter.
We wanted users to be able to discover new creatives and have a separate area to view the creatives that they personally follow. A user’s main tasks include:
Discovering new creatives
Viewing posts from creatives the user is currently following
Checking out a creative’s profile
Purchasing a creative’s work
We started off with the wildest ideas - anything and everything was welcomed! 🤪
I wanted to create an opportunity for The Creatives to showcase their work in an engaging and relatable manner.
My ideas placed an emphasis on providing an interesting “About Me” section, featured events where creatives can showcase their craft to a live audience, and a fun way for users to purchase creatives’ work and engage with others.
I played around with different check-out processes, focusing on making it seamless and low-friction as possible. To be clear with what users can expect from the app, I also sketched out a confirmation page that includes a personal note from The Creative showing their appreciation and where the customer’s contribution will go towards.
Next steps
Create an onboarding process to provide users with more context
Provide a storytelling / narrative aspect to motivate users to use and return to the app
Include more affordances for certain features
What I learned
Always have a story to tell within your design.
Our team hustled and we did our best to be thoughtful and considerate in our design but I would’ve love to work on the onboarding or walkthrough feature for The Creative Culture. As Steve Krug mentions in his book, Don’t Make Me Think, mobile apps need to be delightful, learnable, and memorable.
Get uncomfortable, and get used to it.
I want to get more confident being uncertain. I don’t want to shy away from something just because it’s hard. Because it’s in the struggles and failures that I’ve seen myself truly grow.
This design challenge was super tough but I’m proud of myself for getting out of my comfort zone and creating a great product with my brilliant teammates - go AdoBAES xD!! 🥳
