Quickshot - Designing a great photography booking experience
Introduction
As a result of some interactions, I noticed it is somewhat of a hassle for individuals to get great photographers to work with on photoshoots for modelling, weddings, events, fashion photography, product photography, or personal shoots.
Imagine an app that allows you to go through available photographers nearby; you get to see their portfolio of works and get a feel of their creative process, aesthetic and artistic style. With that exploration of their work, you can swiftly determine if they’re a great fit for the shoots you got in mind or not.
Imagine an app that allows you to go through available photographers nearby; you get to see their portfolio of works and get a feel of their creative process, aesthetic and artistic style. With that exploration of their work, you can swiftly determine if they’re a great fit for the shoots you got in mind or not.
Challenge:
The challenge for me as a UX designer was to create an intuitive experience for discovering and
booking great photographers locally, with as minimum effort as possible.
Role:
UX Researcher, Product Designer
Task:
Design a mobile app that allows users to book great photographers in as short a time as possible.
User Research:
I conducted both in-person and virtual interviews with over nine target users. Although, it was mostly virtual interviews and only about two in-person interviews. I got to practice active listening to deeply empathize with target users and deeply understood their needs.
Personas:
After analyzing insights gotten from the conducted interviews and grouping similar patterns, I created two personas that represents the needs of target users.
Information Architecture
To organize the content of the app in a delightful way that allows users carry out their tasks seamlessly, I planned out the important features and functionality. Crafting the wireframes was helpful in streamlining my design process. It helped me visualize useful features that're important to build and prioritize them, while pushing other not so relevant features to a later version.
User Flow:
The user flow was important in representing the several interactions a user would experience when using the app. It was especially helpful as I got to see where there could be dead-ends in the flow and I got to simplify them.
The user flow was important in representing the several interactions a user would experience when using the app. It was especially helpful as I got to see where there could be dead-ends in the flow and I got to simplify them.
Low-fi wireframes:
When designing the low-fi wireframes, I paid more attention to the layout and visual hierarchy of the product in order to allow for further iterations, before settling on a final layout design. I went through about 3 more design iterations after crafting the wireframe.
Key Features of the app:
Delightful Onboarding:
I designed some delightful onboarding screens with compelling copy that guides users through the transition experience and concisely explains preliminary features that are available providing the users with a walkthrough of key features before experiencing the main app.
Simplified Log In and create account screens:
I simplified the login and create account process and cut short the number of form fields users get to fill. Instead of requesting a first name and last name, it simply requests a full name.
Search for Photographers:
There’s a search feature where users get to search for photographers they admire or photographers they’ve worked with before.
Booking Process:
I designed a hassle-free and intuitive flow for users to easily book a photographer to work with on photoshoots and get to complete their payment for bookings in as little a time as possible.
In-app Messaging:
Through an available messaging feature, users get to chat with Photographers In-app, discuss and bounce off ideas for the photoshoot, get aligned on the date, time, and location for the shoot. They can also discuss apparel, clothing, and further get to build a rapport with the photographers even before the date of the photoshoot. That relationship would greatly influence the vibe and energy of the photoshoot sessions.
Reviews and Ratings:
There's a feature for going through several ratings and reviews written by other users as that’d provide social-proof for users and that would ease the time a user spends on decision making as they can read through positive and well-relatable reviews of certain photographers and get to decide on a photographer to work with shortly after consulting the impression of other users on that person.
High-fi mockups:
After validating the low-fi wireframes I designed, I went ahead to craft the high-fi wireframes depicting an aesthetic of photography booking mobile app.
Here's a link to the prototype, experience the app for yourself
https://www.figma.com/proto/vTCwFuNF44PWggRtodeMI0/Quickshot-design?page-id=81%3A2&node-id=2564%3A448&viewport=292%2C48%2C0.02&scaling=min-zoom&starting-point-node-id=2564%3A448&show-proto-sidebar=1
Learnings and Takeaways:
Product thinking is important to be carried out early in the design process as it provides a wave of clarity on who you're designing for, what their problems and needs are in essence, how to go about solving the problems in a way that appeals to the users, and very importantly how to bridge the gap between user and business goals.
I've been passionate about photography for a long time, although solving a problem in the photography space pushed me to learn and explore more about the space in order to deep dive and create a great solution. I got to understand the various challenges in the space, and discovered they're actually opportunities in disguise.
I learned to carry out as many design explorations as possible in order to iterate on a good number of ideas and narrow down to the best solution to a given problem.
Conclusion:
Although the project took longer than proposed, it was more fulfilling than challenging it was fun to work on. However, I wish I had more in-person interviews with target users and I’d also love to build the app and see what happens with it in the future.
Thank you for viewing!
