Assignment 2
Application Goals
Name: Illuspace, a portameanu of illustrate and space.
I want to build a social media app for amateur to professional level artists. After interviewing Violet, Instagram doesn't make their saved posts section a prominent feature in the art so for artists like her, valuable art tips get lost in the feed. Even for me, navigating the saved posts section is really tedious and often times I forget to add a saved post to a collection and all of a sudden my art tips are mixed with makeup tutorials. Then for more curating focused apps like Pinterest, the social aspect of creating art is very lacking. Pinterest has no group features which affects the artist process, something like a group Pin board would be great for getting tailored inspiration. I want create Illuspace to address these gaps and make finding art inspo and tips as streamlined as possible and also foster communities so artists can critique, commission, and inspire other artists.
Brainstormed Features
- Users have an unique username and profile pic
- Users have a profile
- Users can create a post with image/text/short videos and delete their own posts
- Users can add their own and other users post into a collage, which they can name
- Users can add pre-set (app-defined) flairs to describe the type of content (ex. artwork, tips, process, funny) they post
- Users can add tags for the genre, subject, etc to a post
- A profile has a primary collage, called a portfolio, of all the user's artwork
- Users can like posts
- Users can friend other users
- Users can join shared space to talk about arts tips - groups
- Posts can support live photos where if you press down you see the time lapse of the drawing
- Users can post to an app wide help board - people post for things they need help on or people they need
- Users can save posts into collages
- Collages can have names
- Users can seperately indicate how helpful they think a post is publicly
- Keyword search collages
- Inspo collage page - well liked posts flaired art in the past day
- Users can make autogenerated collages of other users artwork by listing other users handles
- Users can follow artists users specifically
- Users can visit another user’s profile and get new art inspo based on of theirs
- Art flaired posts specifically have tags for the methods used (clay, acrylic , etc).
- Groups have their own collages that everyone in the group can add to
- The front page features a portfolio of the day which is an upcoming artist
- Notification of new collages from followed users & followed groups
- Post notifications from followed users & followed groups
- User can put custom flairs on profiles (genre, whatever they what)
- Users can mark themselves as needing particular types of artists which recommends you to who you need
- Users can swipe on other user's portfolios to see if your interested in collaborating (like tinder for finding artists to work with)
- Users can comment text, links, photos, and short videos on collages
- Tips are posted on a seperate section of the app
- User profile displays how many tip upvotes the user has. Tips from users with higher tip upvotes automatically go higher on the Tip page.
- A tip has a special format to distinguish it visually also for sorting (tips with text, media, images, videos).
- Tip only collages
- Groups can be public or private
VSD Analysis
Insight 1
VSD Criterion: Stakeholders
Prompt: Non-targeted Use. Technologies are not always used in ways that the designers intended. Who might use your app for unplanned or nefarious purposes? In what ways might they do so?
Feature: Users can swipe on other user's portfolios to see if your interested in collaborating (like tinder for finding artists to work with) & User can put custom flairs on profiles (genre, whatever they what). Users can filter their feed with flairs.
People could use the art marketplace section of the app to date, putting selfies in their portfolios or to sell illegal substances. Also with custom profile flairs and the swipe mechanic, it could make it alot easier for people to filter the swipe feed for whatever reasons they'd want.
Design Response: On the app, there can be a section that clarifies the intended use of the Marketplace. Also a Terms of Service and Legal Agreement to illustrate the consequences of violating the app policies. Also making the Marketplace an op-in feature so people that aren't looking for help/commissions aren't appearing. Also adding a moderation system to detect and remove inappropriate content.
Insight 2
VSD Criterion: Values
Prompt Choose Desired Values. Often systems are intentionally designed to support specific values (e.g., to facilitate community, to protect privacy, or to enhance trust). Deliberate on and then designate three primary values you app ideally would support. Some values you might consider include (but are not limited to): autonomy, community, cooperation, democratization, environmental sustainability, expression, fairness, human dignity, inclusivity and exclusivity, informed consent, justice, ownership, privacy, self-efficacy, security, trust, and universal access
Feature A profile has a primary collage, called a portfolio, of all the user's artwork.
Concern Plagarism could be an issue wth portfolios, users uploading other people's work as their own in their portfolio. Worse users could try to impersonate famous artists.
Design Response In addition to the built in moderation, allowing users to report portifolio artwork that is stolen. Also, having well-known artists on the platform be verified users could mitigate impersonators.
Insight 3
VSD Criterion: Stakeholders
Prompt: Consider Children. Children often appropriate systems originally designed for adults. How might this system influence a child's social and moral development? Develop a scenario that portrays a seven-year old interacting with your app. How might your app influence the child's learning, or play with other children?
Feature: Users can post to an app wide help board - people post for things they need help on or people they need and also Inspo collage page - well liked posts flaired art in the past day
Some users could make NSFW art for a living and naturally post it in public forums or it could appear in the ar marketplace. However, some users are under 18 so it is inappropriate for them. Also in general, dominance of NSFW art could deter artists from contributing to the app and attract the wrong crowds. However, I'm not sure about limiting the freedom of expression of the users. What about violent art?
Design Response: Accounts that post that sort of content could be flaired as NSFW. Groups and posts with that content could have that flair as well. Then for people that are under 18 on the app, these things can be blocked. Also for other users, they could have the option to filter out potentially disturbing art (ex. depicting violence or gore) and also NSFW art. Also with groups and the marketplace, an app wide help board is extraneous.
Insight 4
VSD Criterion: Time
Prompt: Reappropriation. In some cases, after a system has reached widespread use, it is later reappropriated in novel ways by the same community (e.g., use of telephone wires to deliver Internet service). What are 2-3 ways that your app is or might be reappropriated? Consider how this reappropriation might affect both the community in which it originated and new communities of use.
Feature: Groups have their own collages that everyone in the group can add to. AND Users can add their own and other users post into a collage, which they can name.
I was thinking of the groups kind of like Discord or Reddit communities, where they would discuss about the group topic. However, with this feature I thought users may make groups just to share a collage with their friends or let's say an animation team when working on a movie could make a group just to collect shared inspo for art concept. But after they are done, they don't need the group anymore. Similarly, sometimes I make pinterest boards for a certain project but afterwards I don't need it and it clutters up my board collections.
Design Response: Groups can be deleted. Allow users to make temporary collages/groups with an adjustable expiry time, so if users are making collages for a season (i.e. halloween art inspo) or something it could be auto-deleted. Also, allowing users have the option to collaborate on collages with other users by inviting them to work on a collage with a unique collage code would eliminate unneccessary group creation. To organize this, I would distinguish types of collages with a "My Collages" section and "Shared Collages" section which has all the collages that have multiple users contributing to them. Also an invite link to join an Illuspace group would be good marketing.
Insight 5
VSD Criterion: Time
Prompt: Adaptation. People are inherently adaptive, changing themselves or their behaviors in order to fit current conditions. Technologies can facilitate adaptation (e.g., a device that displays home energy use may encourage a homeowner to turn out the lights) or hinder adaptation (e.g., a person may be prevented from adopting a useful new technology if it is incompatible with other currently used technology). What is a lifestyle change that you app might support? Does it inhibit any positive lifestyle changes, or encourage negative ones?
Feature: Users can follow artists users specifically.
What makes a user an artist? What if an user decides to start making art after joining? Potentially differientiating between users could make other users feel left out. Or make users feel stuck in their roles, preventing them from trying to make art.
Design Response: I think I should get rid of this feature. Instead, maybe users can favorite other users so their posts are seen faster.
Insight 6
VSD Criterion: Pervasiveness
Prompt: Widespread Use. A person's use of a technology may be impacted by how, when, and where other people are using it. How might interactions change as use of your app spreads from handfuls to thousands and then millions of users? What new interactions might emerge as your app continues to grow (e.g., to billions of users like Facebook)? Find three synergistic benefits of widespread use and three potential breakdowns.
Feature: Users can join shared space to talk about arts tips - groups && Inspo collage page - well liked posts flaired art in the past day
As an artist, my main frustration with Pinterest is that there because there are so many different photos reposted and reposted and zero community that nobody can ask the poster for any information on the picture. And with no description, you miss alot of context of the picture. Currently with this app, the same issue could occur on the inspo page. However, if there is no inspo page and just groups, it may be hard for artists to find groups they would be interested in but don't know how to describe/haven't seen anything like it. Essentially, how do I connect the inspo page and groups so that they make sense together?
Design Response: I should allow users to repost pictures they see on the inspo page to groups, to keep an influx of inspo circulating. The inspo page should take posts from group collages and individual collages. The groups that a post was reposted to should be visible, to encourage users to explore groups.
Concepts
User
purpose A digital representation of a human
principle After a user registers to Illuspace with a username and password, a person can represent that same user by re-entering in the same username and password
Help Market
purpose allows users to find other users that can fulfill their need
principle When a user x is in the help market, they are shown one other user's portfolio and a blurb of text describing the type of service the other user is offering.
Post
purpose allows users to communicate a thought or idea
principle Say user x creates a post with with text, audio, or video. After that post is made, depending on where it is made, other users are able to navigate to the post to see what user x wanted to share.
Upvote
purpose rank items by popularity
principle after series of upvotes of items, the items are ranked by their number of upvotes
Stars
purpose incentive for users to help other users with tips
principle Say user x posts a tip t that user a find helpful. User a can upvote tip t and a star will be publicly added to user x's profile.
Comment
purpose allows users to share their thoughts response to a specific post
principle After a post is made, any user able to view the post can respond to that post with a comment, which is essentially another post that is only viewable by accessing the post it was made in response to.
Flair
purpose describes the content of the post that a user made.
principle Say user x is in the process of creating a post a. In order to successfully post their post, user x must flair the post with either
Collage
purpose allows users to store selected posts based on a user-determined theme for later reference
principle When a user adds a post to a collage, they can go to the collage to find the post at a later time, instead of going to the user/place post was orginally made.
Space
purpose allows users to send posts to the same group of users
principle When a user joins a Space A with topic (a name representing the central theme of the space) B, they can send and recieve posts related to topic B to/from the other users in the same Space A.
Expirying Resource
purpose handle expiration of short-lived resources
principle if you allocate a resource r for t seconds, after t seconds, the resource expires: allocate (r, t); expire (r).
Dependency Diagram
User Interface Concept Sketch
