In March of 2021, my partner and I participated in a week-long Adobe Creative Jam hosted by Adobe and Twitch. The goal was to create a desktop app that connects people together and encourage them to learn about any subject. As artists, my partner and I decided to create the app Laskó, a social media app for artists to find new interests, events, and communities.
Out of 400+ teams, we were finalists who got to present our project to the panel of judges, and were ultimately awarded 4th Place.
Role: Product Designer
Skills: Wireframing, Interaction, Prototyping
Team: Emma Johnston and Aiden Yoo
Timeline: April 2021 (24 Hour Design Challenge)
Tools: AdobeXD, Procreate
Product
Designer
Wireframing
Interaction
Prototyping
Emma Johnston
March 2021
(10 Day Design
Challenge)
AdobeXD
Procreate
THE PROJECT
Users can upload content from device, but also from third-party apps. There is already so much good content out there but it’s all in different places, so this hopefully makes it easy to centralize. Users can upload content from device, but also from third-party apps. There is already so much good content out there but it’s all in different places, so this hopefully makes it easy to centralize. Users can upload content from device, but also from third-party apps. There is already so much good content out there but it’s all in different places, so this hopefully makes it easy to centralize.
PROTOTYPE
01/ DISCOVERY
THE SEARCH BAR
The search engine function makes it easy to find the information you’re looking for. The “Show Me My Options” search shows all of the categories that the app offers, and the “Choose For Me” brings you to a random page.
02/ LEARNING
THE Q&A FEATURE
People have the option to do a Q&A instead of a direct message, and then that answer gets posted in feeds so everyone can benefit from the questions others ask.
03/ SHARING
UPLOAD AND IMPORT CONTENT
Users can upload content from device, but also from third-party apps. There is already so much good content out there but it’s all in different places, so this hopefully makes it easy to centralize.
04/ COMMUNITY
LIVE EVENTS
We placed user’s saved events and popular events prominently on the homepage, as well as on following feed and search results, to put live events front and center.
01 / PROBLEM
There is an incredible amount of gatekeeping in the artistic community. Many artists try to pursue art through art school, but art institutions cost a lot of money to attend, which presents a barrier for many people. There is also an aspect of "knowing who you know” in art, making someone who doesn't have an artistic network very unlikely get get a job in the art industry or even learn about art. Since art is not a priority at many schools, students stop taking it and some artforms become more lost.
02 / RESEARCH
Our target audience for this app is all types of artists, from professionals, to people who are just beginning to discover the world of art.
Audrey is working to be a professional violinist, studying at NYU Steinhardt. She used to be in AP Art in High School, but recently has not had the time to work on her paintings.
She loves using Laskó because it has helped her get back into painting. She is able to learn from professional painters, as well as collaborate with other Laskó users on interesting projects.
Dan is a 30-year-old professional printmaker. As the digital world evolves, the physical art of printmaking has become less popular and Dan is finding it very hard to find any work.
Dan has gathered a large following of people who love watching his printmaking on Laskó. He makes simple live streams to teach people new things and connects with other printmakers.
Eliza is a 25-year-old social media marketing specialist. As a hobby, she also doodles on her iPad. Eliza likes to draw ideas for stickers, but doesn't know how to physically create them.
On Laskó, she learned how to make stickers in a simple, cost-effective way, and has found an audience to sell her stickers to. She has also been able to pick up new techniques for drawing on her iPad.
There is no app quite like Laskó. So instead of looking for similar apps, we looked into what features we would like to include in our app that was already incorporated seamlessly into other applications.
Really good at delivering the content that you’re looking for based on your search terms. Featured snippets make it easy to find the answer to your question without ever having to.
With all of the Google marketing, paid results get pushed to the top. Google is also not catered towards a specific audience
People can ask you specific questions and you can help people connect by creating a forum where they can communicate with each other, a dedicated space for questions and answers.
Mostly text and static visual integration, could be more interactive with video, livestream, and audio.
Tagged content: content can have multiple tags to make it super searchable and easy to find at first glance. There are also fun emotes to give personality to what people say.
Overwhelming interface. Find a way to make content easier to digest while still exposing people to lots of different options.
03 / IDEATION
How can we design an expansive media browsing app that combines multiple mediums and is inclusive, intuitive, and not too overwhelming (both content-wise and aesthetically)?
As we started drafting our low-fidelity wireframes, we weren't yet sure what our app would be like, and what features we wanted to include. We assigned each other some basic preliminary features to sketch out to help us figure out what we wanted out of the app. Our biggest concern was finding a way to make all of this information accessible, without overwhelming the user.
When we finished our initial wireframes, we had a much better idea of which features we wanted to include in our app. We settled on a learning platform, where artists could not only learn from masters, but would also have a space to build communities with other creatives. Our main goal for the app was to break down barriers and limit gatekeeping in creative industries by creating a free forum for artists to share and discover.
The main goal for our mid-fidelity wireframes was to digitize the ideas we made in the low-fidelity wireframes. We settled on a rounder layout to be more inviting to new users and creatives.
04/ BRANDING
After deliberating over many names, we eventually decided on "Laskó”. Inspired by the Lascaux cave paintings in France, which in their own way, publicized art to an entire community, we wanted to give our platform a name that would represent all different factions of art. We chose a hand as the symbol, not only an ode to how the Lascaux paintings were created, but also a nod to how almost all forms of art come from the hand.
05/ SOLUTION
Users can upload content from device, but also from third-party apps. There is already so much good content out there but it’s all in different places, so this hopefully makes it easy to centralize. Users can upload content from device, but also from third-party apps. There is already so much good content out there but it’s all in different places, so this hopefully makes it easy to centralize. Users can upload content from device, but also from third-party apps. There is already so much good content out there but it’s all in different places, so this hopefully makes it easy to centralize.
PROTOTYPE06 / REFLECTION
Every part of the process had to be meticulously planned so that we could achieve what we wanted in the timeframe. We came up with branding in one night, and did all our research in the span of a day. Although it was stressful, it also let us make quicker decisions and make bold moves, many of which I would have overthought if I had had more time.
Working with a teammate taught me how to successfully split work up to heighten productivity. We both started out doing research and branding on our own to broaden the spectrum of ideas and combined them into the best possible one. We split up the pages in the wireframes, and stuck to them throughout most of the process, building off of each other's work for inspiration and cohesion.
Before this project, I had only used Figma. Although Figma and Adobe XD are similar, there was a steep learning curve for getting used to where everything was. There were many features from Figma that I missed but I was pleasantly surprised by how intuitive Adobe XD's prototyping tools were.
Working on this project for a week straight taught me many things about the program, and Emma and I taught each other some tricks that we had each figured out in the process, broadening the knowledge we both gained about the program.
The motto of our app is ”Art Made Accessible," but during the project we struggled to maintain the right balance between aesthetics and accessibility. We loved the earthy color scheme that we came up with, because it gave the site a sense of comfort and community.
However, when testing it on an accessibility site, we realized that the text would not be perceived as clear by someone with color-blindness or bad eyesight. We changed the colors slightly hoping to stay with our original vision, and ran some successful tests. If I had continued to work on this project, I would have done more to improve our site's accessibility.
As a finalist team, we were able to present our project to a panel of experts. The judges loved our project, thought it was very easy to use, and appreciated the problem it was trying to solve. However, they did advise us to sharpen our color palette to grab attention better, and to create a less blocky interface. Although I'm happy with our design, if I were to revisit this project, I would fix those aspects of the application.
We also made a joking description for the event, saying ”come and learn how to make an award-winning app." Little did we know that joke would become a reality!
