Creative Flow
“How can people incorporate the joy of design in their daily lives?”
?
Challenge:
Everyone is creative, in some capacity. And creativity brings fulfillment and joy to life.
Why then, do people not pursue their creative interests? How can we build a tool to fix that?
Solution:
Creative Flow is a creativity learning and motivation end-to-end mobile application, using individualized self-paced visual courses and group learning to pursue their creative interests and combating motivational challenges.
Scope
Role: UX Researcher & Designer
Independently directed
Timeline: 6 weeks
Research
First, the big questions: What does a good educational app look like, and what purpose does a design learning app fill? Here were a few specific questions I kept in mind as I began the initial research phase:
Comparative Analysis
To familiarize myself with educational products, I browsed through various learning apps.
What works best:
Bite-size lessons- lessons that a user can absorb and remember in one day
Gamification- popular motivational tool.
Secondary Research
Next, I took a deep dive into the field of learning design & creativity to determine the use case for learning design. Here are my top 6 insights:
User Interviews
Unsure of who my target demographic would be, I sought out user interviewees who have some kind of creative pursuit or interest and of all ages ranging from 12 to 40. I recruited 8 participants. Below are the top commonalities I found:
1. Most people have creative outlets which allow them to express themselves.
2. People mostly enjoy learning in groups, or with an instructor.
3. Challenges:
a. Time
b. Cost
c. Lack of incentive/ motivation
d. Lack of resources to practice
4. Motivators:
a. Creating with an end product, a sense of ownership and pride
b. Incentives/goals
c. Spend time doing it with friends/family
But that left me with an epiphany…
People were less interested in learning about design, and more excited about pursuing their existing creative interests.
My original idea of teaching people about design did not meet the real needs of users, so I developed a new problem statement:
How might we encourage and incentivize individuals to establish time for their creative pursuits amidst their busy schedules?
Secondary Research…Part 2
I had no experience with designing motivational tools. It was time to hit the books again.
My mentor recommended a book called Hooked, by Nir Eyal, which explains how to design habit-forming products. The Hooked Model was exactly what I needed, and became instrumental to my design. Here was the main takeaway:
“The most habit-forming products and services utilize one or more of the three variable rewards types: the tribe, the hunt, and the self.”
I created a user persona and a journey map to understand the gaps the product would need to fill for someone looking to pursue their creative interests:
Next, it was time to weave in the Hooked Model’s methods to meet the user’s needs.
Information Architecture
Taking the features I had just planned for, I developed these into a site map with 3 main features:
Learning (the hunt / the self)
Galleries (the self)
Community (the tribe)
User Flows and Wireframes
I developed the main tasks, focusing on the user goals of maintaining motivation. I converted the flows to wireframe sketches to fully understand how exactly the flow would look.
Usability Testing
Did the motivational tools work?? (Mostly, yes!) I tested the mid-fidelity prototype.
I performed the test on 5 participants - all of whom had a creative hobby.
Priority Revisions:
UI Design
Finally, with participant feedback, I started adding life to the product using UI elements.
The user interface wanted to be positive, energetic and encouraging. I took inspiration from early modernism and design basics, drawing from the Bauhaus’ style- primary colors, distinctive geometric graphic style, and circular, bold typography.
Sample of High-Fidelity Screens
With the product’s functionality improved by user feedback, I applied the visual design elements to the wireframes. They came together, resulting in an energetic, and ideally, motivating product.
Reflection & Next Steps
While this project deviated from my initial idea, the outcome is a user-focused solution, fully derived from primary research- responding to the common issue of managing free time and using motivational methods that are tried and tested.
How would I measure success:
User Engagement:
Feedback and Ratings
Active Users
Frequency of use
Session Durations
User Retention & Churn Rates
Completion of Goals & Lessons
Given more time & resources I would…
Develop responsive design to a higher fidelity for desktop/tablet screens
Develop more group learning opportunities - with professionals and other students
Because of the positive feedback on the idea, I believe bringing more creativity into people’s lives would lead to a happier and more beautiful world.