A Sprint for the Hottest Photo Locations
The GramCity Pacer Test is a multistage design capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 5-day pacer test will begin shortly.
The Problem:
Design a feature for a mock photo editing app (Named GramCity) that adds the ability for its users to find the best Instagram-able photo locations for their photo hobbyist needs. The catch? You have 5 days to do it.
The Solution and the Answer:
With my extensive background as a photo hobbyist myself, going as far as even owning my own freelance photography website at one point, it was an immediate no-brainer for me that a photo location finder needed to have an intuitive & comprehensive map. There wasn’t a way for me to find out how many other UI/UX Designer hopefuls had taken a crack at this project, but it almost felt like this challenge was designed specifically for me.
Day 1 (Map):
Main goal of the challenge is to implement a photo spot location finder in an app that has primarily been a photo editing app. I aimed to solve the problem by implementing assets borrowed from existing map apps (like google maps) and incentivizing users to tag more precise locations to their photos. I believe incentivizing users to essentially data mine for the app to be the most effective method in curating data for this feature, which can then be used to categorize locations for users to find new ones effectively.
Instagram itself had a similar feature in the past where the location tags in users’ posts would show up on a map on their profile. Visualized maps where photos show up at specific locations would be very useful for the users that are looking for photo locations near them.
Map for user data mining:
User tags location/category on their photo > photo + location go into database > categories added to specific photo/location combinations > implement search feature for categories/location
Map for user search:
User search category/location > searches can be filtered by distance/ relevance > app suggests posts relating to the search > user finds on map > user gets address > user goes to location > user takes photo and tags location/category > post gets added to database
Day 2 (Sketch):
Modified Lightning Demos (research for inspiration):
Google Maps has photo options for every address and major location, in terms of searching for a decent photo spot though their search categories can be difficult to navigate for a specific photo spot you’re looking for.
Photohound has curated sections for famous locations but nothing for smaller and less well-known locations for users looking for something rarer. Not enough contributors even for well-known locations.
Shothotspot is most like what I envisioned GramCity’s new feature should look like. It uses a map with locations of users’ photos. Options for search filters including location options like landscapes or architecture. Search filters include hotspots near you. Drawbacks: website layout is cluttered and unflattering to look at with invasive ads.
Crazy 8s Exercise (sketches):
After the quick research it was time for sketching
Crazy 8s exercise usually involves other team members pooling designs to come up with the best solutions but since doing this design sprint solo, I sketched 8 screens instead and decided which ones needed to be kept/expanded on and which needed to be scrapped.
The panel before the critical screen: 1st photo top left, the critical screen itself: 1st photo top middle, the screen after the critical: 1st photo bottom middle
Day 3 (Storyboard):
Borrowed many aspects of google maps layout. Planned to make more unique changes when made into a prototype. Mainly focused on locations, photos, filters, profile, and upload page. Storyboarding will mainly be going from map to filters and locations then the photos of the location and detouring to profile and uploading.
Day 4 (Prototype):
Prototype became a mixture of the best parts of Instagram integrated with the most useful aspects of Google Maps. More user flows and screen variations would have certainly been added if not for a solo design sprint prototype constructed in a single day.
Day 5 (Test):
My Interviewees were all people who either have experience with computers or experience with UI/UX design. It felt unnecessary to ask them what their backgrounds are as I already knew all of them, but had they been strangers I had to interview I would note that they all have varying levels of experience with social media.
One of my interviewees is an Instagram model with a decent following that goes to photo locations often to take photos with photographers and noted that while it may not necessarily be useful to her since her photographers would do the heavy lifting of finding locations and photographers have their own networks of location scouting/ location sharing, she thought that having an app like this would be great for beginners or photo hobbyists who aren’t as well connected with the photo community.
Most interviewees agreed that the prototype looks solid as part of a design sprint. One user brought up that it would be nice to see other people’s profiles, but the prototype alludes to being able to do so but just wasn’t implemented for the sake of time restraint. When asked by another user whether the home page would be the map, I had to divulge that since the design sprint didn’t offer what the rest of the GramCity app looked like, the map is just what I defaulted to. Since most issues were due to the time limitations of the design sprint, the only improvement without outright adding more features was to change the drop-down component for the location tag to a search bar overlay.
Conclusion:
Just like that, the 5-day GramCity pacer test had concluded. Although the sprint was done solo, the idea of having to do exercises intended for group involvement allowed me to get a glimpse of what working in a professional setting with other UI/UX designers on the same project might feel like. The biggest takeaway was realizing just how much could be done in a week with the right tools and experience with specific assets from past life passions.
Still can’t shake the melancholy of designing apps that may never be actualized by engineers.
Test the GramCity design sprint prototype yourself!