End to End app For Independent Art Collectors
Overview
Factory is a minimum viable product (MVP) for independent art collectors to connect, buy, and sell artwork with an established provenance. The goal of Factory is to give independent art collectors a comfortable space to connect to other art collectors that have been vetted and verified so they may deal with art amongst each other without the hassle of working with auction houses or galleries.
The Problem
The secondary marketplace for high-end artwork can be painful and risky to work in. Because the secondary art market relies on individuals to work with each other, fraudulent activity occurs frequently. Platforms such as Instagram and eBay offer services that can help buy and sell high-end art but are poor when it comes to vetting scammers from honest collectors.
MY ROLE
UX Researcher, UI Designer
PROJECT DURATION
Three Weeks
TOOLS
Miro, Figma, Illustrator
Research
Research was conducted to understand the current context and environment participants in the secondary art market operate in order to perform their everyday tasks.
My goal focused on understanding why participants experience pain and stress when buying and selling high-end artwork in the secondary market.
My target audience included art collectors who own private art galleries and frequently buy/sell high-end artwork.
1:1 Interviews
I began my research by working closely with a few art collectors who buy and sell high-end artwork regularly to better understand their goals, what daily tasks they perform, pains, and what they hope to gain.
Key Insights
Independent Art Collectors care a lot about specific artists, and generally will only collect artworks that are produced by those artists
A broad range of tools are used to complete their task, such as checking art price specs(LiveArt, artprice.com, etc.) and looking for available artworks (Instagram, eBay, etc.)
A majority of fears arise when Independent Art Collectors are working with someone they do not know
Independent Art Collectors deeply care about their galleries. They are excited to present their collection
Competitive Analysis
After conducting my interviews, it became clear that what is needed is a two-way marketplace for art collectors to act as buyers and sellers. I learned of a few different platforms that are commonly used to buy and sell high-end artwork then created a competitive analysis to get a scope of what features are useful and what is needed to start defining the MVP.
Current platforms for buying and selling high-end artwork are dominated by auction houses and elite groups leaving independent art collectors to participate in a secondary market that is very risky and difficult to navigate.
Fraud is very common in the secondary market for buying/selling high-end artwork. Connecting and crafting a network with other honest art collectors and dealers is highly sought.
The art market is volatile and putting an exact price on high-end artwork is difficult. It is common for art collectors to bargain and/or use market estimates to price artwork before buying or selling.
Defining the Problem
Empathy Mapping
I decided to begin framing the problem by constructing an empathy map based on interviews I had conducted. This would help me keep in mind the user’s behaviors and attitudes during my process, and identify underlying common themes between what they say and what they do.
Personas
Two personas were developed from the initial research: The collector(buyer) and the dealer(seller). By using these personas, I could begin to define the features for the MVP as well as user flows.
The typical independent art collector is someone who collects a selective niche in the art market. They primarily only collect pieces from a specific artist, genre, or medium. They are not concerned with making a profit, only building a credible private gallery they can share with a close group of peers.
The profitable independent art collector is someone who has come to generate profit by buying and selling high-end artwork. Unlike a gallery owner, they own their entire gallery and do not take commissions from their sales, for they are the sole proprietor.
Point of View Statement
“High-end art collectors want to participate in the secondary market comfortably. They want to buy and sell high-end art at fair prices with other collectors they can trust while avoiding auction house and gallery commissions.”
I created user journeys to break down a typical day for an independent art collector and art dealer to purchase/sell a piece of artwork. At each interval in the process, I brainstormed what could be improved as opportunities during their tasks.
User Journeys
The Buyer’s Journey
The Seller’s Journey
Insights
What I determined from the journey mapping is that both the seller and the buyer feel uneasy when first contacting each other. There would need to be some sort of initiation during this phase that would set aside that uneasiness. Keeping this in mind, I would focus on how to prioritize features that would make connecting more comfortable and feel secure.
Feature Prioritization
I defined some primary features that would be included in the MVP based on the user’s needs for a successful MVP. I based the features on the highest value for a user vs the amount of effort the user would need to utilize the feature. I was able to prioritize MUST HAVE features vs. features that were unnecessary.
“Verified” Accounts meets needs for security
User needs to be able to compare “Spot Prices” for artwork with asking prices
Be able to manage “Digital Gallery”, track and review orders in process
Site Map
The site map was created after conducting an open card sort in person with an art collector, then using the insights I gained, I refined the site map by having another art collector do their own using Optimal Workshop.
What I learned from the card sort
Art collectors want to manage their collection in one place via a dashboard
The participants wanted space to keep favorited/watched artworks for quick viewings such as a bookmarks bar
User Flows
User flows were created to begin thinking about how my users would interact with the product and its features. I prioritized three different user flows to help me during wireframing.
By sketching out user flows, I decided the best actions for a user to complete their task while utilizing the prioritized features.
Buyer Flow / Browsing and Purchasing an Artwork
Seller Flow / Getting Verified to Sell Artwork
Seller Flow / Uploading an Artwork for Sale
Browsing and Purchasing an Artwork
Getting Verified to Sell Artwork
Uploading an Artwork for Sale
Paper Prototyping
Before I began wireframing I decided to conduct a paper prototyping session with a potential user to help visualize each screen of the user task flows.
The goal of the paper prototype was to identify how the user would categorize the information on each screen to make the user flow as intuitive as possible.
Results
After conducting the paper prototype, I was able to solidify an idea of how the screens should look and interact with one another.
Sketching & Wireframing
After the paper prototyping session, I was able to begin sketching the necessary screens for the user flows. I then began building the wireframes in Figma
Task Flow One: Getting Verified to Sell Artwork
Task Flow Two: Inquire About an Artwork
Task Flow Three: Uploading Artwork for Sale
Prototyping and Usability Testing
Prototyping
After building the high fidelity mock-ups using the UI kit and style guide, a prototype was developed in Figma for conducting a usability test for the given user flows.
Usability Test
Using Figma Mirror, I facilitated a “Think Out Loud” usability test with a local high-art collector. Using Figma Mirror would allow the user to have a realistic opportunity to explore the prototype to get the best possible reactions.
Getting Verified
My first task was to see how a user would feel about the verification flow. I wanted to understand how comfortable my user would be entering sensitive information.
I discovered that users are not as ready to enter sensitive information and would prefer to feel more secure doing so. In my last reiteration, I tried putting a face to a third-party verification service, Veriff. This allowed the user to go and conduct their own research on the verification service and eased their concerns about what is happening with their information.
Making an Offer
In order to feel confident about purchasing an artwork, the potential buyer would be able to read reviews about the seller left by previous purchasers, check going spot prices for artwork, as well as make an offer if they feel like the listed price is unfair. In this flow, I introduced another third party, LiveArt, to offer live spot prices for the given artwork.
Feedback from user testing highlighted that users are not as comfortable submitting payment information as previously thought. Also, users felt misled when being prompted to continue to “Shipping and Payment”, when they themselves have not fully committed to the purchase.
Using the feedback, I gave the user an option to “Return Back” after completing an offer, so they can pace themselves with the purchase.
Uploading an Artwork For Sale
After several user tests and feedback, I arrive at a solution to break down the uploading an “Artwork for Sale” process into more digestible chunks. Users found that too much information was overly complicated for just a couple of screens.
Lessons Learned
There are some specific conditions that I did not consider while conducting research and executing my design decisions:
Vetting artwork and art collectors may take more than becoming a “verified” user. Vetting fake artwork itself requires a higher level of actions that may require additional technology, or third-party involvement, which is more work than what users would want to do. Discovering new potential ways to incorporate security may be beneficial.
Sharing personal information for the purpose of getting vetted, such as third-party verification with an S.S.N and birthdate, made the users feel uncomfortable. Considering they are buying and selling peer-to-peer to avoid unnecessary taxes and commissions, they did not want to share more information than they needed.