Yes, And…
A virtual experience that allows artists and non-artists alike to develop their modes of creative expression.
Objective:
To create a virtual educational experience that allows participants to develop their creative and improvisational skills to improve their quality of life and develop an artistic aesthetic.
Process:
Conducted competitive analysis on apps such as TikTok and Instagram
Interviewed 10 participants on their experiences and pain points in creating art, including English as a Second Language (ESL) participants
Developed personas based on two key audiences, people who have never made art before, and people with experience but experiencing a creative block
Refined and utilized parts of the pedagogy I learned in grad school to create prompts for the participant to create with
Limitations:
I wanted to create a curated series of prompts that functioned as a journey, so that the user felt like they were progressing through a training that would allow them to feel more confident in their artistic and improvisational skills. I also wanted to create a space that allowed for community building, so that they could find others and debrief on the exercises, akin to an app like Duolingo. I hoped to collaborate with others from my grad school program for future iterations of the project that would dive deeper into making the pedagogy from our program more accessible to a wider audience, but due to the pandemic and shifting priorities, I had to put most of those plans on hold.
Outcome:
Developed mockups for an art education app that focuses on process over product. Future iterations will involve collaborating with people from similar programs as mine to develop a more inclusive and accessible education experience.
Some testers wondered what it would have been like if they would have been able to choose the prompts that they wanted to work on, which is currently not an option. That also means that due to the “journey” aspect of the app, there’s not currently a way to go back, unless it happens to be a prompt chosen through the option “Random Prompt.” I’m also curious about a version in which I could allow for more direct collaboration with others. An app like TikTok lets users “duet” with each other, and this process is mostly singular, depending on your living situation.
