ARKIVE:
A Social Media Platform
For Artists and Creators
A Mobile Application Concept
Background
As a contracted illustrator/amateur artist myself, I've identified a pain point long ago that the "feed"(post layouts) of the existing social media platforms cannot cater to artists' needs of displaying their artworks in a customized layout following the varied sizes of the picture. This sparked the birth of ARKIVE which was further developed to become a conceptual mobile application with a prototype that provides artists and creators around the globe with integrated services including social media, digital online portfolios, and online merch shops partnering with printing factories and shipping services. ARKIVE is a comprehensive solution for artists and creators who aim to have full control of their creative-expressing experience and corresponding marketing strategies.
Tools
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Miro
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Figma
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Procreate
My Role
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UI Design
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UX Design
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Prototyper
It's More Than Social Media:
ARKIVE Is A Portfolio,
A Marketing Strategy,
And A Whole Community
for Artists & Creators.
ARKIVE is designed to solve the problem of rigid layouts in typical social media platforms that limit the possibilities of creative expressions, as well as the dispersion of online portfolios, merch-selling and social media platforms.
Sketches
User Personas
Mark
Art Student
Pain Point
The existing layouts and feeds of mainstream social media platforms are unable to fully showcase the different sizes of my artworks. They also lack the functionality to organize multiple pieces into collections while catering to general social management needs to make my social media account into a systematic portfolio.
Goal
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Build a social media art portfolio
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Customize post layouts according to sizes
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Put posts of identical themes into a collection
Elle
Illustrator
Pain Point
The current retailing/printing website I collaborated with does not have comprehensive item options for me to print my works and designs on. I also lack a more efficient social-media-and-online-shop platform to market/sell my merch and manage my regular media posts at the same time.
Goal
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Sell & market merch on the same platform
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Have more customized printable item options
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Manage merch & regular art posts on the same platform
Information Architecture
Wireframe
User Stories & Challenges:
How I solve problems in UX design
Below are some examples of the user experience problems I encountered when designing the database,
as well as the solutions I came up with to solve them.
Challenge: Case 1
Mainstream social media platforms have rigid feed designs to display the works of artists that cannot exhibit the picture's full size in a single frame; Some other platforms emphasize customized layouts for viewing pictures but lack social media functions.
Solution
Implement an auto layout system powered by AI to deliver optimal layout catering to different picture sizes and switchable post feed for personal profiles: overview mode & timeline mode while maintaining the position as a social media platform.
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Challenge: Case 2
The ARKIVE app concept aims to provide integrated services combining features of social media and online merch shops. Nevertheless, users may confuse the products for sale with regular social media posts if the two pages adopt similar interfaces.
Solution
Differentiate the merch and regular art posts by adopting different layout designs: Creator information and descriptions are on top of the picture for regular posts while the information is put at the bottom for merch. The shopping cart is also displayed clearly as a movable side botton.
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UI Design: Style Guidelines
Prototype: Via Figma
UI Design: Device Mockup
The ability to independently come up with a mobile app concept according to personal observations and sketch up structures and interfaces to document instant ideas.
What I've learned from this project
1
Observing competitors and incorporating advantages of different existing applications into the application concept
2
Producing an interactive prototype independently on Figma to ensure smooth interface navigation and the user experience as a whole.
3
View Other Projects of Mine
