Sketchup
An app for Drawing Enthusiasts - Case Study
This was the third project in Ironhack Berlin’s bootcamp, performed in two-people groups for two weeks.
- UX/UI Design, Product Design
- Figma
- November 2024
You can also read the Medium article here.
The task
Design an App that solves an user’s issue (financial, medical, wellness, educational, etc) or any other traceable subject.
The MVP should feature a Dashboard where users can track their progress with their own data and encourage them to adopt a different habit.
Users would need to be able to:
- Set up a profile
- Visualize information relevant to their goals
- Edit or delete personal data
- Be informed on how their data is processed.
Research
Quantitative Research
We did extensive secondary research (Online forums, Discord channels, Social Media) and confirmed that people in general are very conscious and judgemental with their drawing capabilities and the topics they draw about. If they get to even draw, naturally.
A small amount of people draws consistently as a hobby, but there is a considerable amount of drawing enthusiasts that procrastinate on it or wish they had a more consistent way of learning, other than going to Art School.
Additionally, we created a Google Forms document and shared it with people.
Respondents
In total
People
Draw as a hobby
Identify as
Part of a fandom
Used to draw
When they were little
Qualitative Research
To further understand our potential users, we interviewed 3 people who draw consistently and asked them questions such as:
- How did you start drawing consistently?
- What experiences, good and bad, have you had along the way?
- How would you encourage other people to learn how to draw?
- How do you deal with self-criticism?
Competitive Research
We inspected 3 online educational platforms that have Arts & Crafts in their course offers: Domestika, Masterclass and Skillshare. These platforms provide structured courses with traceable progression and community features, providing a complete experience.
Masterclass
- Course selection not limited to creativity topics
- Main selling point: expert and/or famous teachers
Domestika
- Offers videos with multi-language audio and/or subtitles
- Blog-like community features
Skillshare
- Users can purchase 1-on-1 sessions with coaches.
.
On the other hand, pure mobile-native drawing learning apps (Sketchar, How to Draw, Drawing Desk, etc) have interesting features such as an in-screen drawing workspace, templates and AR tracing, but mostly offer template drawing and basic digital drawing. They are mostly obscure and impopular, lacking the rounded DIY experience featured in the previously mentioned learning platforms.
User Persona & Problem Statement
After the research, we crafted a User Persona to further empathize with our potential audience.
Maria
Web Developer, 30 years
- Used to draw when she was little, but lost it growing up
- Big fan of Harry Potter and Anime
- Would love to get back into drawing, but doesn’t know how to get going
My friends are different. They're definitely gonna give me the look if I say I am practicing Anime drawings.
Pain Points 💥
- Hates harsh criticism
- Doesn’t know many like-minded people
- Struggles with staying consistent due to full-time job
Goals 🏆
- Developing an inspiring hobby
- Exploring her own creativity
- Improving and creating at her own pace
Needs 🌱
- Being economical with time
- Not spending a lot of money
- Having fun throughout the process
- Motivation to help stay consistent
.
Ideation
Feature Prioritization
Must Have ✅
- Courses section. Users would be able to enroll in courses with several lessons.
- Short videos. The lessons would have some visual walkthrough.
- Project submission and revision. A special feature, allowing users to submit their project and have it rated by an algorithm or reviewed by a human teacher.
- Reminders/ Push notifications.
- User’s List of interests and preferences. To show courses and other projects they may potentially like.
Won't Have ❌
- Elaborate Social Media features. We won’t implement chat features, friends lists or social profile information.
- Job-specific courses. This won’t be a platform for Architecture prep or Industrial Design, for example.
- Failure system. The users won’t be able to “fail” their assessments or courses. The only way is forward.
- Grading system. Since the users can’t fail, they won’t be graded. They would only receive feedback.
The Solution
The Prototype
We created an iOs App prototype with an intuitive User Flow in mind. It features enough copywriting and content to make it understandable and interactive.
You can view the Figma prototype here.
User Flow
The logical structure of the prototype.
- The Overview page would feature the Dashboard.
- A single Course would have multiple Lessons (e.g. How to draw vehicles > Drawing bicycles).
User Flow #1: Create an Account
The user follows an Onboarding process when creating an account.
- They can set time and purpose goals.
- Their preferences would shape the suggested Courses and Projects they may find in their feed.
- Users would find courses that match the materials they currently possess.
User Flow #2: Submit a Project
The user can submit a Lesson’s project to complete it.
- A single Course can contain several Lessons.
- A single Lesson may request multiple Submittables.
- Submitting a project requires camera access. The user can also upload an image from their phone gallery.
Design Choices
- We tested the moodboard with a Google Forms survey. The most voted valuations were “Encouraging” (3), “Fun” (4) and “Creative” (4).
- The name and color scheme are on purpose, we wanted it to rhyme with “ketchup” to add a hint of memorable irony.
Usability Testing
We tested the prototype among our classmates and teachers. These are some main takeaways:
Positives 🤩
- The app’s comic-like style is nice and consistent.
- Appealing selection and use of colors.
- Visuals are engaging.
- Flows are very convincing and intuitive.
- The interface looks professional.
Negatives 🤔
- Users wouldn’t assume the Overview Page is scrollable because it ends perfectly with a button.
- The Premium account feature is implied in the prototype and isn’t very clear.
- The Lesson timeline could have numeration.
The Takeaways
Key Learnings
We were really happy with the result, considering we invested two full weeks in between Bootcamp lessons.
We learned that designing an entirely new app from scratch is a lengthy and complex process, which can turn into tedious prototyping and testing phases.
Also, our Figma skills took a liftoff with overlay sequences, component variants and booleans, for instance.
We recognize we couldn’t implement many more features in the prototype, such as an AR and lighting simulator for 3D objects. This would greatly help users in understanding object drawing and perspectives.
Conclusion
I am personally happy with the freedom we had to create an app from scratch and cater to a specific audience such as drawing enthusiasts. As one of them myself, I put some heart to it, wishing for other people across the screen could be inspired by the playful and approachable visuals we designed.
After we presented the project in class, many classmates including the teacher were amazed and wanted to have more of the prototype. This is a great indicator which tells us our design skills are developing and we successfully engaged with our audience.
