A. Background: A brief introduction to the project: the assigned task, timeline/phases, product/company background information, team, and team contributions.
Project intro:
As events begin to resume following a two-year hiatus, we have an opportunity to collaborate with the VSCO community and host live sessions once more. These events would provide a space not only to explore innovative ways of creating using VSCO, but also to connect with communities and encourage aspiring creators worldwide. The challenge is to create a simple and effective way to organize, find, and participate in live community events.
As a background, VSCO is a popular photography app and creative community. It provides users with various tools and presets to edit their photos and videos, as well as a platform to share their work with other creators. This company has struggled to maintain relevance in 2023 amidst additional image-based social media competition such as Instagram, Tiktok, and BeReal.
Our task was to look at the process of building sessions, challenging our ideas of what VSCO users may want and replacing these biases with research-backed solutions to VSCO sessions. Beginning with user surveys, market research, and user testing, we were able to create an effective prototype for VSCO Sessions.
B. Problem: What problem did you set out to tackle? Give only a brief summary/introduction to the problem here, because you will be digging deeper in the process later of how you discovered the problem.
We aimed to increase user engagement with VSCO through live events- and looked to see where these events could effectively take place.
C. Solution: What was your proposed general solution? Again, you really only need to provide a brief summary/introduction to the solution here, since you will be explaining more thoroughly later in the document.
Our initial proposed solution was to offer a dual opportunity to learn about using VSCO through workshops as well as live challenges to engage the whole of the VSCO community through a competitive yet creative live event based on their photography skills.
D. Process: Dig Deeper: What steps did you take to reach the final product?
Research: Product research, user research, competitor benchmarking. What did you learn about your product, your primary user, and the competition?
What we learned about VSCO is that it is a social media app which does not prioritize the social media aspect of the brand. There is an element of exclusivity to the app due to the refined, specific aesthetic tone of popular images on the app. The app is also for like-minded creative individuals interested in exploring the aesthetic presentation of their feeds with specific visual metrics in mind,
The primary VSCO user is typically someone who is interested in photography and visual storytelling, often young adults or teenagers. They may be hobbyist photographers, social media influencers, or professional photographers looking for a platform to showcase their work. VSCO users tend to be creative and value the ability to express themselves visually.
VSCO's user base is quite diverse, but the app has a strong following among individuals who appreciate minimalist design and a curated aesthetic. VSCO's filters are known for their natural and film-like qualities, which appeal to those who want to create a more classic and timeless look for their photos. Overall, VSCO users are a community of visually-driven individuals who are passionate about creativity and self-expression.
Our competition we found through user testing was Instagram, Tiktok, and BeReal.
Framing/Hypotheses: What framing questions did you ask/answer? What did you want to find out? What primary assumptions/hypotheses about the product and user did you make initially. What did you think you already knew and what did you want to validate?
Questions: We framed our questions to target two main categories- live and digital events. We focused a lot of our early research on Live, in-person events and largely used this assumption to drive our questions. We wanted to validate our assumptions without asking about accessibility and connection to VSCO itself-leading us to re-think our app design midway through our project.
Pain Points & Opportunities: What pain points and opportunities did you discover through earlier research, interviews, user journey maps, and your survey?
Limited free features: VSCO offers a range of filters and editing tools, but some users feel that the free version of the app is too limited. Many of the more advanced features are only available with a paid subscription.
Confusing user interface: While VSCO's interface is sleek and minimalistic, some users find it to be confusing and difficult to navigate. This can make it challenging for new users to find the tools they need to edit their photos.
Limited social features: While VSCO does have a social component that allows users to share their photos with other members of the community, some users would like to see more in depth social features, such as the ability to comment on or like other users' photos.
Lacks engaging content: there is a lack of incentivization for posting on VSCO. Some find the app to be pointless as there is limited interactivity or reason to post on the app itself. VSCO lacks some of the viral features that are popular on other social media platforms, such as the ability to share content widely and quickly, or to create viral challenges that attract widespread attention and engagement.
Personas: What personas did you develop? Who was your target audience? How did you figure it out?
We used VSCO traffic analytics to inform our personas & interviews of current VSCO users.
Name: Sarah
Age: 25
Occupation: Freelance photographer and social media influencer
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Background:
Sarah is a professional photographer who specializes in lifestyle and travel photography. She has a large following on Instagram and often collaborates with brands to create sponsored content. Sarah is always on the lookout for new tools and platforms to enhance her photography skills and create more unique and visually stunning content for her audience.
Goals:
Expand her photography skills and learn new techniques
Connect with other photographers and creators
Build her personal brand and grow her social media following
Explore new ways to monetize her photography skills and build her business
Challenges:
Finding time to build her photography portfolio
Feeling overwhelmed by the range of photography tools and platforms available
Struggling to create unique content that stands out from other creators on social media
Struggles to find unique and interesting subjects to photograph outside of her comfort zone
Balancing her photography work with other responsibilities and commitments
Motivations:
Creating visually stunning and compelling content that resonates with her audience
Building her brand and business through collaboration and networking opportunities
Learning from other photographers and creators in order to improve her skills and stay up-to-date on industry trends
Finding new and innovative ways to monetize her photography skills and grow her business
Validating Hypotheses: After understanding your user and finding all of the pain points and opportunities, what initial hypotheses were validated and what unexpected results did you discover? How did you cluster and translate your findings using the “How Might We”/Affinity Mapping exercise?
The unexpected results we found were that people were not interested in using VSCO for in-person events. Instead, we were validated in the assumption that the app was primarily for self-described creative people looking to edit photos and build out a profile of aesthetically pleasing photography. We were also able to pick out the why’s of users who no longer used the app- including limited social features/community interaction, comparatively low accessibility, lack of intuitive design, and a lack of interesting content.
Affinity mapping exercise:
Limited Social Features
Users who want more social features to connect with other VSCO users
Users who would like to have more options for sharing their photos and videos with others
Users who feel that the app's current social features are too limited to allow for meaningful interaction with other users
Limited Access to Advanced Features
Users who want to access more advanced features but feel limited by the app's pricing structure
Users who find it difficult to create the effects they want with the current tools
Users who feel they can't create a unique style or stand out from other users because of the limited editing tools
Confusing Interface
Users who are overwhelmed by the app's interface and don't know where to start
Users who have difficulty navigating through the app's various features and menus
Users who find that the interface can be cluttered and confusing, which makes editing photos less enjoyable
Limited Variety in Content
Users who feel that VSCO's content is too narrow and limited in scope
Users who want to see more diverse and unique content on the app
Users who feel that the app's current content offerings are not engaging enough to hold their attention
Lack of Community Interaction
Users who feel that the app's social features don't encourage meaningful interaction with other users
Users who want to connect with other users and discuss the content they see on the app
Users who feel that the app's social features are not conducive to building a strong sense of community
Define: What were your prioritized user, business, and product goals? What was your product statement? Were there other concepts or ideas you explored before coming to the final concept? Why did you choose the concept that you did?
We chose our concept for accessibility, ease of use, and inclusion. We found through our surveys that users wanted to feel engaged within an inspired community of individuals which challenged them to learn, grow, and participate in photography. Through this, we were able to narrow our app redesign. We eliminated the workshop aspect to focus on engagement and address the app’s current pain point of lacking relevance, interaction, and diversity of content.
In order to address content variety- we build out scenarios to engage users to photograph a variety of situations or “subjects” meaning that one idea was not exhausted. We also decided to challenge users through thematic challenges which encourage users to create content which matches unique moods and aesthetic concepts.
Building/iterating:
Testing & Analysis: How were the prototypes implemented? What did you learn from
your paper and hi-fi prototype usability tests? Provide the main take-aways from your results?
The main takeaways were that we needed to fix a lot of sizing and also have navigation be super easy and clear for the user. It needed to be super clear to the user where to click on each page. We also decided to take out some content to have less going on for the user and have it be more minimal.
E. Outcome: What was the end result?
Final Product – Show your final designed screens and highlight the key features related to your redesign.
LINK
Product Scenario/Story – Describe your redesigned product being used in context. Write a detailed full scenario of your product in action by a primary user persona. Or draw a storyboard with characters using your product to paint a fuller picture.
Primary User Persona: Sarah , a 24-year-old freelance photographer and social media influencer.
Scenario: Sarah is a young photographer who frequently uses social media to share her creative work with her followers. She is always on the lookout for new editing tools and platforms that can enhance the quality of her photos and videos. One day, she comes across VSCO's Challenges feature on her Instagram feed and decides to check it out.
As she opens the VSCO app, she notices the Challenges tab at the bottom of the screen. She clicks on it and is redirected to a page showcasing the ongoing challenges. She is impressed by the variety of themes and creative prompts and decides to participate in one of them.
The current challenge is called "Nature's Colors," and the prompt is to capture the beauty of natural colors and edit the photo using VSCO's editing tools. Sarah is excited about the theme and heads out to a nearby park to capture some shots.
She takes several photos and chooses her favorite one to edit using VSCO's tools. She uses the editing options to adjust the exposure, contrast, and color balance, and applies a filter that complements the natural tones in her photo.
After perfecting her edit, she submits the photo to the challenge and eagerly waits for the results. Over the next few days, Sarah receives notifications from VSCO regarding the progress of the challenge. She can see how other participants are faring, who the judges are, and when the winners will be announced.
To her delight, Sarah's photo is selected as the winner of the challenge. She receives a notification from VSCO congratulating her and inviting her to accept a featured creator role for the week.
As a featured creator,Sarah’s profile is posted to the front of VSCO’s Sessions tab, highlighting her work from the challenges, as well as providing a link to her profile. Sarah’s follower count increases and she has gained a following through this challenge.
Sarah is impressed with the VSCO Challenges feature and decides to participate in more challenges in the future. She finds the platform to be an excellent way to showcase her work, gain exposure, and connect with a community of like-minded photographers. The experience has also inspired her to continue to push her creative boundaries and develop her skills further.
Overall, VSCO Challenges has provided Sarah with an engaging and rewarding experience, allowing her to explore her passion for photography and connect with a vibrant community of photographers and creatives.
Challenges – Describe challenges you had to overcome.
We had a hard time figuring out a way to make live sessions something that the target audience would want to go to. We brainstormed a lot and came up with a challenge idea. Then we had to figure out how to make the challenges work for users and the perfect amount of engagement. We first had a challenge everyday but then realized we needed to rework it and have a weekly challenge instead. Then from here we had to redesign our prototype which is an obstacle we overcame.
Reflection – What did you learn from completing this project?
We learned that collaborating within our group led to some of our best ideas and that we could thrive on that. We also learned that simple, clean, and easy is very nice for users to have in an app. Less is more was one of the big takeaways we got from this project.
Vision/Future Goals – Is there any room for growth with this project?
Launching a Beta Version: We plan to roll out a beta version of VSCO Sessions to a select group of users, gathering feedback and refining the user experience.
User Acquisition and Marketing: We will employ targeted marketing strategies to attract photographers to the platform, leveraging VSCO's existing user base and social media channels.
Iterative Development: We can continuously improve the platform based on user feedback and evolving industry trends, ensuring an engaging and rewarding experience for all participants.
