Persona to Prototype: Artsy
Re-imagining Artsy for iOS
Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
Let’s see how we can make that easier.
Artsy is an online resource for buying, collecting, and learning about art. Their iOS app enables users to find specific works and upcoming exhibitions, read stories from the Artsy editorial team, inquire to galleries directly about buying work, and much more. It’s a fantastic tool for anyone interested in art, whether that’s someone just looking for interesting stories or seasoned collectors looking for their next find.
The Challenge
However, a guerrilla usability test of the Artsy app revealed some pain points regarding content discoverability, and in this case study I’ll dive deeper into these problems and design solutions to them.
Test Parameters
- What: Artsy iOS Mobile App
- Who: New Artsy users
- Where: SFMOMA, San Francisco
- Why: To see where users have difficulty using Artsy’s core features
Who actually uses Artsy? Meet Jack, our persona
Usability Test
I developed 5 tasks and conducted a guerrilla usability test with typical users of the Artsy app. The tasks were:
- Find work by an artist in a specific museum/gallery. For example, find all of the works by Mark Rothko that are in the SFMOMA.
- Find any kind of abstract art that you like, and save it to “favorites”
- Inquire to a gallery about buying a specific painting
- Find a story in the Mag about a recent art fair, or find Artsy’s latest podcast
- See what sculptures are for sale on the app
I tested these tasks with 7 people to see if I could identify any pain points.
Learnings & Synthesis
People had a few similar pain points when trying to accomplish these tasks. I listed the pain points for each of the 7 users, then grouped them to identify themes:
To make design decisions, I placed each theme on a 2x2 matrix to determine what’s most important to both Artsy and its users.
Design Challenges
People had no problem saving work to their favorites or contacting galleries. But they weren’t easily able to:
- Find work within a specific museum or gallery. Users spent a lot of time scrolling and searching for a specific artist, but they either weren’t able to find what they wanted, or it took them a long time to do so.
“Why can’t I just search their collection?”
2. Discover interesting stories in the Mag. Users couldn’t quickly find content they’re interested in, whether it’s fairs/festivals, podcasts, art news, upcoming exhibitions, or something else.
“I have to scroll a lot. It seems hard to find stories I’d like to read.”
3. Couldn’t easily find what works are for sale or not. When looking at a specific medium (e.g. Sculpture), users couldn’t easily distinguish between works that are for sale and the works that aren’t. This adds a bit of friction for those who are looking to collect.
“Which of these sculptures are for sale?”
Solutions
All three of these pain points, in different ways, relate to content discoverability. Content discoverability is core to Artsy’s mission: to make art accessible to anyone with an internet connection. If it’s hard — or even just a little difficult — for people to dive deep into a museum’s collection, find articles they’re interested in, or discover art that’s for sale, then Artsy isn’t living up to its full potential.
So, to fix these three pain points, I recommend:
- Enabling users to search within a specific museum or gallery
- Enabling users to to filter stories in the Mag by topic, to make it more personalized to their interests
- Enabling users to filter lists of mediums to see what’s for sale and what isn’t
Here’s what that looks like:
1. Searching within a museum or gallery
I added the ability to search within any museum or gallery for a specific artist, work, or medium. Anytime users visit the main page for a museum, they’d be able to explore it’s collection in-depth. I did this by adding a search box that is just above the fold, and working within the Artsy style guide. Check out the prototype here.
2. Filtering stories in the Mag
The Artsy mag covers a wide range of topics, and it also features the Artsy podcast. I sorted through their content and organized their stories into 5 different topics: Fairs & Festivals, Opinion, Art News, Exhibitions, and Podcasts. I then created a filter to make it easy for users to quickly find whatever they’re interested in. Check out the prototype here.
3. Filtering mediums by for sale/not for sale
Artsy uses a slider filter in some parts of the app, and I think it would be really effective for this situation because we’re only filtering between two options. This makes it easy for users to toggle between all works and those that are for sale, no matter what medium they’re interested in. For users that are looking to collect, this simplifies the process of finding works that are for sale.
Conclusion
Artsy is a fantastic resource for learning about the art world, and they make it easy to buy great works of art online. With over 300,000 works available, content discovery is a difficult thing to design for — my aim is that these three suggestions make it easier for people to find art they love. The Artsy team envisions a world where art is as popular as music — and I think as they continue to improve great products like this, they’ll be able to get there.
Note: I don’t work for or represent Artsy. I’m a Product Designer at Tradecraft. Artsy is one of my favorite products, and I’m exploring how I can help with their mission of making art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
If you enjoyed this post and would like to talk shop — feel free to reach out at hmcfall@tradecrafted.com or on Twitter: @hughmcfall. I’d love to chat.
