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BITMAP

Where creativity and community connect

Return to Keri Hensley portfolio website

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THE TEAM

OUR TOOLS: MIRO, FIGMAl

Alex Le

Eli Potter

Keri Hensley

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THE PROBLEM

People need to feel connected and inspired in order to be fulfilled

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THE SOLUTION

A new social media app centered on geo-specific augmented reality, Bitmap empowers users to create, connect and be inspired.

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RESEARCH

OBJECTIVES

To discover potential users’ thoughts on:

Art and inspiration
Augmented reality
Which social media platforms they prefer and what their primary purpose is in using them�

METHODS

Google Form survey shared via social media channels. 75 responses.
Five 1-to-1 interviews conducted and recorded via Zoom, email, phone and in-person.

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Value connection

Visually focused

Unfamiliar with AR

INSIGHTS

86% of respondents use social media primarily to connect with friends and family

76% named Instagram among their favorite social media platforms

55% had never used augmented reality

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COMPETITOR

ANALYSIS

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	Strengths	Weaknesses
Art museums	Large budgets and teams allow for really well thought-out experiences from small to large scale.	Physically restricted to a specific building or location. Might not always be accessible, with exhibition end dates or limited museum hours of operation.
Instagram	Content tailored to user. Easy to find and connect with other users. Visual-first storytelling. Can set moderation tools to block users or keywords.	No direct links outside of Stories (must use Link in Bio). "Selfie culture" negatively affects body image. Parent company Meta has issues with privacy and manipulation that has affected its reputation. Users complain about proliferation of ads.
Pokemon Go	All-ages fun. Instant access on the go. High-quality immersive AR experience.	Not all areas are explorable, battery usage of device drains much faster when using GPS and AR.
Snapchat	Can access AR from anywhere. Low time commitment. Bite-sized options to engage with.	Closed network social media, only friends you add can see the things that you post.

🎨

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EMPATHY MAP

Art is defined by the viewer.

Art is important.

Art helps me express myself.

Some parts of my art/life aren't as public as others..

Shares experiences on social media.

Browses content on social media.

Views art outdoors.

Enjoys a wide variety of art mediums.

I value personal connection over trends and hype.

I’m more likely to engage with content tailored to me.

AR’s entertaining but not very useful.

Art by peers is more meaningful to me than famous works.

Purpose behind interactions is important.

I’m happy to experience new art.

Art is everywhere.

Hates that SM feels like one giant ad.

Inauthentic content.

Creating meaningful connections.

Wider world view.

Hard to find quality content.

Spam messages.

Creative inspiration

Creating and sharing leads to fulfillment.

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SAYS

DOES

THINKS

FEELS

PAINS

GAINS

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Ultimately, I think that art is a way for �people to communicate experiences and emotions that relate to the human condition. That can be through literature, movement, dance, music, film, painting. But I think it’s all about communicating something that relates to our humanity.

Joel, 28

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FEATURE PRIORITIZATION MATRIX

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USER FLOW

Click here for full-size image

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USER JOURNEY

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What is this new app?

It can’t hurt to try this out.

Wow, it lets me connect with all my friends!

Hmmm, this seems fun.

I wonder what others have posted around me?

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This is great! I can start making my own art.

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Oh, this gave me a really good idea!

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It’s so easy to scan and create your workspace.

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I feel good about what I’ve made, time to share it!

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STORYBOARD

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SKETCHES

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WIREFRAMES

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Pros

Cons

USER TESTING

Clear iconography: Users felt symbols were straightforward, familiar and easily understood.

Visually confusing: Users wondered whether they were still in tutorial. Sometimes landed on a screen they weren’t expecting.

Missing function: Users wanted to search by keyword.

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KERI: With our initial wireframes created, we began to test with users to get feedback. One of our primary goals was to make the app feel easy to use, since early research showed that the majority of potential users would not have used augmented reality in apps before.

All of our testers indicated that the app was easy to navigate through the top menu and they clearly understood the tools to view or create art in the app. Icons were described as familiar and straightforward and no one had to think about how to move around.

Since all three of us were contributing to the look and feel of the app, at times it was a struggle to be visually coherent and that did show up in user testing. At various points as they moved through the tutorial, users felt confused about whether they were still in the tutorial stage or had exited. We were able to quickly clear that up by adding consistent visual cues.

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ITERATIONS

Standardized top menu added. Search bar made more prominent.

Navigation and visual cues (overlay) standardized. Button added to clarify CTA.

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BEFORE

AFTER

KERI: Here are some examples of how we evolved the design to standardize the look across all screens. On the left is the Friends screen. You can see we added an icon-based top menu since our research showed that our users are visually focused. We also made the search bar more prominent to make it easier for users to find their friends.

On the right is the before and after of the Creator screen, the view that users would have when opening the app to start creating art. Here you can see how we standardized the visual cues that indicated the user was still in the tutorial through the use of the dark overlay.

We also realized that in our initial user flow, we had offered an option for users to save their art as a draft, but we hadn’t included that option in our design. With this iteration, we added that functionality and changed the primary “done” icon to a button to make a clearer call-to-action.

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WHAT WE LEARNED

FINAL PROTOTYPE

A geo-specific social media app that is based in augmented reality is an incredibly complex concept. When we landed on this idea, it seemed like there were hundreds of rabbit holes we could have gone down, but through a lot of discussion and competitor research, we felt we found a niche that would serve creative users in a unique way.

Through our iterative process, we decided it was best to make the interface and icons as familiar as possible so our users’ focus remained on creativity and not the learning curve of another app.

Here is the link to our final, clickable prototype.

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KERI: Now I’ll walk you through our final, iterated prototype. Since our app is based in augmented reality and difficult to test with users without being fully built and coded, we decided the best way to demonstrate its functions was to walk users through a tutorial.

The first screen here is where users launch the prototype. The prominent button clearly indicates to users that they’re entering a tutorial space. Then we begin to walk through the top navigation bar to show users what the menu icons mean, starting with the Friends screen, then Explore, then Marketplace and then Map.

Because users would spend a lot of time with the Map looking for art nearby, we did a deeper dive into how they could tailor what they were seeing through Search filters. The next screens show users how they could tap on a locator icon that would bring them to a Preview page with the art at that location. From there, they could tap to open a preview in augmented reality.

This screen shows users the actions they can take inside the AR view, including comment, share and visit the artist’s profile page. We move next to the Creator view, showing users the tools they could use to make their own AR art in the app. We end with a prominent “finished” headline that indicates to the user that they’ve completed the tutorial.

For the next steps in our project, we’d like to take some time to further build out the social aspect of the app, including a unique messaging function where users could message each other only through exchanging drawings. This app was a lot of fun to think about, design and share with users and we’re excited to take it even further. Thank you. Any questions?

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THANKS!

Any questions?

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