Prototype
- Emily Morrison Weeks
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
The large assignment for Week 3 was to deliver a prototype to serve as the primary foundation for the rest of the progress and work of the semester. My prototype deliverables included logo updates, a new set of icons, a new onboarding flow, style guide updates, and a functioning in-process Figma prototype of ArtWalk.
Hook:
Designing connection through an arts and community app
Updated Problem Statement:
The United States is currently facing an epidemic of loneliness. Social isolation is linked to a significantly increased risk of depression, anxiety, inflammation, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease as well as lowered ability to fight viruses. Studies show that of the current generations, young adults are the loneliest. This has been attributed to young adult years introducing large social and geographic changes, a lack of community and family connection, and social media use.
Research suggests that artistic expression and appreciation can improve well-being by increasing serotonin, activating the pleasure and rewards systems of the brain, and eliciting feelings of hope for the future. Viewing art is said to have benefits similar to those of meditation or mindfulness exercises. Physical activity has also been shown to improve both physical and mental health. Through this project, I seek to combine art, physical activity, and gamified community-building strategies to combat social isolation in young adults.
Data Collection Strategies:
Interview To gain a better understanding of users on the arts input side rather than the general consumer side of the app, I interviewed Morgen Ruff, who works with NEMAA as one of the producers of Art-A-Whirl.
Survey As another method of gathering data about artists, arts administrators, and arts business owners, I have been circulating a survey I created with Google Forms.
User Testing Once my prototype is finished, I will provide a group of users within the 18-29 age range with a set of guided questions pertaining to navigating flows within the ArtWalk app. Their responses will be recorded in writing.
Challenges:
Scope of Minimum Viable Product My biggest challenge is that the more people I speak to through user research, critique, and expert discussions, the more feature ideas creep into my head. On Friday, I connected with Lafe about this during our meeting. Today I spoke with Grace Deck and she suggested taking a closer look at what I need my MVP to be. The core feature of my app is the walk function. The question is, how much visual representation do the other features absolutely need in the MVP?
Goal Screens When not illustrating new icons, I ended up spending most of my time this past weekend redesigning elements of my pre-existing Figma file for ArtWalk. What was prototyped with interactions ended up getting quite a few changes and corrections. I loved having this opportunity to improve the foundation of my app design. However, I ended up without enough time to get static goal and challenge screens ready for the prototype. I intend to continue working on this now that I’ve made it through everything I’d planned that would have lead up to that next step.
Pattern exploration with monogram logo
Color palette
From top left to bottom: Onboarding flow images, photo of mural featured on login screen, Walk flow way finding arrow, paint textures for overlays, Meet images, and mural used at low opacity in backgrounds
To see all of these new details in action, view my Figma Prototype.
Commentaires