GramCity
Find the best locations to take a photo, anywhere
![hero image](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/601a5299e8ddee61e4174c85/60235256ea1554e8d9351650_Group%201.png)
Find the best locations to take a photo, anywhere
Missing out on good photo-ops when traveling could be frustrating. GramCity, which is initially a photo editing app that helps users quickly make their photos look awesome before sharing them on social media networks, is now exploring a new feature to help people find the most “instagram-able” locations to take photos in a city.
This new feature will allow users to quickly find physical locations with great photo-ops along with location information and directions. I will be following the Google Ventures Design Sprint method to create an MVP that can test this feature before it launches.
Since this is a solo sprint, I’ll be acting as the UX Researcher, Product Designer, Interaction Designer, Information Architect, and Strategist.
5 days (January 2021)
I started by mapping out the potential customer experience for the new feature using the two personas that were provided to me: Nick and Sara.
Going through the map, I started to brainstorm on what areas need the most attention, how the overall experience can be enhanced while still keeping it simple.
The key aspects to a delightful experience for this application is largely based on:
Lightning Demos
Before sketching out ideas with pen and paper, I went through several existing apps to find great interactions that could inspire GramCity’s experience. Specifically, I looked at the functionalities that I found on Pinterest, Instagram, Yelp and Airbnb.
Crazy 8's
Once I found my inspirations and narrowed down what I wanted to design for, I spent 8 minutes hashing out 8 different variations for one of the most critical screens - the details screen for each location. This screen is included in both Nick and Sarah’s journeys. It would be where users get inspiration from others’ photos.
3 Panel Board
I decided to combine option 1 and 5 above to show just enough information about the location and a nice collage of inspirational photo examples.
My 3 panel board includes:
In my storyboard, I decided to focus on two main routes for Nick and Sarah:
For the visual design part, I followed a modern approach to convey excitement and playfulness while incorporating GramCity’s brand color.
I tested 5 users to identify opportunities for improvements by giving them a few simple tasks to complete:
All users were able to complete the tasks with ease. Some major findings include:
As a travel and photography enthusiast, I have always wished for something like the GramCity application. I dove into this design sprint with passion and excitement and had a lot of fun conducting it. While a 5-day design sprint could seem intimidating at the beginning, it allowed me to focus on the core of the problem and quickly create an MVP to generate the best possible solution for the problem. With the new discovery, inspirations and saving features, users will now be able to quickly find great locations to take “instagram-able” photos.
If I should be able to continue and move forward with this project, I would definitely iterate my design based on my findings from the user tests to improve the overall user experience. I would also love to explore the filter option and create the user profile page.