Problem Space
As an avid art-lover myself I found that I was encountering difficulty finding art that existed at that intersection of not quite museum art, but a bit removed from fan or commercial art. It seemed that it was up to sheer luck and Instagram algorithms to determine if I'd find an artist I resonated with and how I could go about engaging with their art. I noticed too, that artists often used Instagram as an intermediary portal to connect with an audience, but provide a link to a personal web page for further engagement. Instagram is unfortunately poorly designed for art discovery - the search feature is inadequate, one can't list pieces as an individual type of data structure (apart from a post or an instance of a product), and from the audience end - following an artist would mean their posts would be interspersed among those of everyone else that you follow. Here was a platform waiting to be designed, and that's how Musé-e was born.
From ideation to the design of a brand with a distinct identity across three different devices, Musé-e can help users find an artist, a muse, something new for your living room wall - anything art related! Allowing artists to register the meaning behind their art and configure the category and tags to help it be found, Musé-e allows for art discovery in an original way.
Ideation
In ideating, I created Low-Fidelity mockups and tried to determine what was going to be most important about this platform. I came to three conclusions. I ideated the Information Architecture of the site, a workflow, and a promotional strategy. Throughout it all I determined some key things users would need from Musé-e.
Users need to be able to:
Discover New Art
Art discovery is tough and with many 'art-centred' platforms overrun with commercial art or works that might look nice but don't look to explore something, I wanted Musé-e to have the space for artists to define what they want to say with their work and allow users to find it.
Follow Artists
A big part of connecting with artists in the age of social media is seeing what they're up to! Musé-e would still have this feature allowing artists to share small details from their day to day, but allow it to be separate from listed artworks so that users can navigate to those separately.
Purchase Art
If one's interested in art, they'd likely want to purchase some at some point and why not purchase directly from the artist, eliminating the need for a middle-man. Similarly, the art found in a gallery is usually too expensive for the average art-lover and often has a significant barrier of entry on the part of the artist, but with Musé-e this barrier could be eliminated.
Desktop
Initially, the platform was designed for desktop. It would allow users to discover an artist and was very artist-centric. At this stage of development I was still testing out the idea that artists could connect with each other on projects - pitch an idea to the space and connect with those that have the skills necessary to make it a reality. However, after feedback this feature was revised and cut from the mobile and kiosk versions of the application as it wasn't the most crucial aspects of the platform, which are the needs detailed above.
Nevertheless, the desktop application was the first foray into developing Musé-e's visual and brand identity. Meant to be clean, streamlined, and minimal, the interface should be distinct so as to be memorable, but clean so as to be backgrounded against the artwork hosted on the site the way a gallery's walls are meant to highlight the work displayed in it.
Click the image on the right to see key frames.
Mobile
The desktop iteration of the design was too heavily focused on the social and connection aspects of the platform, so the mobile iteration was more geared towards art discovery for the user. Musé-e is unique however in that the user is able to customize numerous filters and fields to be able to discover the content that they want according to the specifications that they articulate. In the process of browsing the user is also encouraged to ‘curate’ collections where they can gather art according to themes, mediums, spaces they would store art in – whatever criteria that the user chooses.
Before completing the final version of the mobile prototype, a design critique with peers was conducted to determine what elements needed refinement. Several icons were changed, the location of key elements like the search bar and the augmented reality feature was made to be more user-friendly. As well, to further create brand identity and avoid icon confusion, an icon set and Musé-e specific illustrations were created. Additionally, the mobile design conformed to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for iOS to ensure that the application followed industry best practices for design. At this stage, an informal design system was begin to take shape, which may be found at the Figma link for this project.
Tap into any image to view it larger.
Icon Set
An icon set was created to make Musé-e distinct from other applications. Icons were created in both Figma and Adobe Illustrator and serve to create Musé-e's brand identity, but also provide ways of representing ideas or concepts that might be unique to Musé-e's ecosystem.
Kiosk
The final device that Musé-e was to be platformed on was a kiosk. A website is only as good as it is known, and I determined that if Musé-e was to be a real platform, then it needed a promotional strategy to ensure it's success. And so the Musé-e kiosk was born. The user wouldn't complete any major tasks on the kiosk itself, however as it is relatively low-tech, portable, and should be inexpensive to create, it could serve as a promotional tool in a variety of locations. It should also be possible to make it weather-proof and can be used in a “guerilla” promotional style where the kiosk could ‘pop-up’ in various locations and draw users in with its unique design.
Additionally, a 3 part promotional strategy was developed that would allow for users to be reached offline with these kiosks and allow users to transition to using Musé-e as an online platform.
The promotional stages would be as follows:
1. Virtual Kiosk Webpage
The first stage of the marketing strategy will be to develop a web-page that resembles the prototyped task, but more faithfully reproduces the kiosk design. This web-page will be promoted on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as competitors such as Etsy, Redbubble, etc. are unlikely to host our advertisements on their sites. The bulk of promotions will be conducted on Instagram, as this is the current platform that most ‘mid-art’ artists are currently located.
2. Kiosks in the Wild
After a month of two of virtual kiosks promotions, or after the number of those that signed up to be notified has surpassed a critical number (to be determined by the board of directors), kiosks will start to be dispersed in major cities. Any museums and galleries that agree to partner with Musé-e could also host the kiosks. For kiosks that are located in public places, the cities that have these kiosks will appear in a list format so the user that has been notified can self-select the city they can visit and will be given clues as to its location.
See Kiosk in the Wild Image below.
3. Pop-Up Shop Event
The final stage of the marketing plan will be aPop-Up Shop Event that will last a week. Pop-up venues will be rented in the same major cities that kiosks in the wild were located in and will host local artists that already have their work listed on the site and are available at the time of the pop-up shop. One section of the pop-up will have an immersive light-show experienced of projected artwork and kiosks, while the other will have a miniature art fair of artists selling their work.
See Pop-Up Shop Lightbox below.
Kiosk in the Wild
Pop-Up Shop
Concluding Remarks
Though Musé-e is not yet a reality, throughout the project I learned valuable technical experience such as working within guidelines for the web and mobile as well as the value of critique and feedback, helping me iterate and build the strength of Musé-e's design along the way.
If you would like to see all the screens wireframed for Musé-e please following the Figma link to discover Musé-e it's design specifications and a clickable Kiosk prototype.
.png)
.png)
