Overview

Murall Redesign

Murall is a non-profit project created to serve as a community hub for anyone interested in art. Their goal is to spread art by hosting events such as classes, markets and get-togethers to draw.

Project

UX/UI Design

Date

Feb-Jun 2020

Duration

4 months

Team

Individual

Client

We Are Murall

UX Case Study

Murall Redesign

Problem Statement

Murall wants to diversify their audience and form a larger community. They required a new website that portrays the brand and makes everyone feel welcomed, a safe online space that encourages new profiles to join.

Solution

Based on the research, the main reason new and diverse profiles do not participate is because there is confusion about Murall itself and their events. Potential users have different artistic interests and skills and are not sure if they are a “good fit”.

The new website explains the concept of Murall and reassures that their community celebrates diversity and is open for everyone. Users can read news articles, share experiences, discover local artists and be updated about upcoming events.

Final Design & Key Elements

Positive Community

Show the art made in class

Share your experience

Encourage others to join

Art Everywhere

Discover new local artists

Get your art published

Feel welcomed and included

Interactive Calendar

Prepare in advance, discover all the events planned fot the year

See more details with just one click

Stay Informed

"Cut to the chase" information

Discover multiple news in minutes

Live RN!

Preview livestream

Click to join

Step 1

Research

Background

This was my first time designing a website from scratch. As part of my class project, Murall partnered as a client and my classmates and I had the individual challenge of designing a proposal for their website. My strategy was to focus on the goals the client established and to understand the user’s point of view.

Key Questions

!) How can we represent Murall and the members of the community?

!) How can we make new users want to join the events?

!) Is there a factor that makes them think twice about joining?

Users

Young adults (many of them students and recent grads) that live in Monterrey and have some sort of interest in art.

Understanding Users

Observation

I explored and compared the profiles of the users that follow Murall on social media.

Goal: Find similarities and differences between both profiles

Interviews

I conducted 5 online interviews with college students persuing different majors.

Goal: Understand tech familiarity, likes, dislikes and opinion towards websites and Murall.

Empathy Exercises

In order to empathisize with the users, I developed empathy maps and creting different personas representing the user profiles.

Key Findings

There are two types of users. I will refer to them as creatives (artistic background) and non-creatives (different background).

Insights

New users do not have enough information about Murall. There is not a clear message nor a portrayal of their community. This leads to unsolved assumptions and confusion.

Pain Points

Lack of information

Busy lives

Confusion

Needs

Detailed information

Reassurance

Representation

Goals

No doubts

Community

Confidence

Step 2

Ideation

Decluttering ideas

Many ideas got scratched off after analysing the results. I needed to focus on the priorities and establish possible solutions. With the knowledge obtained from the research and empathy exercises, I worked with the following questions:

!) What do users need to see and read?
!) How would users feel about a certain idea?
!) Could something be confusing?
!) Will this idea add any value for them?

Sketches

In order to explore the solutions, I designed a couple of screen ideas that helped me express what I had in mind visually. I prefer to include text in my sketches, to get an overall idea of how it will look on the layout.

I like to design multiple versions of the same screen, put them all together in a canvas, zoom out and see how they look as a bigger composition.

Wireframes

After selecting my favorite, I explore specific details and features. I try to make wireframes more polished than the sketches but still low fidelity.

Step 3

First Testing

I had no previous knowledge in figma. I made the first protype using Canva. I wanted to represent my ideas quickly to begin the first testing while figuring out how to use figma with the goal of developing the final prototype based on the results of this phase.

Method: Five zoom interviews
Questions: Visuals & Navigation flow

Good

Meh

Users understood the news section
Users loved that there are many visuals
Users liked saving time with FAQ button

FAQ button is not clear at first
Doesn’t look artistic enough
Questions about the authors of pictures
Red button doesn't mean livestream for everyone

Ideas

Calendar-like format
Add email in case of more questions
Emphasize the livestream button
Link pictures to artists’ social media

Step 4

Changes based on feedback

Solution #1: Represent the members of the community

How can someone want to join a community if they don’t know anybody?
It’s important to let future users see all the diverse profiles that are part of Murall.
All the visuals are now art made by users, no matter their skill level or style. In order to promote discoverability, artists are tagged in their artwork.

Solution #2: Make reviews more special

I wanted to design a review section but make it different. My goal was to encourage new users to join events, give them an extra push or wake up an interest to participate in a specific event. In this section, users can review a specific event and instead of uploading a picture of themselves, they can upload a picture of the art they made.

Solution #3: Let users read more quickly

If users always skim long texts, why not just show the important information?
Making articles brief allows users to read more in less time, to implement this even more I designed the blog section in a carousell format, no preview just read next and stop till you want.

Solution #4: Simple calendar format

Each month, Murall hosts four events. Using a very common calendar format to display the events allows users to see all that is planned for the month, not only the general information but also the details of each event. The calendar formaty allows users to plan ahead as they can see all the upcoming events.

Solution #5: Show previews to avoid confusion

During the first testing, some users had trouble understanding what some elements meant or how they worked. To solve this, I added some small messages and previes

Step 5

Final Design

Second Testing

For the final design, I created an interactive protype in figma and had three virtual interviews. The feedback was really positive and none of the issues encountered during the first testing were mentioned again. I would say they were fixed yei!

Takeaways

Being super honest, my biggest mistake is how much time it took me to design the ui layout. I really focused on making the experience enjoyable for users, but I had a hard time representing my ideas visually, I had zero previous knowledge about figma and general ui guides.

My best decision was definitely interviewing different profiles, our conversations gave me different perceptions and it made the solutions I came up with more real and not particular to just one profile.