Portia Snow Studio
Goal
As a member of a team of three, I worked to reimagine the look and functionality of a website for Salt Lake City artist Portia Snow. Portia wanted to increase her art sales by expanding her online presence.
Background
For 30 years, Portia spent most of her time immersed in the creative process of painting, photography, and sculpture.
She had admittedly neglected her online presence. The image below was the extent of what her site offered: Six images and a contact link.
Project Brief
Portia invited us to her studio, where we dug into her needs, wants, and expectations for the redesign. After lots of great conversation and questions, we ascertained that her main objective was to increase sales. However, we also sensed in her a lack of confidence in her ability to maintain an eCommerce website. Shifting her focus away from making art and toward maintaining a website was daunting for her, so while her objective is straightforward, we knew we also needed to account for her ability to manage the site.
Objective:
To increase sales
Constraint:
Must be easy for
Portia to manage
Discovery
Market
Research
We started the discovery phase by researching the art market, an industry valued at $64.1 billion. We wondered who was spending all that money.
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Millennials account for the most significant overall growth in the art market, increasing by almost 20% in 2023, and this growth trend is expected to continue upward.
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Gen X and Boomers currently account for the largest segment of the market for art dealers at 62%.
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Additionally, 92% of Millennials and Gen X have purchased art online.
So, it looks like Gen X and Boomers are our target market, right? Not so fast...
Surprisingly, our research found that Millennials, not Gen X or Boomers, lead the market in both the value and volume of their purchases. But how can that be if 62% of the market is Gen X and Boomers?
The key is in the use of dealers: 62% of the dealers’ market are Gen X and Boomers, but Millennials are bypassing the dealers and finding and purchasing art through social media. Traditional ways of buying art are falling by the wayside, and to tap into that $64.1 billion market, artists must now have a social media presence and offer online purchasing.
Key findings:
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Women are the biggest spenders.
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The most successful platforms are those that are upfront about their pricing.
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Millennials lead the market in both value and volume purchases.
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Buyers want the option of purchasing online.
Competitor
Analysis
We wanted to see how our competitors were serving our users, so we analyzed the websites of two major online art retailers and two independent artists.
We discovered that to rise above the online mix, we could take advantage of several feature opportunities, including:
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an option to zoom in to view details of the art
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offering a variety of prices, prints, and sizes
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and offering exclusive and limited edition pieces
User Interviews
& Insights
Knowing that 92% of Millennial and Gen X consumers had purchased art online before, we targeted both segments to survey and interview about their attitudes and habits toward buying art.
We found that users are more likely to purchase art online if print options are available as well as original pieces and if they know the story or see the process behind the art piece. They’re more likely to buy more expensive originals online if there’s a payment plan and a clear return policy.
“I like knowing how the art is created. I want the story.”
“I’d need a return policy before I bought online.”
“Instagram is how I keep up with new art from artists.”
“The majority of pieces I purchase are not originals.”
“I’d be more likely to purchase a more expensive piece if there was a payment plan.”
Define + Ideate
Our discovery led us to define our ideal user personas:
Miranda, our Established Gen X Collector, is looking to invest in limited edition and original art, but she is frustrated when she can’t find information online. She needs a personal connection with the artist and wants original pieces.
Morgan, our Millennial Art Lover, is looking to purchase art she loves for her home but is frustrated by traditional processes. To be persuaded to buy, she needs online access to new artists’ work, gallery shows, upcoming events, and flexible purchasing options.
Problem Statement
Users interested in Portia Snow’s art don’t have a way to access her original pieces or printed reproductions online, nor do they know when her events are happening so they can participate, purchase, and stay in contact with the artist.
With newfound clarity about the problem we were facing, we could start the process of finding the solution.
How might we...
...give users greater access to Portia’s artwork online?
...ensure that users can easily find Portia’s events and showings?
...help users feel secure and confident enough to purchase Portia’s artwork online?
Feature
Prioritization
We brainstormed possible solutions to our “How Might We’s” and mapped out our best ideas on a feature matrix. Phase 1 would include the following:
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a calendar of events and information regarding gallery shows, exhibits, and professional publications & critiques;
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a feature that differentiates between art pieces that are available for sale and those that show previous work;
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and last but not least, access to the stories behind the art and her creative process.
Storyboard
Morgan’s Story:
While scrolling through Instagram, she discovers Portia Snow’s art and clicks the link to her website, where she finds Portia’s online art gallery. Morgan loves photography and wants to find a print at an affordable price. It’s easy to see which pieces are for sale, and she finds a print she loves in the right size and price range. She easily purchases the piece and is thrilled when it arrives a week later. Morgan shares a photo of the new print displayed in her home on social media and raves about her experience. Finally, she checks Portia’s calendar for upcoming events where she can go to meet her new favorite artist.
Journey Map
& Sketches
We sketched our initial wireframes to correlate with how Morgan’s story would play out in the ideal journey through Portia’s website. As we know, Morgan finds Portia Snow’s website through social media. In the gallery tab, pieces are clearly labeled whether they are for sale and if prints are available. She can easily see Portia’s art and find a piece that is the right size and price. She makes a purchase and receives her print. Morgan loves her new art so much that she tags Portia on social media through a link on the website. Thrilled with her experience and purchase, she goes back to the website so she can plan to attend one of Portia’s events.
Usability Testing
We collaborated to turn our sketches into cohesive wireframes, linked them into a prototype, and set off to test our solution. We gave our testers three tasks, all of which they completed quickly and successfully.
Task 3
View your shopping bag and check out.
Task 2
Find a mixed-media print and add it to your shopping bag.
Task 1
Find an original painting that is for sale and add it to your shopping bag.
Solve + Iterate
Style Guide
Moving forward with our solution, we collected color schemes, images, and UI patterns that inspired us to create a design aligned with Portia’s aesthetic.
We intentionally chose simple navigation and neutral tones for the site design that would melt into the background and make the colors and textures of Portia’s artwork stand out.
We chose a modern, sans-serif font to create a clean, calm feeling throughout the site.
Then, we put all those ideas into a cohesive style guide that informed our Hi-Fi Prototype.
Hi-Fi Prototype
The home page welcomes shoppers with a background image of Portia’s art, which rotates through three different examples: a painting, a mixed-media piece, and a photograph. At the bottom, we can click into the gallery to see all of Portia’s pieces immediately.
The shop page shows only those currently sold in original canvas or signed and numbered print format. From there, you can select a piece you like for more details, add it to your favorites, or add it to your shopping bag.
Once you have the pieces you love added to your shopping bag, checkout is quick and easy.
Our research indicated that more people would make a larger purchase if they could use financing or set up a payment plan, so we added that option to the checkout process.
When the payment has been processed, users are encouraged to take a photo of themselves with their Portia Snow original art to be shared on social media.
Next Steps
Now that we have the basics of an e-comm website set up for Portia, it’s time to focus on the more in-depth features, such as our exciting idea for a QR code scanner that will allow users to scan the code on the art piece’s title plaque at the gallery and access Portia’s creative process, story, and purchase options directly on their mobile device.
Key Learnings
At the very beginning, we assumed our target market would be Boomers and maybe some Gen X. Had we not looked into the market first, we wouldn’t have known we were off course and would have ended up with a product that was not effective for our true users—Millennials. Conducting market research first is imperative to orienting the product in the right direction from the very start.
It’s essential to be clear about goals and priorities to make realistic progress. Due to our limited time and resources, we missed out on opportunities to further improve this site. We knew we had to stick with less flashy solutions that would yield realistic results, fitting our timeline.
As much as we wanted to incorporate innovative ideas into our product, like a QR scanner or an AR simulator, we had to focus on building a solid foundation first. When starting a product from scratch, it’s easy to become over-invested in building grandiose features. Learning to prioritize within given parameters is key to creating successes that you can build on.