A case study aims to create a product that allows customers to purchase the artworks they desire, and an effort to provide users with a similar experience to shopping for paintings offline.

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Overview

This is my first project for the Google UX design specialization certificate. For this certificate, either we can choose a prompt from “Sharpen,” an online tool, or we can have our own idea.

The reason for choosing this prompt is that I love to draw and have seen that there is not any dedicated platform for artwork, especially in India.

This case study aims to understand the customer journey, frustrations and needs while purchasing personalized and customized handmade artworks.

Role: UX Designer, Visual Designer, UX Researcher

Duration: 8 Weeks

Plan of Action

Understanding the Prompt

• Secondary Research: for understanding the target audience and major goals for designing.
• Primary Research: For validating insights from secondary research and Finding answers to questions which I didn’t get through secondary research.
• Analysing the insights gathered from primary and secondary research with the help of user personas and user journey maps.
• Reframe the prompt based on the final primary goals.

Ideation

• Ideate various solutions with the help of HMW(How Might We).
• Drawing the solutions on paper for finalizing which will work and which will not (Paper Wireframing).
• Creating a Mind map for getting a closer idea of the entire user flow

Final UI

• Designing the final UI for solutions which I find usable and simple in navigation.

Understanding the Problem Statement

To understand the prompt and find the primary goals for designing, I have first written down the research questions focused on “for whom we are designing” and “what is the requirement”.

Research Goals

1. Do People still buy handmade artwork? What is the purpose behind it?
2. What are the customer’s behaviour and processes they follow while purchasing? In short, I want to understand the user journey.
3. What are the common factors that influence users’ decisions to purchase handmade artwork?
4. What are the Common challenges people face while purchasing handmade artwork?
5. How often do they shop for handmade artworks, what medium do they choose and why?
6. For whom are we designing? What is our target audience?

Secondary Research

Do People still buy handmade artwork? What is the purpose behind it?

• Handmade shopping is increased in recent years. In fact, in recent years there’s been a rising demand for handmade items in the gift industry as a whole and many people purchase them for gifting to loved ones. Be it a festive time or a very special occasion, a good piece of handmade makes for a unique, thoughtful and innovative gift, one that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• Not only for gifts, but many people also used handmade artwork for decor purposes as well, to give their home, offices or their spaces a personalized look and feel.
• “Art” is one of the best and oldest ways to invest your money. There are people whose sole intent for buying art is to build a collection that will yield some kind of financial return.

According to a survey conducted by Arts Economics and UBS Investor Watch, On average, nearly 47% of works in collections in 2021 were “traditional” art mediums, such as paintings, sculptures, and fine art drawings.

If we come to handmade, many purchases are still made in person. According to a research survey done with 1000 people, 53% have done so at craft fairs, and 39% have bought handmade items at flea markets.

According to another report conducted by Arts Economics and UBS Investor Watch, In terms of channels for finding and sourcing future acquired works, there is a myriad of options, but collectors clearly have their preferences. Galleries are a key channel for purchasing and investing in works for collectors. On average, 76% of collectors purchase from a gallery or a dealer in some capacity.

In 2021, there was an evident shift towards purchases on online marketplaces as well. In 2021, 44% of collectors worldwide purchased works remotely. This percentage not only shows a dramatic change in process or mindset but also highlights a crucial fact: collectors feel increasingly more comfortable purchasing works for their collections online.

What are the common factors that influence users’ decisions to purchase artwork?

When it comes to purchasing handmade products, the important factors which in general affect the buying decisions are:

• Quality: For purchases based on personal interest and values rather than impulses, quality, aesthetic appeal and technical excellence is important. Since handmade artworks are made with higher attention to detail, these could satisfy these kinds of shopping behaviour.
• Cost: For budget-conscious customers, cost also becomes sometimes a hurdle to buying handmade artwork.
• Solidarity: To support craftsmen whose skills are invaluable and are diminishing, some groups of customers buy from these sellers. and in a research survey, 51% of people said that they like buying handmade products that allow them to support small businesses. There is a growing trend of people paying attention to the country of origin and in order to support local businesses and the economy, many people prefer to buy products made in their own country.
• Unique style & convenience: Since the product is handmade, it is always considered unique that’s why most people think that handmade items are generally more special and have style and convenience value than mass-produced items and can be used for gifting.
• Perceived unique value and authenticity: Unique Handmade products, custom-made or produced in small batches help people in expressing distinctive differences and give a sense of prestige which is an important motivation for many buyers. A growing quest for authenticity is noticed among the young generations of the country.
• Company and brand reputation also matters while purchasing or collecting art. According to a survey report, An average of 23% of works owned by users are by new artists, 22% of works are by emerging artists, 25% of works are by mid-career artists, and 30% of works are by established artists. It is reported that Gen X collectors, out of all generations of collectors, are most interested in buying artworks by top-tier and established artists. As a result, 32% of the works in their collections are by well-known names. Newer collectors are most infatuated with the work of new artists which is reflected in their collections. Because of this, on average 39% of the works within their collections are by new artists.

However, even new collectors are fascinated by big names, with an average of 24% of collected works by established artists.

• Strong connection & emotional response: Many people acquire artwork based on their artistic and emotional response to it. The fact that they feel good and sense a strong connection with a piece is reason enough to buy it.
• Social media influence: Consumers are generally highly influenced by social media mostly from advertisements, users’ comments and influencers. According to a survey, 1 in 3 internet users follow an influencer and among them, 75% have purchased after an influencer’s recommendation(Santander trade, 2022).

For whom we are designing? What is our target audience?

• Women are twice as likely as men to purchase handmade goods online.
• The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report show that, in the attention economy, art is winning among young people especially millennials (currently aged between 23 and 38) and women are the biggest spenders.
• Female collectors reported significantly higher average spending than their male counterparts, with 34% of women spending more than $1 million in the past two years versus 25% of men. Of those most commonly spending more than $1 million, 69% were millennial collectors.
• It is important to note that Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) collectors are rapidly growing in terms of impact and dominance within the art market.
• Home collectors i.e. who buy artworks regularly and hang them up in their homes as they are people who love art and paintings.
• Investors: They may well be art lovers, but this is not necessary as their main purpose for buying art is a good return on investment.
• Interior designers: They are hired by businesses or homeowners to decorate their entire space, whether it is an office or a home. Other than colourful couch cushions a popular choice to make a site look better is paintings.
• People who have a random need for art especially around festivals or for gifting purposes.

What are the users’ behaviour, journey and processes they follow?

Consumers continue to move through the traditional shopping modes of discovery, inspiration, consideration, and purchase — they just don’t necessarily do them linearly, on your site, or all-in-one visit.

These are the phases of a customer journey in general:
Before the purchase:
1. Discovery: This is the stage in which the buyer realizes that they have a need and that they wants to satisfy it. It is the moment when people decide to research on Google, on social networks, visit the physical store if there is one or even ask family and friends to recommend a brand.

2. Consideration: The consideration stage begins when potential customers have already found your store after their research. They have already found out about your location, and what you offer and they think your business could meet their needs. However, they have also looked at other options, so they are evaluating which one suits you best.

During the purchase:
3. Purchase: After considering their options, the customer finally decides on your business and makes the purchase.

After the purchase:
4. Retention: After the purchase, the customer journey decides whether to continue their purchasing journey from that place or not.

5. Recommendation: It is the last stage of the customer journey and depends on what the business has done in the previous stages. If we offers customers a good experience throughout the customer journey, they will likely recommend the store to their acquaintances.

Problems and challenges people face while buying handmade artwork

Although there are many incentives to buy from the handmade sector, still a considerable part of these intentions do not turn into action. This could be due to certain barriers some of which are listed below:

• Lack of knowledge: Not knowing where to buy quality products, being unfamiliar or lack of information about handmade products, complicates shopping for handmade goods. Art is something which everyone loves but very few buy it, so sometimes it gets very difficult for users to get inspiration on social media or from friends and acquaintances.
• Style concerns: Many people want to purchase handmade but still there are many consumers especially in the fashion category perceive sustainable handmade products as old-fashioned or not in line with their style of dress. That could be due to heavy advertisements by big brands influencing the consumers’ taste and perception of quality.
• Price-conscious consumers: Due to the process of making handmade items, their price might be higher than a mass-produced similar. For budget-conscious consumers, this could be a hurdle. Where possible, products can be manufactured in locations with more available and less expensive labour and raw material.
• Intellectual property: Intellectual property is a challenge for many industries. Handmade products can sometimes be copied easily as there is no need for advanced technology or well-established regulations.
• Quality control: As many handmade products are not examined by a recognised organisation, this could cause uncertainty.

Key Insights

1. People are more inclined towards handmade products due to their uniqueness & variety and used them for various purposes such as Home decor, gifting and investment purposes.
2. Most of the handmade purchases are still done in person but after covid, there was an evident shift towards purchases on online marketplaces as well still if given a choice, most people will prefer offline shopping, especially for handmade artworks
3. The key factors on which people create their perceptions are quality, cost, solidarity, unique style and convenience, perceived unique value and authenticity, company and brand reputation, strong connection and emotional response, and social media influence.
4. The rate of female collectors is increasing as we move from Gen X to Millennials to Gen Z.
5. The target audience includes:
   - Age Group: 18–45
   - Geographic location: Across India including middle class, upper middle class & elite group
   - Gender ratio (Male: Female): 50:50
   - Job title/Industry: Across all levels
6. The customer journey in general includes 5 steps: Discovery, Consideration, Purchase, Retention & Recommendation. it is not necessary that customers will do them linearly, on our site, or all in one visit.
7. Problems that people face while buying handmade artworks: Lack of knowledge, Style Concerns, Price, Intellectual property, and Quality control.

Primary Research

The main reason for doing the primary research is to find the answers to two questions,

1. Understanding the user journey while shopping for products at fairs, exhibitions, art galleries etc.
2. To know the reason why people are most interested in shopping for these products offline.

I have created a survey form to recruit participants for interviews then I prepare an interview guide to make sure not to miss any important questions.

Insights from User Interviews

Below are some key insights from 1:1 user interviews

The important parameters user consider while purchasing artwork depends upon the theme and their own purpose for purchasing the artwork. When the art form is new than they question deeply about the purpose and history of artwork.

It is sometimes difficult for users to find personalized handmade artwork as they are not able to find the product that they exactly want and lack of inspiration & exposure from both the artist & customer side is also a key reason. Sometimes people have their own idea and they want to embed them in the artwork.

Insight 1: “ Most of the customer’s come to me are the one’s who wants to customize the product as per their own wish. Sometimes I already have the designs but then according to people we have to customize the artwork.”

It seems that customers too get in creative mode when they are a lot of artwork.

Insight 2: “When customers won’t able to tell exactly what they want then I aso collaborate with them, give them ideas, show them various designs.”

In between too many expectations, sometimes it becomes difficult for users to get the exact artwork they want.

Insight 3: “It is difficult sometimes, to get the exact thing that you’re looking for because every house has one kind of look or the other. Some prefer vintage, while others want aesthetics. In my house, we have given it an antique look so finding the paintings to rightfully suite the surroundings is a bit tough for us.”

Many people prefer to buy artworks but handmade artworks are only available at fairs & exhibitions which is difficult for them to go to due to time/travelling-related issues or due to lack of exposure as in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, people do not know much about art galleries, fairs, exhibitions and emporiums etc.

Insight 4:“Thy r available only in fairs and not around usual shops so due to time & travelling constraints it become difficult to purchase them offline.”

Many people preferred to purchase handmade products offline as they are able to collaborate with the artist directly secondly, in offline purchases, you can directly go to the artist for changes or customization.

Insight 5:“When you buy handmade artworks offline, you are able to see and experience first hand all the time & efforts it took for the artisan to make it, which is what makes it personal and unique”.

Going to fairs, exhibitions and art gallery is always a very unique experience for users and there they not only purchase the products but also enjoy various experiences related to artworks, got to know about their themes and artist background etc and that is missing from online experiences.

In the secondary research, I have discussed the general user journey people usually follow while shopping which consists of 5 steps i.e. discovery, consideration, purchase, retention & recommendation but the Handmade shopping experience is different in some aspects. People visit galleries and fairs, observe various artworks and the overall scenario, meet the owner along with the creator of the particular artwork, listen to their stories, purposes and try to get a sense of connection and then get on to make a decision on various other factors related to quality & price. In the case of handmade artworks discovery and consideration are iterative in nature.

Once they consider visiting a gallery or exhibition they will again discover various other factors about artworks and artists and then again consider and this cycle keeps going on until they found a connection or reason to purchase the product.

Insight 6:“Customer are more interested in asking every details of the artwork related to theme, purpose etc and it feels good to quench their curiosity”.

People keep their discovering mode on while visiting fairs, and exhibitions unlike what happens in stores for purchasing other products.

Artist branding is also important when we are selling artwork because it not only builds trust but gives the audience a platform to get more inspiration, ask questions etc.

Insight 7:“Most of the custom orders, I get is from Instagram. People see my work and may be they like it”.

Analysis & Validation of data from Secondary research and Primary research

User Personas

I have created 2 sets of representations one for art lovers or home collectors who love purchasing art because of some connection or in general have some exposure in the art field

User Persona 1

and the second for users who buy it for general reasons such as gifting, investment etc and do not have much exposure.

User Persona 2

User Journey Map

After understanding the user journey & in between steps a user takes to purchase a customized artwork, I have created a user journey map which includes various tasks the user completes to reach the main goal plus various emotions the person feels while completing that tasks and improvement opportunities that can help me in designing better.

User journey map

Reframing Problem statement

To begin with, I understood our problem statement and started narrowing it down; I aimed to refine some aspects of it and understand the real cause.

My two main primary goals were to:
- Make collaboration with the artist easy and effective so that users will be able to purchase personalized & customized products.
- Provide users with the same experience as they have while shopping offline

On this basis, I framed our research statement:

Design an e-commerce application that allows users to easily search & customize handmade products according to their needs & personalization by collaborating directly with artists and provide them a similar experience as they have in offline mode.

Ideation

For ideation solutions to problems that we discussed above, I have used one of the methods of ideation which is “ How Might We (HMW)”

It is an exercise which is used to translate problems into opportunities for design.

I have written the problems on one side of the paper and then with trying to come up with solutions using HMW.

Problem 1

Finding personalized handmade artwork is difficult sometimes for users as they are not able to find the product that they exactly want.

1. How can we create a platform where users can buy Artwork that can give their home the vibe and feel that they want?
2. How can we create a way to find artwork that the user wants?

Problem 2

Many people prefer to buy artworks offline but handmade artworks are only available at fairs & exhibitions which is difficult for them to go to due to time/travelling-related issues.

1. How can we create a way to solve travelling-related issues?
2. How can we create a way so that users can shop for handmade products from anywhere?
3. How can we create a way so that users at any time can shop for artworks they wish?
4. How can we create a way so that users have the same experience as offline?

Problem 3

Many people preferred to purchase handmade products offline due to trust-related factors, secondly, in offline purchases, you can directly go to the owner/shop for changes or customization.

1. How can we make the customisation process more effortless and trusted?
2. How can we make it easier to directly approach the artist?
3. How can we create a way to collaborate with both the user and the artist?

Problem 4

Sometimes it gets very difficult for users to get inspiration on social media or from friends and acquaintances, especially for handmade products.

1. How can we help users get inspiration and knowledge for purchasing and exploring handmade artwork?

Mind map

As there are lots of things to consider so creating a mind map seems to be the best option for me to organise my content ad ideas into a simple flow.

Mind Map

Paper Wireframing

HMW, Mind mapping & paper wireframing go hand in hand. As I got a solution, I try to create the user flow and draw it on paper.

Paper wireframing

Competitive Analysis

As we have seen, after covid, so many people use online platforms to buy handmade products.

There are so many online platforms (mobile apps and websites) that I have found such as Etsy, Amazon Handmade, E-bay, Saatchi art, Singulart, artsy etc. Etsy will be my direct competitor because the site follows the tradition of open craft fairs, giving sellers personal storefronts where they list their goods.

Amazon Handmade will be our indirect competitor because it is more focused on other categories of handmade products such as jewellery, home & kitchen etc.

but these online platforms are not focused on artists and the purpose behind creating the artwork which is the primary goal for most of the users.

Etsy has a feature that we can view the shop but each shop looks the same hence it is not as effective as the artist’s personal branding.

According to my secondary research insight: “On Etsy, all the shops look similar. Therefore, building an exclusive brand can be difficult.”

Some of the UX issues I have found while evaluating various flows in Etsy are:

1. “Delivery location” is set to the UK so every time users have to change their shipping location by going into the filter section,
2. Someone who is a first-time user or not a regular will often miss this point because for viewing their shipping location they have to go to the filter section and not get adequate product results.

1. When users search within a shop, every time after a few products they have to click on the “more items” button which seems to hurdle some time in shopping.
2. After landing on the product details page from the shop page when they come back again to the shop page they again have to type their search.

After getting to know the positives and pain points, I want to understand more about the impact of these positives and pain points. This Analysis helps me to not make similar mistakes that competitors are making and helps me in guiding what I am doing differently in comparison to my competitors.

High fidelity designs

Design system

Since this app will be an e-commerce platform focused on handmade artwork so I want to give it a formal yet friendly and creative look & feel.

Click here to read my whole process of creating a design system

Design System Foundation

Solving Problems find during Research phase

Problem 1: Users won’t able to find the exact product that they want.

Direct collaboration with the artist is the key. What if users have a platform with which they will be able to directly collaborate with the artist and tell them directly their requirements and design a personalized product?

While interviewing the sellers, I got to know that most of the people personalized the artwork according to their needs but still if still, people are not able to find the product that is because of a lack of exposure & collaboration from both sides. since most of the artists are from rural areas and customers belong to cities i.e. urban areas so this gap brings such problems.

Hence I have created a simple solution through which users will be able to collaborate with artists and users can do this by choosing any of the 4 flows.

1. By clicking on the cover users will read to a screen where they will choose the artist from which they want to request the artwork then they will fill in some of the basic details including the artwork title, some description about size, colour etc including images so that artist can get a basic idea and after that clicking on the submit button will lead the user to the main chat screen.

Collaboration Flow 1

• The same flow can be achieved by clicking on the “Custom Request” button by clicking on the bottom nav bar which will lead the user to a screen where they can see their existing request and can create a new one.

Collaboration Flow 2

• Users can also make the request from the artist’s profile.

Collaboration Flow 3

• If a user liked any of the already existing products they can also customize it.

Collaboration Flow 4

Problem 2: It gets very difficult for users to get inspiration on social media or from friends and acquaintances, especially for handmade products.

For those audiences who find it difficult to get inspiration or those who do not have much exposure to this field, reading is the best option and that can be achieved by clicking on the blogs icon on the bottom nav bar or from the homepage as well.

Blogs

Problem 3: Solving design issues found in competitor’s analysis

1. It is best if users can view their “shipping location” from the homepage because that’s the first screen user will land on that’s why I have designed the shipping location at the top giving that part priority in the hierarchy and at the same time providing them with the feature to edit it by clicking on the arrow beside it.

Home page UI Design

2. I have used the infinite scroll method i.e. whenever a user will click on the “View all” button they will be led to another screen which will be similar to the “shop screen” with of filter of “artist” selected already.

Artist Profile & Shop UI Design

3. I have divided the “Artist profile” into 3 sections: one for their background, a second for the product listing and a third for the blogs they write. The reason for this is that it seems better to swipe three times rather than scroll a lot and get confused sometimes.

Artist Profile UI Design

4. Image search is a very powerful feature in this type of platform because it becomes sometimes difficult for users to exactly type what they want therefore if they have image references that can be beneficial to make the search faster & efficient.

5. Nowadays most prefer to support local sellers, so the country of origin is one of the important considerations for users while shopping so I have dedicated a section on the homepage for those customers so it will be helpful for them to make the decision faster.

Search & Homepage UI Design

Future Scope

• Usability testing is another necessary step to find out problems that users can face while navigating.
• In this case study, I have focused on the discovery and consideration part of the whole user shopping journey. Next, we can focus on problems in other steps.

Conclusion and Learnings

User does not want to change their method of shopping. They enjoy purchasing artwork when they are able to interact with the artist and learn something new or got some type of motivation to purchase the product and this is what they miss in online shopping platforms. Hence it is necessary to provide solutions to problems keeping the user journey same.

I got a new perspective towards shopping and learn a lot of things about the art industry as well as about UX/UI design.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the case study.

Constructive feedbacks are always welcome.

You can also connect with me on Medium, Linkedin & Twitter.