Archives
A social app designed to make photo-sharing more personal and meaningful.
The Basics
When: Spring 2020
What: Personal Project
Role: Product Designer
The Tools
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
The Problem
In the last decade, social media has drastically changed the way we think when sharing photos. There is the pressure to be “Instagram worthy” and build social status through “like” and “follower” counts. Extensive photo editing is extremely accessible making unedited and unaltered selfies rare to come by. Social media has become the new first impression, and the pressure to make it a good one is getting out of hand.
On the flip side, the last decade has also made taking good quality photos a lot easier whether that be through things like stabilization technology or portability. But now that everything exists digitally, the sentimental feeling from things like flipping through old albums is missing. Instead, we have endless camera rolls and posed photos carefully selected to be on our social media profiles. Both of these ideas got me thinking.
“How might we make photo posting and sharing more personal, authentic, and meaningful so that people can truly reflect on their memories?”
The Process
Before I started to create anything, I wanted to know if other people wanted the same as me - a way to make photo-sharing more personal and meaningful. I read a lot of articles and studies to understand what professionals had to say about social media, but I decided to do a study of my own too.
Since the project started during a time of social distancing, I put out an online survey. With over 80 responses, I was very happy with the responses. The survey focused on photo-sharing and posting.
One question that had perhaps the most interesting and helpful responses was "what would people change about their photo posting experiences?"
The two biggest things people wanted to change were related to privacy and culture. People wanted to be able to have things like separate profiles for certain groups, as well as make their photo-sharing more personal for those that matter to them.
“I have stopped posting photos over the last year and a half or so because I feel that I haven’t found a way to post photos for myself and my friends instead of posting photos in an ego-fuelled share/brag hybrid experience.”
- Anonymous
The top three methods for sharing multiple photos were as follows:
1. Messenger apps (ie. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp)
2. Bluetooth sharing (ie. AirDrop)
3.Text message or iMessage
The top three considerations people made when deciding on a method were as follows:
1. Efficiency or time to send and receive
2. Photo quality being maintained
3. Universality across devices and platforms
After the survey, I organized some key thoughts I needed to consider on the whiteboard pictured below. This helped show me what was important to the target users, and what I needed to do to fulfill their needs and expectation.
I also created a rudimentary user journey with some notes on how the app would work for different users which is to the right of the whiteboard below. This helped me visualize what joining the app for the first time might look like for users.
The User Journey
1. Create an account
2. Create a community and add connections
3. Upload photos and share them with communities
4. Tag and organize photos to go to certain albums
5. View news feeds and react and comment on photos
Users can also save photos from communities to their private albums outside of the community.
Although I worked on this project alone, it was important to me to get feedback from other designers. They provided great insight about other things I should consider such as whether this was meant to replace Instagram or co-exist with it. After running my sticky notes and research by some fellow designers via video call and text, I refined my user journey and ecosystem and started sketching out the wireframes for the app.
This was quite a complex issue, so adding visuals certainly helped out when I was explaining my thought process. It also helped me better express my thoughts and ideas to other designers and potential users, providing me with even more useful feedback and perspectives. The photo below shows some of the wireframes that I sketched for this project.
At this point, I needed to decide on what kind of branding direction I wanted to go in. I wanted to make sure that this app didn’t look like all the other social media apps out there - I wanted it to stand out. I wanted to make sure that when people used the app, they felt different.
I wanted to create a company that was:
1. Fun but not immature
2. Simple but not basic
3. Private but not disconnected
Archives is a space where photo-sharing is less about proving something and more about connecting.
It is a place where people can share photos and store memories to reflect on.
The Solution
The solution that I created to combat the issues with posting and sharing photos is called Archives. It’s a place where people make connections, create communities, and share photos. Instead of having one main profile that everyone sees, photos can only be posted and shared to communities.
Archives is a special place where people can go back into communities and browse the posts and albums, just as they would with a physical photo album. It’s where photo-sharing goes back to being meaningful and personal.
It's important to note that this project is ongoing and will continue to evolve. At the moment, I've completed the branding and high-fidelity prototype. The graphics were created using Adobe Illustrator and the prototype was made in Figma.
This is the main logo for Archives. The font is a serif font which, although is uncommon for social apps, is a perfect fit for the brand. Users should feel a sense of independence, specialty, and personal touch when using the app. The serif font accentuates a high-quality experience that values its users.
A tetrahedron is used to represent the brand because of its association with personal power and acceptance, balance, and stability. All of these align with the type of brand Archives aims to be for users.
These are the navigation icons. They have the same minimalistic and modern feel as the logo.
It's also important to note some of the key features that make Archives different than other photo-sharing platforms.
1. There are no visual counts of connections, likes, or comments.
2. Nobody can see what communities people are a part of or what photos people have shared unless they are in the same community.
3. Nobody can view other people’s connections.
Archives is designed to create memories, not pressure. It's a place for people to create digital communities and share life’s special moments.
These frames are some of the key parts of Archives. The frames and prototype are designed to demonstrate the concept of Archives. The prototype follows the user journey that a new user of the app would have. It walks through everything from signing up and adding connections, to creating a group and viewing photos.
Retrospective
This project came from a place of passion and drive. It’s a concept that excites me and motivates me to be a better designer. I learned a lot in particular about designing for a very broad demographic. Where users have all different sorts of needs and preferences. I also learned a lot about myself. For instance, I learned that sometimes going for a walk is the best solution to a problem you can’t figure out. Interestingly, this is the first personal project that I've ever done and it was so much fun exploring my skills and interests. It showed me that designing with a purpose in mind is what excites me the most.
This project is, and likely always will be, ongoing. Please check back periodically for updates and changes.