Photomersive
Project Description
An intuitive app that lets users easily snap and share 360° photos of their favorite memories.
Timeline
Spring 2022
Responsibilities
User Interviews, Wireframes, Prototype, Interaction Design
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, After Effects
Problem:
Current apps are confusing for users to learn how to take immersive photos, and images are not shareable with others.
Background
Take Only Photos...
...leave only footprints.
I'm a huge hiking and nature enthusiast, and I also take a ludicrous amount of photos and panoramas. Building projects in AR has opened my eyes to the possibilities of using mobile technology to interact with the real world -- maybe letting us spend time inside our favorite photos!
User Research
User Interviews
In total, we interviewed around thirty people to understand how they capture moments in their lives. From spontaneous photos (ie. Snapchat) to inspirational videos, many interviewees expressed the desire for a more interactive visual medium.
"I would take immersive photos - but I can't share them as easily with my friends."
"I want to take 360° pictures but I don't know where to start!"
"I wish there was a way to take more than just a panorama when I'm traveling."
User Research
Personas
Our target audience is younger travelers and content creators - generally around 15 - 25 yrs old. To better understand our users, we created personas.
Wireframes
First Sketches
Initial brainstorming of the main features - camera, gallery, AR viewing, and sharing options. At this stage, the app focused much more on users taking and organizing their own photos.
Initially, we limited the sharing option to 'between friends', but many users wanted to post their adventures to a larger community.
We came up with many possible uses for 3D photos, ranging from documenting archeological digs to collaborative apartment touring.
Notes:
Designing for this relatively new image format was a special challenge - how could we teach users to capture at the right angles and rotate correctly to take quality 360 photos? (considering how bad we are at taking panoramas)
Wireframes
Second Iteration
At this point, we tried to find our core users - would we design for casual users, or more "power users" with commercial uses (ie. realtors showing off interior spaces)?
We conducted many interviews to establish our direction - in the end, we focused on casual, social users, giving it more of a social media angle. I started mapping out the screens given its focus on snapping and sharing photos.
Process
Tutorial
Through talking to users, we realized that our app's most unique feature was its focus on guiding new photographers through taking their first 3D photo - something that other apps don't spend time on.
Although photo spheres aren't incredibly different from taking videos and panoramas, without guidance, users were intimidated by the new format and much less likely to take photos.
Final Prototype
Visual Value Proposition
We were tasked with creating a visual representation of our product - something that quickly communicated our core values and app functions. Iterating on this also let us hone in on our goals for our product.
Final Prototype
Finished! (for now)
Afterword
Takeaways
This was my first complete UX project (!!) and I'm grateful to have gone through this journey, from ideation to finished product.
I learned a lot in the process (ie. how late I'd stay up to get the perfect transition working) but also about incorporating feedback and staying flexible.
This project's amalgamation of AR viewing, camera, social media, and photo album capabilities was hard to reconcile at many points - but figuring out how those fit together was incredibly rewarding in the end!