PIN STUDIO CASE STUDY
Overview
Pin Studio is a conceptual creative application for designing and ordering enamel pins. This app offers a variety of tools and templates for you to use as well as an upload feature which allows you to upload your own artwork. Once a design is finalized users can easily place an order from the app to have their pins shipped to them. Users can also share their designs on their profiles as well as view other designs in the Live Feed dashboard. Pin App makes it easy and fun for creative users to create from their mobile device!
01 - Research
Problem
As an artist myself who enjoys collecting and customizing my own products I noticed an abundance in creative apps where I can directly create and order from my mobile device. Thee other creative apps were limited to designs as well as limited to only t-shirts.
User Research
During my research phase I began by conducting a user survey to gather information from potential users. My questions were based on how popular accessories such as pins and stickers are in their community as well as if they were interested in having a way for them to be customized and made through a mobile app.
Based on the results from my survey question all of the users had seen at people wear pins in their community and the majority had owned their own pins. The majority of users had experience using other creative apps on their device as well as would be interested in making their own products. This shows the popular demand in a mobile app for creative where they can create their own product.
Competitive Analysis
During my research I analyzed a few competitors and created SWOT tables for each competitors to break down the positives and negatives of their internal and external factors. As a result I noticed the other apps weren’t very user friendly and the UI design strengths were missing. Also none of these apps had pins as a product which I seen an opportunity for Pin Studio.
Sitemap
I then began to create a sitemap referencing my user flows to build the foundation features for my app.
02 - Design
Branding
Once I finalized my research I began to develop the brand identity for my app. The app focuses on pin customization so I gave my logo a personal custom touch and made it resemble an enamel pin. I organized all the branding into a style guide which includes the logo,color palette and typography.
I decided to go with a mint green and light yellow as the primary color as it give a creative and playful feel to my design. For my typography I went with the Gilroy font family as the primary and Advante Garde Gothic as the secondary. Gilroy Black was used for my logo and has a bold and geometric touch that complimented the bold design.
Wireframes
Referencing my user stories and user flows I drafted a lo-fidelity wireframe to begin the structure for my apps user interface.
After conducting a usability test and analyzing the results I began to finalize each page and developed hi-fidelity wireframes. I began creating all the necessary pages including error pages to to have a full working prototype.
03 -Conclusion
What I learned
During the the process of creating this mobile application I was challenged with an idea of creating an application that creative users can have full control in creating a product from their mobile device. I learned the importance of each research phase as it is the foundation for the app. Once I organized my research I was able to create a working prototype efficiently and increased my workflow. Given more time a would have like to add other products aside from just pins to expand the crowd of users.