Macbook Pro
artistree
Timeline
April - May 2025 (5 Weeks)
Role
Research & Hi-Fidelity Lead
Service
Design Interactive (DI)
Full Case Study
Link To Case Study
Context & Problem Brief
Creating a Space for the Creative Community
Design Interactive (DI) is a human-centered design organization at the University of California, Davis. During a 5-week design sprint , my team and I were tasked with designing a
social platform
Networking with other creatives can be daunting..
How might we design a social platform for creatives to connect with each other effectively?
Framing Our Opportunity
To guide our direction, we defined three key questions:
What makes a professional network feel supportive rather than intimidating?
How do creatives want to present themselves and their work online?
What kinds of opportunities and support are creatives actively seeking?
The Problem
Networking Is Uncomfortable and Challenging
I led the initial research phase by designing and distributing a survey to students in creative fields.
Our goal was to understand:
Where creatives share their work
How they currently network
What barriers they face
I wanted to understand about their real experiences of where they share their work, how they network, and what barriers they face. From 40 responses, what I discovered was:
What Platforms Do Creatives Use?
We began to explore solutions by conducting platform analysis’ on platforms such as LinkedIn and Tempi. We wanted to see what we found was lacking in these platforms that we often use as creative students.
SWOT Analysis
01
Strengths
Large Professional
Network
Easy access to industry professionals, recruiters, and companies globally.
Career & Job
Opportunities
Job boards with filters to discover internship and entry level roles
02
Weaknesses
Not Built For Creative Portfolios
Lacks visual presentation features such as Behance or Dribble
Networking Feels Transactional
& Formal
Conncetions can feel very formal, especially for students. This can make authenticity difficult.
03
Opportunities
Centralize Platform
For Creatives
Our platform can be a hub for creatives to connect, share work, and discover opportunities
Include Niche Communities
& Groups
Create communities specialized in different design & art facets
04
Threats
Competition from other platforms
Platforms such as Behance or Dribble provides users portfolio presentation with ease
Shift In Hiring Practices
Some companies may prefer to prioritize work/project showcasing over social presence
Once we gathered our necessary research, we then began to start designing our first iterations of the concept.
Design Process
Concept Exploration & Testing with Creatives
Initial Lo-Fi Sketches
Our early concepts focused on including key features:
Customizable Profiles
Job and Opportunity Listings
Community Feeds
Messaging System
Mid-Fi Frames
At this stage, we were designing for functionality. But user testing revealed we needed stronger community emphasis
Design Process
From functional → to community-driven
Through conducting 4 usability testing with other creatives, we discovered they felt…
Important
Feedback Given:
Profile Page
There should be more emphasis to connect to people
Additional Pages
Utilize adding additional pages to show nuance (ex. showing what other user profiles would appear like)
Visual Consistency
Lot’s of busy design aspects. Ensure visual elements are consistent (ex. spacing)
With the feedback given, this led us to rethink our approach. Instead of just helping creatives find opportunities,
we needed to help them feel comfortable engaging
with others.
Action & Results
My Impact For the Creative Community
Design Challenges I Solved
Final Deliverables
Bringing artistree to Life
User Onboarding
Users are able to customize their initial profile and select filters that align with their interests.
Community Feed
Users can explore communities across different creative fields through personalized feeds to discover content that align with their interests.
Jobs Feed
Users can browse job opportunities with filters, allowing them to refine results by location and creative interests, making it easier to find
relevant roles.
Profile Customization
Users can showcase their work on their profile page and connect with others in a supportive space.
They can have the option to upload their portfolio directly on artistree, or link it externally
artistree Messaging
Users can connect and communicate with ease through in-platform messaging.
Final Deliverables
Presentation Night With Fellowship Teams
We presented our prototype with other teams! And we won “Most Human-Centered Design!”
