Sierra Dawn
RESPONSIVE ARTIST’S WEBSITE
Client
Sierra Dawn Busch, Independent Artist.
Background & Scope
Sierra had been creating artwork since her childhood. In the past, she has sold her original paintings through art galleries or museum stores. She would now like to target niche audiences who are actively involved in sustainability and environmental conservation and have a great passion for culture, travel, and new perspectives.
Scope: Build a Responsive Website and Design Brand Identity.
Link to Project Brief
Timeline
4 Weeks
Role
UX Design (Research, UX and UI Design), Brand Identity
Tools
Figma, Procreate, Zoom, Canva
The Challenge.
Invoke a connection
When started, Sierra had a vague vision to inspire and enliven the spaces of people through her artwork that align with their mutual core values. She knew an online art studio can be a place to sell her artwork, but the challenge is to communicate that connection, inspiration, and lifestyle that her artwork aims to facilitate to her target audience.
Through this website, Sierra hopes that her audience can understand her more as a person, connect with her artwork, process, and continue to create a like-minded bond.
This website and her brand identity is one of the first steps in connecting with her target audience, so I want to represent her well.
“My mission is to awaken the wild in all of us so that we may learn to live in balance with our environment”
The Solution.
Evoke a feeling
Sierra Dawn’s website presents a light and airy feeling that balances elegance with down-to-earth aesthetics. Together, we crafted a website that would portray her genuine and authentic self, and position her differently from competitors. The website (online art gallery) is a living palette for identity, emotions, impact, empowerment, reflection, and inspiration. The simple notion is for her clients to grab a cup of coffee, and browse her work to feel uplifted.
Design Process
Understanding Sierra’s Vision and User Interviews
Business & User Goals
Since Sierra had many loose ideas, we started by fine-tuning her vision and setting goals that could translate into a functioning product. To gain clarity, I encouraged Sierra to journal her thoughts and ideas. Together, we went over her responses along with the catalog of existing artwork to create business plans, set project goals, and identify target audience.
Through aligned values and identified interests, I validated and interviewed 5 participants (her current and potential audience), to understand their process in buying artwork, and to streamline product descriptions and key information to be provided on the website.
Link to Competitive Analysis (tab 1) and User Interviews (tab 2) outcomes- Spreadsheet
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Sierra's ideal customers look for brand values such as women's empowerment, environmental sustainability, high quality, inclusivity, cultural mindfulness.
Design Takeaway:
Insider circle/ membership is not preferred.
Be transparent in the use of materials.
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They look for an intimate understanding of artwork, the artist's process, and the meaning and value the artwork hold for the artist that reflects the artist's emotions. Functionally, size, materials used, medium, and cost for shipping.
Design Takeaway:
Choose a medium (poetry/ audio/ video etc) to intimately connect the artwork with the audience.
Include natural fibers/textures in product photos to refer to the audience’s environmental mindfulness and down-to-earth personality.
Persona
Based on the above research, I created a persona representative of Sierra Dawn’s target user
Meet Chloe, a 38-year-old Sales Manager in NYC. She is inspired by artwork that speaks to her lifestyle and values, and empowers her kids in some ways, hence looking for connection and understanding the artist’s emotions and thought process
Persona Representative of Target Audience
Information Architecture
Before diving into design, I drafted out how the pages would be organized. I looked at other artists’ websites to see the standard page options. This map would later expand to include another main nav link to "merchandise” or “postcards”.
Site Map
User Flow
User flow for a specific scenario is helpful to figure out various exit points and informs design and content addition decisions.
Scenario: Chloe wants to buy an original painting that represents “Winter Sky” to install in their family beach house. She saw one of Sierra’s artwork titled “Midnight Glow” on Instagram with #alcoholink #wintersky, and she clicks on her website link to purchase the artwork.
User Flow
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Gaining insights from user interviews and competitive analysis, I sketched a few variations of the home page to discuss with Sierra. My user interviews revealed that users would learn more about the artist before buying the art if they like at least a few pieces of artwork by the artist. To give them a taste of what kind of art they can expect here, we decided to go with the wireframe that shows what is sold here, at first glance!
Would users still look for information about the artist? We’ll find out the answer to that in usability testing later.
Sketches exploring different layout options
Mid- Fi Wireframes
Brand Identity
Sierra Dawn Art- UI Kit
Creating a Light, Airy, and Down to Earth Brand.
One of the main challenges in creating a color palette for the website was to be mindful of background/section colors not overpowering the artwork. The goal of the website is to focus the limelight on the artwork, which should be the object of attraction, rather than the website itself.
Keeping that in mind, I created a mood board, color palette, and typography- to create high fidelity wireframes
Designing a Logo
I wanted to communicate Sierra’s personal brand through the logo design and experimented with “embracing the wild” that Sierra stands for, instead of a perfectly polished sterile look.
I sketched a few concepts in procreate, to discuss with Sierra and presented her with 4 digitized options, and finalized logo design #04- which abstractly portrays Mountain (Sierra) Sunrise (Dawn).
Digitized Logo Concepts
High-Fidelity Wireframes and Desktop Prototype
High Fidelity Wireframes
Mobile- Homepage
Usability Test
Tasks
Explore the homepage (to observe user behavior, and listen to thoughts and feelings)
Task 1: Find “Alcohol Ink” Original Artwork Series
Task 2: Find an artwork named “Midnight Glow” and proceed to checkout.
Task Completion
Error Free
Yellow circle indicating most clicked button on homepage
Testing Notes
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4/5 participants were able to distinguish thr terminologies- collections, originals and prints. One participant could not, but they’d click on each to understand.
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5/5 participants wanted to click on “About Me” on the homepage first before navigating to shop.
Iterations:
There are no significant changes to the high-fidelity screens created.
Select Quotes by Participants
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-Participant 2
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-Participant 4
Sierra Dawn’s Testimonial
“Dhivyaa is passionate about helping her clients achieve their business dreams through well thought out design and User Experience. She took my random thoughts and visions and turned them into a professional online space and functioning shop that I can’t wait to send my future customers to! Dhivyaa worked with dedication and passion through every step of the project - from research and design to building the final product”
Artist & Entrepreneur
Next Steps
Create “About Me” page and Artist Statement.
Create content such as Framing Guide, FAQs, Terms of use, Collaboration policy, etc.
Include natural fibers/textures in product photos/mockups to refer to the audience’s environmental mindfulness and down-to-earth personality.
Sierra will build the website in WIX.
Test real content with Sierra’s existing customers and potential collectors. Iterate the design based on test observations and participants’ feedback.