Unveil
About Unveil
Unveil is an innovative art investment platform where artists showcase their work, allowing users to buy fractional stakes in individual pieces. As the value of a piece grows and it's subsequently purchased by a third party, users earn profits proportional to their investment. By offering 'shares' of an artwork to a broader audience, Unveil aims to democratize the art world, creating equitable opportunities for both artists and art enthusiasts.
Unveil is deeply passionate about championing emerging artists, providing them with a platform where their talents can shine and be supported, ensuring both artists and enthusiasts mutually benefit from the world of art.
Our Team
Yuxin Ouyang
Product Designer
Laurel Cahoon
Product Designer
Nahn Nguyen
Product Designer
Adie Akuffo-Afful
Founder
Rohan Desai
Co-Founder
Luke Charlesworth
Co-Founder
Preparation Before Diving into the Project
In our first meeting with the founders of Unveil and our teammates, several key elements were discussed:
Scope of the Business: An overview of what Unveil seeks to achieve.
Company Expectations: What they envision as the end result of our collaboration.
Team Requirements: Tasks we need to accomplish.
Gaps Identification: Areas that demand particular attention.
Project Timeline: The timeframe for each stage leading to completion.
Milestones: Key checkpoints to monitor progress and ensure alignment.
Problem Statement:
From the meeting, it became evident that Unveil has set its sights on a September 2023 launch. However, they're currently grappling with a lack of distinct branding and style that genuinely encapsulates their mission, vision, and unique personality. Furthermore, our expertise was sought in designing an intuitive artists' dashboard.
Solution:
Armed with a clear understanding of the company's challenges and expectations, my team and I proposed a solution. Our strategy encompasses:
Competitive Analysis: Evaluating both direct and indirect competitors to identify design strengths and weaknesses, leading to actionable recommendations.
Branding & Style Guide: Developing a unified visual and tonal identity for the platform.
Wireframes: Designing a low-fidelity wireframe to finalize the flow and functionality of the dashboard.
Mockups: Producing high-fidelity mockups as a reference for the development team tasked with building the product.
To maintain focus and efficiency, we have delineated a detailed timeline and identified key milestones. This organized framework ensures consistent progress and keeps us aligned with our goal of producing meaningful outcomes.
Week 1: Competitive Analysis
Before crafting the style and branding guide for Unveil—a key emphasis for this project—my team and I undertook a competitive analysis of several competitors. We scrutinized their design styles and examined the correlation with their functionality. Our goal was to grasp their strengths and weaknesses to furnish Unveil with a superior design solution and sidestep issues evident in competitor platforms.
Our team evaluated seven platforms offering features similar or related to Unveil:
Masterworks
Artsy
Artsper
Cocollect
Fairchain
Singulart
Etsy
Of these, Masterworks emerged as the most direct competitor, also allowing investors to acquire fractional ownership of art. However, distinct differences exist. In Masterwork, investors have restricted influence over management and sales decisions, which are predominantly dictated by the company. Another significant divergence is their target audience. While Masterwork predominantly caters to renowned artists and artworks, Unveil focuses on uplifting and promoting young and emerging artists.
Competitive analysis takeout:
After closely studying the strengths, weaknesses, and branding approaches of these companies and formulating our recommendations, my team and I gleaned crucial insights to shape the style and brand guide for the upcoming week. Our key takeaways include:
Interface Design: It should be both minimalistic and professional.
Clear Branding: The company's mission and brand identity need to be lucid and leave a lasting impression.
Interactive Design: Striking a balanced proportion between text and visuals is vital.
Color Cohesiveness: A consistent color scheme should flow through the app and website
Going Beyond: Infusing User-Centric Design
After drawing insights from our competitive analysis for the upcoming style and brand guide creation, I went the extra mile. Even though the project timeline is tight and the primary focus remains on design, I crafted a persona and developed a 'How Might We (HMW)' statement. This approach ensured we centered our design thinking around the users' perspectives and primed us for innovative design solutions in the future.
Week 2: Brand and Style Guide
Mood Boards
Our team decided to individually create mood boards as a brainstorming approach to inspire and shape the design of the style and brand guide.
I drew inspiration from nature, particularly the ever-changing moods of the sky, ranging from sunsets and sunrises to clear days and starry nights. I opted for a palette blending blue and purple. Blue conveys professionalism and calm, aligning with the investor persona, while purple's artistic and romantic tones resonate with artists. Together, these colors interplay like the light and shadows in an impressionist painting — a resonance that could be particularly compelling when showcasing artworks to our two main audiences: investors and artists.
My teammate, Nahn, combined solid black and white with futuristic, holographic styles, drawing inspiration from Heague Yang’s MoMA installation (seen in the left image). Meanwhile, my other teammate, Laurel, embraced print, pencil work, and bold typography with a vintage flair, using gold and a dollar-bill-like green to subtly evoke monetary themes (shown in the right image).
More inspirations…
When we showcased our mood boards to Unveil's founders, they reciprocated with images and concepts they envisioned for the design. They were captivated by the idea of mirroring the experience of physically walking through an art gallery and expressed a keen interest in incorporating the art labels typically found adjacent to artworks.
Next Step: The Style and Brand Guide
After several discussions, we finalized the style and brand guide to be consistent across both the website and app.
Week 3: Wireframe
Upon finalizing a style guide that garnered appreciation from Unveil’s founders, we commenced wireframe creation for various user flows. Based on their prior research, three primary flows were highlighted: the landing page with login, the artist application process, and the artist dashboard experience.
I spearheaded the design for the landing page and login flow, recognizing its importance as the product's first impression, highlighting key product features, and serving as the gateway to the subsequent flows.
Considerations for Designing the Flow:
Landing Page Design:
Our competitive analysis illuminated the need for clarity in conveying the company's message. Recognizing that ambiguity around the company's statement and mission led to confusion, I prioritized placing the company's statement at the landing page's forefront, succeeded by an in-depth section on the mission. This layout ensures users instantly grasp if the company's offerings align with their interests.
To cultivate a welcoming ambiance, I introduced a 'Why Unveil' section, emphasizing the unique opportunities available for emerging artists. Finally, to demystify the platform for potential users, the page concludes with a segment detailing the process of promoting and selling artworks, answering potential queries about the platform's mechanics.
Login Sequence:
Authentication: Users log in with Unveil credentials (email and password).
Account Creation: A prompt with a link to Unveil's mobile app for first-time account setup.
Forgot Password: 'Forgot Password' link for quick password recovery.
Error Alert: A message for incorrect password entries.
Essential Feedback on the Wireframe
In the wireframe presentation to Unveil's founders, they expressed their satisfaction with the overall concept and content of the landing page and the login sequence. However, they provided constructive feedback on the layout of the landing page. They recommended a more organized approach by breaking down each section into horizontal sub-sections, instead of presenting information in extended text paragraphs. I found this feedback valuable and aligned with it, recognizing its potential to enhance user engagement.
Week 4: High-fidelity Mockups
In the project's final week, I transitioned to crafting high-fidelity mockups for all screens. Incorporating feedback from Unveil's founders, I refined the landing page, focusing on enhancing engagement and readability. Now, sections like "Our Mission," "Why Unveil," and "How it Works for Artists" are structured with concise key points laid out horizontally.
Lo-fi Wireframne (Landing Page)
Hi-fi Mockup, after iteration
In creating the high-fidelity mockups, I didn't merely translate the wireframes. Instead, I synthesized insights and elements from our prior work, culminating in the final design. Staying true to the style guide, I employed green as the primary color. At the landing page's top, I melded green with pencil drawings in the background to symbolize artistic creation. The image on the right captures the immersive experience of entering an art gallery.
The design encapsulates a professional and minimalistic approach, while being inviting, interactive, and resonating with artists. Simultaneously, it prioritizes the clarity and prominence of the company's mission and key points.
Below are the high-fidelity mockups
Reflection:
Embarking on this project and teaming up with my colleagues and the founders of Unveil was both enriching and delightful. The experience was invaluable, allowing me to apply my expertise to refine the product while simultaneously learning from collective collaboration.
Adaptability in Approach: The initial takeaway from this venture was the importance of flexibility. Unlike other projects where extensive preliminary user research dictates design, with Unveil, the emphasis was on immediate design, considering the tight timeline and prior research they'd conducted. Although this veered from my usual approach, it emphasized the need to tailor strategies based on project-specific goals.
The Essence of Communication: The project underscored the vital role of effective communication. Regular discussions with the team and founders ensured mutual understanding, swiftly addressing design challenges, incorporating feedback, and fostering innovative ideas. Such communication streamlined the process, ensuring alignment towards our end goals.
Learning through Diversity: Perhaps the most enriching aspect of this journey was the diverse insights gained from teammates and the founders. Valuing feedback and differing perspectives, I was reminded of the beauty of diverse thought processes – from detailed-oriented individuals to big-picture thinkers, and from linear to lateral thinkers. The confluence of these varied insights can elevate a project, as witnessed firsthand.
In essence, this project was a testament to the power of adaptability, communication, and collective learning. It served as a reminder that while we may differ in approach and thought, these differences, when harnessed correctly, can lead to something truly remarkable.