For sustainability in art

DiscArted

Client

Course project for
'Sustainable Interaction Design'

ROLE

UX Designer

EXPERTISE

Interaction Design & Research

User Testing

Timeline

4 weeks

Never have I ever bought art supplies only to use them once or twice…

At Pratt, one of my unique skill courses was "Sustainable Interaction Design". The class expands into product design beyond just apps and websites, with sustainability and climate at the forefront of the process

Background

The idea for this project started off with a simple stress cleaning session where I realized all my expensive paint had dried out before I got the chance to make. mess with it. It made me wonder - is there a way to still use expired supplies in art instead of throwing it away? Furthermore…

What if there's a single platform for people to learn what they can do with art scraps, share art supplies, and show artists their creations?

Introducing DiscArted (get it?.. Discarded + art?…) A one-stop-shop for learning, creating, and sharing Sustainable art.

Personalised recycling solutions

Everyone has specific things that ends up in the trash more often than others. Follow specific topics to see projects for any such objects.

Equal ground among artists

The only person who can see how many people liked your profile is you.

Publish your creations

Have you ever made something really cool from scrap? Share it with the world!

Publish your creations

Have you ever made something really cool from scrap? Share it with the world!

Personalised recycling solutions

Everyone has specific things that ends up in the trash more often than others. Follow specific topics to see projects for any such objects.

Equal ground among artists

The only person who can see how many people liked your profile is you.

Publish your creations

Have you ever made something really cool from scrap? Share it with the world!

With just 4 weeks to work on it, this project was quite the ride.

With the short amount of time, I had to really maximize how much I get out of each step. I wanted to answer one big design question -

I broke down this project into 4 min stages, one for each week (with soe flexibility of course).

Desk research

This phase answers whether this project was even viable. It also answers some important design questions - What are the biggest factors contributing to Art Wastage?

Brainstorming

Several ideas came into mind, including a course streaming platform, a blogging app, a "recipe" style app, and even a news platform for sustainable art around the world. The final idea ended up being a combination of these several great ideas.

User Research & Testing

3 artists were interviewed, 2 of which pursued design school. They were allowed to form opinions with the brainstormed sketches after understanding whether wasted is a pressing concern in art, and how are they combating it?

Prototyping

Using design tools like Figma, I used the sketches and feedback to build a mid fidelity prototype. I couldn't built the concept further due to the time limitations of the semester.

Solution

From the research, the best solution was found to be a Community app where artists interact with each other, sharing their knowledge on using scrap to create unique art!

But unlike social media, we wanted to remove the element of hierarchy. While users can follow each other, they won't be able to see how many "likes" the other artist's profiles got.

Personalised recycling solutions

Everyone has specific things that ends up in the trash more often than others. Follow specific topics to see projects for any such objects.

Equal ground among artists

Comparison is the thief of joy, especially on social media. Follow other artists, but no artist knows how "popular" the other is.

Publish your creations

People often find creative and unique solutions in the world of recycling. DiscArted allows them to share their creations with the world!

Down the road…

The project was carried out over a course of 4 weeks, so my focus was solely on mapping out the product around the idea of "Art from recycling". However, here's features that I would mock up in the next phases…

Scrap Market

Based on user interviews, one of the "Ahaa!" ideas I got was a Scrap market, where anyone can sell scrap that could be turned into art, or artists could sell their art supplies that aren't being used anymore.

Communicate

As social creatures, learning and interacting with people is the best ways to broaden our horizons. Artists can chat with each other, and host or attend social events to share ideas with peers.