The problem: There is no current application platform/experience that allows creatives to easily apply to multiple Artists Calls with a portfolio integrated to their professional profile/resume.
Objective: Research, strategize and design a platform to quicken application and hiring experience for both the artists and hirers.
Insight 1: Users want a faster way to find and apply for Artists Calls so they can continue to contribute to their local art scene while furthering their careers.
Insight 2: Users (in this case artists) feel dissatisfied with the current application platforms as they do not have integrations for portfolios.
Insight 3: Users often feel disenchanted by the application process and want a clearer expectation of what is happening to their application on the hirer end.
Through competitive audits, wireframing, lo-fi mockups, usability studies, and affinity maps, we were able to locate user pain-points and gaps in the basic structure of the app to improve and further ease the application experience for the user. At this point some of the key takeaways were to improve the basic navigation, text sizes for accessibility and how to keep users on the app after submitting an application.
Tools: competitive audit, wireframes, information architecture, mockups, usability study.
In order to showcase the portfolio work of the users I decided to approach the designs in a clean, structured, gallery-like perspective. With only black white, and off-white for the main layouts, borders, lines, and groupings became very important in order to make the information easy to digest. The one bright, bold, highlight colour clearly guides the user through the main flow and also brings a youthful, zesty feel to the brand package.The typography choices are professional, yet friendly to make users feel comfortable to be themselves on this app.
Tools: Figma, AI, Photoshop
