2022

Let’s Shoot

BrainStation Capstone Project

Case Study

April 2022 - July 2022
(10 Weeks)

Objectively, film photography is an old medium, but subjectively to a majority of the younger audience, it is a whole new experience. Let’s Shoot is an all-in-one platform to guide people through their film photography journey.

See Figma Prototype

Project Summary

Role

UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer
Tools

Pen & Paper, InVision, Figma, Lightroom
Showcase

iOS, Responsive Web (Mobile, Tablet, Desktop)

Objectively old,
subjectively new

Design Thinking Approach

“The Double Diamond Design Process Model”, 2005

Research + Discovery

Secondary Research
Problem Space
Primary Research
Hypothesis
User Interviews

Synthesis

How Might We Question
Persona
Experience Mapping
Task Flow

Ideation

Sketches
Wireframing
User Testing

Prototype

Brand Development
High Fidelity
Next Steps

Question

Before looking at the problem…
Is film photography relevant nowadays?

Secondary Research

30%

of respondents in a 2014 survey were under the age of 35 years and…
60%

of the under 35 category had only started using film within the last 5 years.
57%

of respondents in the same survey in 2018 were starting film photography within the last 5 years with…
47%

of those new to film photography being under the age of 44.

Who?

“Zennials”

Specifically amongst current day young adults, “Zennials”, also known as a micro-generation, are a demographic that includes the transition between Millennial and Generation Z.

Issue #1

Younger adults (Zennials) seem to be very interested in film photography…
So what is the problem then?

Bridging the gap between…

Digital and Analogue

Zennials represent those people who grew up at the start of the Digital Age, which coincides with the start of the 21st Century. Because of this transitionary period in time where mainstream photography shifted from analogue (film) to digital, Zennials who grew up in this time may or may not have had some exposure to film photography as kids.

I would like to hypothesize that it is not enough to say they can confidently shoot film in their later life with such minimal exposure to the medium at a young age.

What?

The Problem Space

“Zennials” who are interested and like film photography are getting frustrated when learning the medium because of the overwhelming information on the topic. Each mistake is a costly and timely ordeal that can easily discourage newcomers.

Issue #2

Through my secondary research, I could not find any quantitative statistics online to support my problem statement.

Primary Research

Straight from the source

I wasn’t finding the qualitative data that I need to back up my problem space, so I went to interview a camera store I frequented that deals a lot with film photography.

Coming in, I met with Aiden, a current employee at Aden Camera with an extensive background as a photographer who mainly shoots analogue photography (film cameras).

On the topic of beginner film photographers, in this case young adults, Aiden spoke on the issues he sees with their approach on shooting film.

From this interview I gained deeper insights on the issues young people new to the medium of film photography encounter.

Interview at AdenCamera

Aiden (Employee & Photographer)

“[Estimated] 1-in-25 rolls on average are blank… definitely skews towards
the beginners with the blank rolls

“[Beginners] are not experienced enough to know there is a problem.”

When developing film from film cameras, Blanks or Blank Rolls are rolls of film that come out partially empty/black or fully empty/black with no picture. Having a blank roll is not necessarily the fault of the user but as Aiden stated, it can stem from the user’s lack of experience and knowledge when identifying the issue. Beginners are usually the main user demographic when it comes to these issues, as such, this can relate to my user demographic of Zennials.

Suspected How Might We Question:

How might we guide interested Zennials in where to start with film photography so that they feel confident about exploring and learning more about the medium.

Why?

Hypothesis

I believe that Zennials have a knowledge gap when it comes to shooting film which results in picture errors (ex. blanks) when they develop their film rolls.

I will know I am right if at least two of the three interviewees state an issue with film photography because of their lack of knowledge on the subject.

Affinity Mapping

I conducted user interviews with three young adults (denoted by different coloured sticky notes) who fit into the “Zennial” demographic, currently shoots film photography, and self identifies as a beginner within the film photography space. These interviews were conducted via in-person and online (Zoom calls) and transcribed using otter.ai, lasting between 30 to 45 minutes in length.

After the interviews I was able to synthesize the responses by affinity mapping, noting relevant statements and categorizing them into:

Pain Points
Behaviours
Motivations

FigJam Affinity Map

User Interviews

Themes

Synthesizing even further, I categorized them into themes in order to select a singular problem.

After careful consideration, I selected a main and secondary theme that would present the best oppourtunity for a solution that aligns with my problem space.

My main theme selected was: Understanding

My secondary theme selected was: Trial & Error

Circling back to my hypothesis, I was also able to confirm that based on these interview insights, that Zennials do have a knowledge gap between shooting digital and film, causing errors in their film photography process.

User Interviews

Taking the Main and Secondary Themes along with their insights, I refined my How Might We Question even further.

How might we bridge the knowledge gap of digital and film (analogue) photography for “Zennials” so that they can confidently shoot film the way they intend to.

The Persona

Combing all the research I conducted up until this point and with the refined How Might We Question in mind, I created “Jenny Huang”.

Jenny represents the target user of the first version of this application, Let’s Shoot.

Let’s Capture!

Experience Mapping

Through this experience map highlighted how my Persona currently experiences the Problem Space.

The Journey

Task Flow

With Jenny in mind, I developed user stories to synthesize and focus in on a single task flow. For a beginner in the film photography space, they don't want to be overwhelmed by all the information, but rather simple instructions that are relevant to their current skill level. I landed on this specific task flow with that solution in mind to tackle the pain points listed above (Affinity Mapping).

Learning about the process of film photography
Setting up a new film camera and developing a film roll.

Developing the Solution

Sketches

After collecting UI inspiration and brainstorming concepts from the task flow, I sketched a variety of solutions. Always referring to our persona, Jenny, I knew that she is very adept with technology and frequent with a variety of social media apps and web browsing. These platforms were important to pull inspiration from because it would make the experience familiar and seamless for new users to navigate through.

When it came down to it, the delivery of information to the users was imperative to be concise and simple, delivering the necessary information when relevant to the user in order for them to feel confident with their own film photography abilities.

Ideate & Conceptualize

Using the sketches curated, they set the base for developing the initial prototype.

Wireframing

The goal for low fidelity was to create an initial prototype to visualize the functionality and see the concept of the app moving forward in Figma.

Mid-fidelity wireframes were created specifically to test and ideate on the functionality of the app with regards to the task-flow solution. Iterations were easily created and tested at this stage before any further aesthetics or colour was introduced.

The onboarding process, home screen, tips and tricks screens, and film store location screen are what I focused on developing.

Figma Mid-Fidelity Wireframe

Mid-Fidelity (Grayscale)

User Testing

It was crucial to gather user feedback in order to test and improve the application. User testing was conducted in two rounds with 5 different user testers within each round (10 testers total). With a specific task list in mind, I conducted the testing sessions in a natural manner with minimal directions and open ended questions. The feedback from the testing sessions were synthesized and heavily considered after each round of testing to create a final mid-fidelity prototype.

Process:

Version 1, 1st Round of Testing,
Version 2, 2nd Round of Testing,
Version 3 (final mid-fidelity prototype).

Two Rounds at Mid-Fidelity

Onboarding Screen

This screen was important as it was the first screen that new users would interact with when using the app for the first time. The goal with this screen is to invite and welcome users to the app, letting them know what it’s all about.

Home Screen

Essentially, the home screen is the main screen of the application. Once the onboarding process is complete, the home screen will be the landing page whenever the user opens the app. This screen is responsible for providing the necessary and relevant information to the user about film photography with respect to the user’s current progress within the app.

Tips and Tricks Screen

The main focus of the app, the tips and tricks screens will vary based on the specific tip or trick regarding film photography. The idea being that as the user interacts, saves, and explores more tips and tricks, the application will suggest more advanced and specific information curated for the user.

The selected versions shown showcase one specific tip, “Fixing Dark Film Images”. This would be one of many different tips and trick screens.

Film Store Location Screen

“Do people even develop film anymore?” is a very common question that came up during the research phase. For many people’s surprise, depending on where you live, there are a few locations that regularly develop film specifically. Naturally, having this information directly in the app is very useful for new users and people getting into film photography.

Brand Development

Building off of the research, user testing, and final mid-fidelity prototype, I proceeded to establish the brand that represents the app Let’s Shoot. I achieved this through selecting descriptive words, curation of a moodboard, defining a colour palette, typography, and design of a wordmark.

What do we represent?

Nostalgic

〰️

Free

〰️

Warm

〰️

Wanderlust

〰️

Vibe

〰️

Nostalgic 〰️ Free 〰️ Warm 〰️ Wanderlust 〰️ Vibe 〰️

Moodboard

Keeping in mind the descriptive words identified above, I curated a selection of photos to convey the feelings I wanted to portray with the application.

Colour Palette

I wanted the colour palette of the app to reflect the emotions captured in the moodboard. At the same time, I wanted to ensure that the primary, secondary, and neutral colour combinations I selected would meet WCAG 2.0 Accessibility Standards with a minimum contrast rating of a AA.

Typography

My selection of typeface for "Let's Shoot" came down to readability and the platform in which my users would be interacting with. SF (San Fransisco) Pro Text is a very familiar font used in iOS products, the very same platform that my app is designed on. Navigating though the application's UI will give the users a sense of familiarity because of this iOS based font.

Wordmark

Landing on the name for the app was happenstance; the phrase “Let’s Shoot” was originally a phase that I created as a place holder for the onboarding low-fidelity screen. During user testing, users thought the name of the app was “Let’s Shoot”, so I took the idea and ran with it.

Digging deeper into its meaning, the phrase “Let’s Shoot” comes through communication with another person which is the core of what my app is: an assistant to guide users through their film photography journey.

Iteration

Moving from pen to paper and onto pixel to screen, I continued the process of exploration until I landed on the final wordmark below.

Application Logo

Building off the final wordmark, I continued to iterate with the application logo design. A/B Testing with different variations to see what was the most appropriate selection.

High Fidelity Prototype

With my branding complete and UI Library in place, I proceeded to create the high fidelity prototype.

Necessary adjustments were made to accommodate the colour injections and compliance with the WCAG Accessibility Standards for contrast. Less is more when it came to bringing the app from mid-fi to hi-fi.

Figma High Fidelity Prototype

Showcase