Arts and crafts app
My 11-year-old daughter loves arts and crafts and is always on the lookout for new project ideas. She usually uses Pinterest to get ideas, along with YouTube and Google image searches. Unfortunately, she tends to get distracted by videos showing her projects for which she either doesn’t have the right materials or enough time to do. Then she ends up mindlessly scrolling through irrelevant videos instead of creating a nice piece of art.
There must be something out there
I assumed an arts and crafts app must already exist, so I had a look around. I found one called CraftyKids, which had a nice and simple interface, but it wasn’t organised by materials and most of the content was locked unless you joined. Each project was listed by image, so you had to just keep scrolling until you found one you liked the look of. The search engine didn’t seem to work either when I searched for specific materials (or anything). DIY.org is Android only, and Craftsy is aimed at adults.
Is it just me?
To make sure I wasn’t the only one with this problem, I conducted a survey with 27 respondents. Like mine, their children were using mostly Pinterest and Youtube to find ideas. Instagram, Tiktok and Google image searches also got a few mentions, but no respondents were using any of the arts and crafts apps I found. However, one respondent mentioned Art for Kids Hub which I hadn’t heard of. It’s a YouTube channel (and website) offering easy, step-by-step drawing and art tutorials specifically designed for children and families. It primarily focuses on 2D drawing and painting - I couldn’t find many projects made with clay, collage, sculpture or jewellery. There also aren’t any visual step-by-step images - you have to watch the video (and the ads), so you couldn’t print off the instructions to make it offline. There is an app available too, but you have to pay to join and view the content which is presumably the same as the content available for free on YouTube (with ads) and the website, so it doesn’t seem particularly popular.
Parents were experiencing the same frustrations that I was, with too many distracting videos, no estimate of how long a project might take and difficulty finding projects by materials top of their list of complaints.
I started brainstorming a list of features that might be helpful. When given a list of these potential features, being able to browse projects by material was respondents’ number one priority, followed by clear instructions, a list of materials needed and a video demonstration. The majority of respondents expressed interest in an app that would solve these problems for them.
“I like it when there’s one picture of four steps instead of having to scroll through for each step and then have all of the ads.”
Taking the dive
From the data I collected, I created an ideal user flow, which I then developed further into a user experience map [insert map].
From here I could decide what actions and features were crucial and beneficial, and designed a sitemap around these conclusions. I wanted to create a seamless experience for my both target users (children aged 8 - 18) and their parents, with an emphasis on simplicity, organisation and calm, creative focus.
User testing
Moving forward
There is still a lot more to explore with Art Meet. Who will be contributing content? How will we find creators willing to record imagery and videos within our brand guidelines (both visual and verbal) in order to keep the tutorials consistent? Shall we partner with a store to offer an easy way of purchasing materials? Which store do we want to approach for this partnership? These are just a few of the questions I’m considering while continuing work on this project. For now, feel free to check out the current state of the app by clicking ‘Explore the app’ below.