Amber Sewell

October 2019

Squarespace Studio

Contact

Skills

Branding

UX/UI

Product Design

User Research

UX/UI

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Challenge

Problem

Develop an app for Squarespace that will let users of their website service to book professionals to photograph their products to support their business on their site. The user will be able to provide the specific needs of their project, browse talent and packages, manage shipping products to Studio

Insight

Currently, Squarespace users don’t have a service to easily manage photography of their products to complement their site – the options for them are daunting with many companies offering this service but few can be managed on the go and integrated with a web service they already use.

Solution

My solution was to simplify the steps to finding the right talent for the user’s needs, allow them to chat with the photographer, and visually see at what step of the process their project is. I wanted this to mirror the seamless experience the users have when setting up their Squarespace sites.

Process

My discovery phase began by reaching out to small business owners, some of which are Squarespace users. Giving no specific details on the app idea, I focused on their needs were when it came to product photos. I created personas based on these interviews where each user represented a different need for product types. One persona underlined customization needs of their brief. I also researched other product photography services for more insights. After affinity mapping with my research, I noticed the common themes of the user needs: time, simplicity, and variety. I thought about these as I simplified the flow to revolve around searching for talent, the brief, and job tracking. The goal of my journey map was giving the user a simple way to come back to tracking the photos and to re-book for new jobs with minimal navigation. Last, I was sure to add a chat function with the photographers – all of my user interviews mentioned they would like to have that option before and after booking.

Design System

Two main priorities I had when creating the design system was to use minimal colors to allow the photographer’s portfolios to shine, enticing users to book and to align with the Squarespace’s brand aesthetic. As this is a service rooted in visual appeal, I wanted to bring in imagery in the project brief phase so the user would hopefully be excited to receive photos as appealing as the product category examples they saw. The logo is a simple extension of Squarespace’s logo that I created two versions for, one that would be a nice anchor throughout the app and one for the splash page that could also extend to a web page for example. I also wanted the theme of imagery to follow through by using subtle and straightforward icons to bring to liven up the job tracking process screen.

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