Loupe - Art Streaming Apple TV App
Challenge
Early stage startup disrupting the art space with a limited budget.
Loupe was an early stage startup experimenting with a new immersive, continuous discovery concept for viewing contemporary artwork accompanied with a marketplace. They had launched their MVP app on the 2nd generation Apple TV with a limited feature set and wanted to evolve the app to drive more user engagement.
My Role & Team:
I was the sole product designer working directly with the CEO and an engineer.
Research & Data:
With Loupe being a unique concept, there really wasn’t a ton out there to gather from a research perspective. I started with analyzing popular TV apps and dissecting what may have helped drive user engagement. From terminology to pattern usage, I wanted to make sure that it was easy to navigate and understand. I also looked to web based products that had echoed a similar concept to get a cross platform picture. There was little to no data to go off of other than that users of the current app would stream for 2+ hours non-stop. Comments left on the app store praised the current version but seeked more ways to curate the art they wanted to stream which aligned with the CEO’s vision of the product evolution.
Pain Points:
Users appeared to be engaged but it was unclear after they started an initial channel stream, what sort of engagement was happening from that point on. The CEO wanted to create a broader opportunity to get useful data and analytics.
Users sought more options to curate current catalog of art
Users sought more options for controlling overall streaming experience
Ideation & Process
First item to address was to uncover what sort of new features we could build into the product from an art curation and streaming perspective. Loupe was a forward thinking company so the idea had to be infused with the uniqueness that represented the brand.
Our small team would have think tank sessions where we threw ideas at the board to see what would stick. A common theme kept emerging around color. Users were getting a front row seat of how a piece of artwork would feel and live in their home before purchasing – why not allow users to choose the color theme that matches their room aesthetics? Our engineer got to work looking for solutions that could analyze every pixel of upload digital artwork to create color profiles. The idea for stream by color was born and needed a simple interface to accompany it. That’s where I came in with the concept to create a new tab called “stream by” that housed streaming by color, by artist or by pre-curated channels. Selecting these options would change the home screen to display a new way of streaming.
After selecting a channel, you are dropped into the continuous “Loupe” experience where various art would stream in and out. There was one set speed at first but depending on the users mood or environment there was a need to have more adjustments. Our think tank resulted in offering different speeds and allowing a safe stream that was family friendly. I added another tab onto the experience called “Customize” that displayed an easily navigable set of options for users to further curate their experience.
I also explored additional ways to drive more engagement within the channel by introducing a shopping and checkout option. Mimicking a traditional checkout process was my inspiration for this part of the experience. Much later on this was shifted to a QR scan code model that matched and scaled the business needs.
Usability testing & Analysis:
With being a startup there was little budget to do true usability testing as scale. We had to opt for the friends and family route and recruited them to be our test subject by way of a UAT app. I would ask my neighbors and significant other to use the app to collect feedback. Sometimes I’d give direct prompts to navigate to a section or change a certain setting and others I’d just observe their natural behavior of curiosity for exploration and take notes.
Reflection:
Increased overall user engagement times resulting in an increase in exploration and artwork views
Working for a startup comes equally packed with challenges and rewards. A new product to a CEO is almost like their child in a sense and you have to balance their vision while also advocating for the end users. Not all ideas are worth building but all ideas are worth talking about and exploring. That’s the beauty of the startup mentality – it’s this blank canvas to explore, ideate and be curious. Oftentimes that process gets lost in the rigidity of larger scale companies and processes. I loved getting to work on Loupe every day and getting to see it come to life with success for the users. You have to get creative and scrappy without the safety net of a large budget. Failing is part of the process but the stakes are much higher.
This was a new platform for me getting to work on a tvOS app which included getting to understand how an apple remote played into the overall interconnectedness of the both physical and digital experiences. Swipe gestures became an integral part of how to navigate the entire app and gave me a new perspective on how to apply design principles seamlessly.