Gram City | Mallika

Gram City

Travel Photography app

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Overview

Gram City is a photography app that facilitates users in finding the best-photographed spots in their favorite cities. As a part of the BiteSize UX-Google Ventures design sprint process, I created an interactive app prototype.

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My Role

UI Designer, Interaction Designer

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The Problem

Gram City currently does not have a feature that categorizes top locations based on the most number of photos, so that users can immediately search and go to those locations to take a picture and post it.

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Goals

To create a feature that can help users find the best locations right away to take photos and upload/post to the app.

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Design Process

The Google Ventures Design Sprint approach comprises a five-day process of designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers.

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Design Tools Used

Methodologies

User Research, Wireframing, User Interface Design, Usability Testing, Typography.

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DAY 1: Design

As a part of Phase 1, I have focused on the problem and also the goals of the app based on the user's needs. The user needs hold a very important role in this project as I was able to gather valuable insights from their quotes. Based on my research I was able to draw 2 personas.

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Research Highlights

“I like to find hidden gems - places that not many people know about, but make for an awesome photo”

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Research Highlights

Users who are comfortable hands-on with iOS handheld devices.
Users who travel most often.
Users who use social media/photography apps.

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Personas

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24 years old,

Video Editor,

Los Angeles, CA

Nick

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Behavior

Nick takes road trips to new cities at least 5 times a year. He loves traveling, documenting his trips, and sharing his photos - either on social media or in a group chat with friends.
When Nick is in a new city, he likes to make the most of his time there - he’ll walk and explore for most of the day. He doesn’t have a strict plan or itinerary.

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Frustrations

Nick always regrets when he doesn’t take enough photos, but he also feels he’s missing out on the travel experience if he’s constantly on his phone taking photos.
Nick tries to snap a few photos of the different things he’s doing, but he feels like he may have missed out on some good photo ops that were already near him.

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Goals

Nick takes road trips to new cities at least 5 times a year. He loves traveling, documenting his trips, and sharing his photos - either on social media or in a group chat with friends.
When Nick is in a new city, he likes to make the most of his time there - he’ll walk and explore for most of the day. He doesn’t have a strict plan or itinerary.

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27 years old,

Event Production Manager,

Chicago, IL

Sarah

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Behavior

Sarah took a photo class a few years ago and spends lots of time photographing.
Before visiting a new place, Sarah spends time looking up photos on Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media sites to get inspiration for photos she wants to take on her trip.

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Frustrations

Sarah doesn’t spend a lot of time in one city, so she wants to get the best possible photos when she’s there. She doesn’t mind spending time traveling to the places for a great photo.
Sarah has to spend lots of time looking through other people’s photos to find places she wants to go, but finding the address or details on the location can take a lot of time to research.
Sarah likes to see the different ways people take photos of the same place.

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Goals

Sarah wants to easily find locations and examples of the best photo ops in a city before planning out her day around visiting them.

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User Journey Mapping

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Lightening Demo

For inspiration, I chose apps that show results on the map. My goal was to check how other apps combine map view with a list view and how a user can quickly go through results and get a quick view of the place. These are examples from Instagram & Pinterest.

Instagram

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DAY 2: Sketching

Crazy 8

For Day 2, I used the Crazy 8 method to quickly go through some of the ideas for the main screen - show results on a map since this is a primary activity. To ease my mind, I started surfing through a couple of photos apps and social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest to get the look and feel of the important location search features and recommendations of images on similar lines so that they can create amazing images.

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DAY 3: Decide

Based on the personas I have deduced, I was able to crumble down to 1 main feature of my focus and implement the same into the app that coincidentally consists of the 4 main screens. The first and only feature where users can enter a location/choose a location from their favorites and go to that location and take photos.

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DAY 4: Prototype

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Prototype In Action

View Figma Prototype

DAY 5: Test

I recruited 5 participants for my usability testing and conducted the test online due to the ongoing pandemic. I only used the first case of persona Nick; a tourist in New York City, who wanted to find the nearest photo opportunity around. Here purely for my usability test, I focused on a different location. I asked each participant to do two tasks: what if they were in Brussels and how would they find their closest favorite spot for taking good photos.

1. Find the nearest photo location to take a photo.

2. Get directions to that location.

Based on the testing, I was able to find out that most of the participants used Instagram very frequently to browse for locations but they also felt that Gram City helped them to get to their location very easily because it helped them with time cut and only provided results that we're focusing only on the best photo locations.

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Learnings

Through this design sprint, I learned that at a tight deadline, sketching, designing, prototyping, and testing a complete app is a very encouraging challenge and I was able to hone my rapid prototyping skills on Figma.

Lets Connect!

Gram City is a photography app that facilitates users in finding the best-photographed spots in their favorite cities. As a part of the BiteSize UX-Google Ventures design sprint process, I created an interactive app prototype.

UI Designer, Interaction Designer

Gram City currently does not have a feature that categorizes top locations based on the most number of photos, so that users can immediately search and go to those locations to take a picture and post it.

To create a feature that can help users find the best locations right away to take photos and upload/post to the app.

The Google Ventures Design Sprint approach comprises a five-day process of designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers.

User Research, Wireframing, User Interface Design, Usability Testing, Typography.

As a part of Phase 1, I have focused on the problem and also the goals of the app based on the user's needs. The user needs hold a very important role in this project as I was able to gather valuable insights from their quotes. Based on my research I was able to draw 2 personas.

Users who are comfortable hands-on with iOS handheld devices.

Users who travel most often.

Users who use social media/photography apps.

Nick takes road trips to new cities at least 5 times a year. He loves traveling, documenting his trips, and sharing his photos - either on social media or in a group chat with friends.

When Nick is in a new city, he likes to make the most of his time there - he’ll walk and explore for most of the day. He doesn’t have a strict plan or itinerary.

Nick always regrets when he doesn’t take enough photos, but he also feels he’s missing out on the travel experience if he’s constantly on his phone taking photos.

Nick tries to snap a few photos of the different things he’s doing, but he feels like he may have missed out on some good photo ops that were already near him.

Nick takes road trips to new cities at least 5 times a year. He loves traveling, documenting his trips, and sharing his photos - either on social media or in a group chat with friends.

When Nick is in a new city, he likes to make the most of his time there - he’ll walk and explore for most of the day. He doesn’t have a strict plan or itinerary.

Sarah took a photo class a few years ago and spends lots of time photographing.

Before visiting a new place, Sarah spends time looking up photos on Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media sites to get inspiration for photos she wants to take on her trip.

Sarah doesn’t spend a lot of time in one city, so she wants to get the best possible photos when she’s there. She doesn’t mind spending time traveling to the places for a great photo.

Sarah has to spend lots of time looking through other people’s photos to find places she wants to go, but finding the address or details on the location can take a lot of time to research.

Sarah likes to see the different ways people take photos of the same place.

Sarah wants to easily find locations and examples of the best photo ops in a city before planning out her day around visiting them.

For inspiration, I chose apps that show results on the map. My goal was to check how other apps combine map view with a list view and how a user can quickly go through results and get a quick view of the place. These are examples from Instagram & Pinterest.

1. Find the nearest photo location to take a photo.

2. Get directions to that location.

​

Through this design sprint, I learned that at a tight deadline, sketching, designing, prototyping, and testing a complete app is a very encouraging challenge and I was able to hone my rapid prototyping skills on Figma.