Recording Special Moments
Research project inspired by photo curation and creating modern solutions for problems that have been ongoing.
Role
Performed research alone
Duration
3 weeks
Purpose
Project for class
Background
This research project is designed to examine / shed light on / discover the issues related to sharing, curating, and accessing friends’ & family members’ photos and videos.
To uncover data related to this goal, 9 participants took part in interview sessions that uncovered their experience and pain points in this area.
The interviews were Q&A style and were done virtually and in one location when in-person.
Goals
1
Discover how people curate, share, and access photos (their own & friends and families).
2
Identify issues or pain points people experience when trying to find a photo/video from an important moment.
3
Discover issues or pain points people experience when trying to share a photo/ video from an important moment.
Executive Summary
People curate, share, and access media using the apps that came with their phone.
All participants utilize the apps that came with their phone to curate and access media. As for sharing, there were variations among participants. Some used Whatsapp to share, while others utilized little to no social media. All would use the text message app hat came with their phone to share.
Participants can’t remember when / where they took the photo, so they cannot find it.
Many participants did not organize their photos / videos in any particular way and they acknowledged that their experience would be better if they did. They also mentioned features they do enjoy when searching for a photo and the common choice was the chronological timeline. The timeline did receive praises, but the issue with participants appeared when they could not remember what month or day they took the photo, and so they could not find it.
Photo / Video quality is lost when trying to share with friends and family.
Participants shared their media in different ways: text message, social media and third party apps. The pain point that repeated was the loss of quality and slow send when sharing larger files or videos. Some took to sharing videos via third party apps to retain quality. This created an extra step for users in the process.
Participants
Females
Males
Participants ranged in age from 23 to 42.
8 iPhone users
1 Android User
Locations of Participants
San Ramon California
Bogota
Colombia
Wilkes Barre
Pennsylvania
Persona
Justin
23 yrs/old
Biochemist
About
Justin is a Research Associate in Malvern, Pa and takes plenty of photos on his iPhone 14 Pro Max. He values quality, simple-to-use organization, and a pleasant interface.
Pain Points
1. Can’t remember when / where the photo/video was taken, which makes it hard to find
2. Forgets about other platforms
3. Sending large files
Needs:
1. Storage space for media
2. Immediate access to photos
3. Share photos with friends and family
(imessage)
Design Tenets
1. Simple Organization Features - Users are not utilizing the organizational features so they need to be obvious and simple
2. Quality Should Not be Lost - photos should retain quality when sent to friends/family
3. Interface needs to be Pleasant - Users prefer the iPhone apps because they are pleasant to look at and offer tons of features
Results Synthesized
User Journey
1 Curate
2 Share
3 Find
The user takes out their phone and opens the camera app
They snap a photo or video
They moves on / lets the photo sit in his album until they need to find it later
or
Takes photo/video directly from an app (snapchat)
Sends the media as a text message by sending from the gallery or from the text app
or
Shows the friend/ family in-person
or
Posts to social media
or
Shares via Whatsapp
or
Airdrops the media
Scrolls through their photo album
Looks for specific date / month photo was taken - scrolls to find it
or
Searches through flash drives (if photo is old)
or
Searches through texts, cloud based spaces, or social media chats if it were shared with them
or
Uses Tag & Search feature
Recommendations
Auto Organization Features with User Controlled Settings
How-to / Onboarding Guide Accessible at all Times
Participants acknowledge that they should organize their media to resolve their problem with finding content. They just don’t want to. Auto organization / categorization features could solve the problem for the user, but they must know how to use them. Therefore, this solution would need an onboarding process and user control settings so they can decide how their content is being categorized or organized.
By utilizing the current AI and location features in the photos app, photos can be tagged and auto placed in a folder / album. Another option could be - users set any photos taken in their home to be placed in an album or any photos taken of their pet to be placed in a different album. In addition, they can opt for “Urgent Tags.” Urgent tags offers a pop-up text box that allows you to tag your photo as soon as you took it. When you tag it is placed in an album related to the tag.
Participants knew that there were features to support their organization on the photos app, but they did not know how to use them. I propose an added menu item at the bottom labeled “Guide” or “Tips.” Here they can go to get a quick “How-to” on photo categorization and organization. It could also support the previous recommendation - a place to learn about the features. There should be a chapter option, table of contents, and/or search feature so the user can find what they need easily.
If the users enjoy this section, articles can be added about taking photos and adventures with photography and the iPhone.
Package and Share Feature
The biggest issue with sharing is the loss of quality and slow send. A package option may help create a solution. The user can create a Cloud link and send, but if your cloud is full then the link will not be created and Cloud is not a solution for non iPhone users. Therefore, researching how to create a zipped file with the media would be beneficial. For the user, this would look like any other button when you share to not create confusion.
The goal would be to zip the photo / video and send, while the receiving user can unzip and view. By making the visuals simple and fun, the user might be more comfortable with this feature. It would also be added to the “Guide” section.