AllaPrima
An app that encourages artists of all skill levels and mediums to create daily through tailored prompts. Received an Honourable Mention in UX Design (2024 Student RGD Awards).
TIMELINE
Oct – Nov 2023
TEAM
Solo
skills
UX/UI Design, Visual Identity, Prototyping
BACKGROUND
Burnout.
Visual artists often face burnout which hinders their creativity and motivation. Over time, this undermines their love for art. This is something I have personal experience with, so I wanted to research how to overcome artistic burnout and re-kindle motivation for creative hobbies.
RESEARCH insights
Intrinsic motivation is the main drive for creativity.
Artists need intrinsic motivation, defined as the “enjoyment of and interest in an activity for its own sake” (Wang et al., 2018). This is Important for tasks that require sustained levels of effort, like drawing, and is essential for avoiding burnout.
Sharing art online causes performance anxiety.
Performance anxiety is detrimental to intrinsic motivation (Wang et al., 2018). This is because individuals start feeling controlled by extrinsic rewards such as social media engagement, and therefore do not behave freely and are less creative (Wu et al., 2022). Moreover, the strive for perfectionism hinders motivation and passion (Hall & Hill, 2012).
Task completion increases motivation.
Focusing on skill development and task completion increases intrinsic motivation, whereas avoiding learning or completing tasks and fearing poor performance (especially compared to others) hinders it. (Wang et al., 2018).
pain points
People become anxious when sharing their art online.
Social media shifts the focus to engagement and lessens passion.
Finding time to dedicate to creative hobbies is not a priority for most.
There is no tangible incentive for sustaining a creative hobby.
People give up when they don't see immediate progress in their art skills.
Perfectionism hinders motivation and leads to burnout.
problem statement
Artists need a way to develop self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation for creating art and incorporating it into their daily routine.
My goal was to create smartphone app for artists who are burnt-out or stuck in a creative rut. It would have daily prompts for users to create art related to their medium of choice. Prompts could be as simple as sketching different poses for five minutes, or as complex as producing an entire painting based on a detailed description.
goals
Create a motivation system for artists.
Let users set attainable goals for incorporating art into their lives.
Eliminate the performance anxiety associated with sharing art online.
Be accessible for beginners and experienced artists alike.
competitive analysis
The only similar app I found was Sketch A Day. It has a similar daily challenge feature which motivates users to keep their streak alive. It also provides helpful tutorials and galleries of inspiration for users. Another app I referenced was Duolingo, which is famous for its streak system.
Sketch A Day
Replicates the problems of sharing art on social media (eg. competitiveness) by being community-based. Moreover, daily prompts are vague and not catered to individuals who want to develop specific skills.
Duolingo
Does a great job of motivating users to build daily engagement through gamification in the form of streaks and achievements. Its friendly and playful atmosphere is encouraging.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
After finishing my research, I created the information architecture for my app.
brand
For the name, I decided on AllaPrima, an Italian phrase meaning "at first attempt" and also the name of a wet-on-wet painting technique. This encapsulated the brand's philosophy of creating art freely; creating without comparison or perfectionism.
design
Because this is an app for artists, I used a doodle-like style for the main illustration and logo. The primitive and playful nature of the drawings aligns with AllaPrima’s philosophy of embracing imperfection. While the overall brand identity uses multiple accent colours, I only chose pink and greyscale for the app’s UI so as not to distract from the images and photos.
solution
Don't think, just create!
My final product is AllaPrima, a daily art challenge app for artists of all skill levels and mediums. It aims to solve issues common with visual artists such as burnout, creative block, and overall lack of motivation. Encouraging users to create everyday with prompts tailored to skill level, medium, and the amount of time they have available, AllaPrima emphasizes consistency over perfection.
AllaPrima removes the performance aspect of art by not displaying other users’ work in the app, but still has social elements to increase motivation amongst friends. Users primarily develop self-efficacy through achievement motivation from in-app rewards, a continued streak of using the app, and seeing their work improve over time.
Users go through an onboarding process to set goals and skill level.
Find tailored daily challenges on the home screen, based on skill level, preferred mediums, and time available.
Motivate yourself to keep creating with a daily streak and other achievements.
Search for and save references and tutorials within the app.
Make the process of creating art easier with specific references.
View past uploaded works in the gallery to see natural improvement and progress over time.
lessons learned
Creating AllaPrima was a great exercise in creating an engaging and motivational user experience that didn't feel overwhelming. I was happy with how the final product turned out, and can see AllaPrima being used by artists to inspire consistent practice.
Practicality & engagement
I learned how to design interactions that keep users interested while maintaining clarity and ease of use.
Professionalism & play
I also discovered how to design a professional interface for a playful brand; something that felt credible without being too clinical.