Role
Product Designer
Team
Content Specialist / Product Manager (CEO); Dev. Team (Outsourced)
Duration
Nov 2018 - Mar 2020
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS REELAY
Reelay is a New York-based startup that formed in 2018. Its SaaS product was founded to solve the issues faced by new media such as digital, video and internet art. These issues include the struggles of how to show, sell, store and “own” these media. In a world where all forms of creative work are available online, everywhere, to everyone, the concept of what is and isn’t art and how you own it, is unclear. Yet digital art is a fast-growing element of the contemporary art world.
MY ROLE
I was Reelay’s first hire. I initially joined as a researcher, graphic designer and to help operationally. My role quickly grew and I ended up leading Reelay’s product design. I was tasked to help figure out what the biggest pain points that faced members of the industry were, what competition there was, where the hole in the market was and how to design the solution. I was in charge of designing all aspects of the product, from its UX and UI, to its logo and branding.
Tools used included: Adobe’s Xd, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.
~ Reelay’s Question ~
How can we invent a product that helps to solve the everyday issues people involved with digital art are facing?
PROBLEMS
Digital art is able to exist online. Every time art is shared with someone online they can keep it and share it infinitely with others. This makes it hard to control and track digital assets, and difficult to stake claims of ownership and origin. As a result, this can make monetising from digital art very difficult. A lack of scarcity makes products worth less.
In this digital age the internet allows art theft to happen at ease with no accountability. I had come across some of these issues myself as a visual artist. However, as digital art enters the fine art community, these issues need to get solved in order for digital art to thrive. There are great possibilities of discovery through creation in the digital art realm, but fewer artists will take this path if there is no way to make a living. People of the public will not be able to enjoy artists’ creativity if these forms of art do not make their way to galleries and museums. Therefore, we knew it would be important to get ahead of these issues. The art industry is typically behind technologically, so creating the right product could be hugely beneficial to the community.
USER RESEARCH
In order to confirm our suspicions of the issues facing art market participants and to find out if there were other issues that we weren’t aware of, we conducted user research. We identified four user groups: artists, galleries, collectors and museums. We wanted to find out which pain points affected which members of the community, and how each user group prioritised those issues.
Potential users were contacted in Berlin, London, Tokyo, New York, LA and other locations across the US. Outreach consisted of over 300 emails and phone calls to set up times for formal conversations. We interviewed 100+ artists, galleries, collectors and museums who are involved with digital art to find out their wants and needs. We devised a set of questions, then preformed both a qualitative and quantitative analysis based on interview findings.
Our qualitative analysis consisted of tracking the pain points that users brought up. We then quantified the importance of each pain point based on how many users brought each pain point up and combining it with how much they stressed that this was an issue for them. Using this data, we were able to prioritise the pain points in order of importance for each user group.
A further benefit of these interviews was to establish relationships with these potential users. Some of them are leaders in their field, if we could get them excited about what we were working on early, then they could be a huge help to our onboarding efforts down the line.
DISCOVERY
DIGITAL IS GROWING
The consensus among the people we had a discussion with was that digital is growing. Digital mediums are quickly becoming more prevalent in the fine art community. The digital market has not matured fully and is certainly not fully established, but it is developing. People want to see more digital art, students are being pushed to work digitally and more collectors are collecting digitally. In the words of Raphael Gagosian, “This is only the beginning of a movement.” However, there are currently issues that need to be solved to help it get to the next level.
ENTERING THE MARKET
A big discovery we made regarded how to enter the market. Galleries said that they often find themselves adopting new modes of business or technology from artists. Since a galleries’ business relies on artists, galleries follow artists’ needs. So, if artists are adopting a new technology, galleries will likely follow suit. Collectors on the other hand often follow the trends set by galleries. Since galleries act as the sounding board for what art is “in,” they similarly act as a leader for what technology collectors should adopt. Given this information, artists and galleries should be the most important players to please when deciding how to build this product and which features should take precedent. With that said, getting big museums on board would be a statement to the art community. Needless to say, a few big players could spread adoption.
SHARING & TRACKING
Another major issue we found, was the inability to share and track files. 100% of artists and 93% of galleries cited this as a huge issue facing themselves and the digital art market as a whole. The issues for artists revolved around theft, fear of misuse, lack of trust and how to share securely their artwork without risk of losing control or ownership.
While some artists used WeTransfer or Dropbox to send their work, none had a way to track and control how recipients would use their artwork. Users reported that unauthorised reproduction and copying of digital assets happens all the time. Currently, galleries are trusted to delete files that have been shared with them. Some artists mentioned that there are galleries who will sell artwork beyond its predetermined allotment. For example, let’s say that a work is sold as an edition of 5, galleries often reproduce the work and sell more of them. Similarly, some artists say that galleries have sold their work for a lot more than the percentage they were given was worth.
Many artists therefore called for more transparency in the market. Those that knew galleries had ripped them off wanted a way to track the sales galleries made. Furthermore, they wanted to be able to keep data and analytics about the collectors collecting their work. Some were even concerned about sharing their artwork on their website and they showed interest in an ability to bypass the print screen function. Current solutions artists have of maintaining control of their artwork involve sending works with a watermark or in low-resolution. But, in order for galleries to sell the works, they need to have the high-res, full version.
Though collectors and museums didn’t specify tracking as an issue that they were currently facing, it is probable that they would begin to encounter such issues as they begin to loan artworks. It was mentioned that, in the context of an art fair, the ability to keep track of vast numbers of digital works would be “hugely beneficial.”
MANAGEMENT & STORAGE
The most widely agreed upon issue between artists (89%), galleries (96%), collectors (90%) and museums (96%) was the lack of a standardised system for managing and cataloging digital art. The means of storage currently varies from USB sticks and hard-drives to digital management software like Google Drive; there is no universally used system. Each current solution has its own issue with security and an inability to easily access digital files. Therefore, the creation of a secure, shared system to be established and recognised throughout the art market would be extremely valuable.
Users across all user groups explained that they currently manage their collections on an Excel spreadsheets, with thumbnails signifying an artwork. This is a highly inefficient, time-consuming and out-dated way to track artwork. Therefore, they found the idea of switching to the cloud highly appealing, but they were concerned about security. One gallery in Berlin wanted a solution that could be integrated into their existing inventory management system where they currently tracked their physical artworks. However, most that I spoke to were fine with the idea of managing their physical and digital works using different systems.
Further issues were cited with tracking editions of work. Galleries stated they often lost track of how many copies had been sold, of how many copies they should have and a range of other digital cataloging issues.
PROVENANCE & OWNERSHIP
60% of galleries discussed the issue of ownership. The common theme was that the current solution to show proof of ownership for a digital artwork involves a “piece of paper.” So, it was suggested that an alternative could be a digital certificate of ownership and authenticity to be somehow attached to the digital files’ metadata. This sentiment was shared by a majority of collectors, who saw irony in the fact that their proof of ownership for an artwork that exists online is a piece of paper sitting in their desk.
Provenance - the history of ownership and origin - was a universal concern to all museums we spoke to. Museums take it as their responsibility to be certain that artworks entering their collection have been transferred legally from one owner to another. Since digital art is new to the fine art market, museums said it would be very valuable if they can get ahead of issues pertaining to provenance. For example, if someone was able to provide a registry of the history digital artworks as they’re made then fewer issues would occur down the road.
DISPLAYING ART
Ways to display the various forms of digital art, from virtual reality, online, video, augmented reality and more, are ever evolving and changing. Many collectors liked the idea of collecting digital art due to its ground-breaking potential. However, a huge issue for collectors (93%) when owning and buying digital art pertained to being able to view and display it. They were interested in figuring out ways to consume multiple pieces of art on the same device with ease. They didn’t want to have to change USB stick every time they wanted to view a new piece of art. They were fascinated by the idea of beaming artwork to screens. For example, an app on their phone that could hold their collections and control their tv to display artwork at will, like listening to music through a bluetooth speaker.
Some video artists currently essentially sell their work as physical artwork. They wire a tv so that it can only play their video. Depending on the artwork, this can be very special, but collectors envisioned that a huge benefit of collecting digital artwork is that it could be less hassle to deal with than physical.
IMPORTANCE OF MONETISATION
The value of art and the ability to monetise from art-making is important to all user groups. Although not directly reported by museums, it goes without saying that the value of their collections drives their importance in history. As previously specified, many of the other issues brought up in the user research point to the issue of monetising digital art.
One artist explained that she would love to be worth more, a sentiment that is no doubt shared by many artists, but that the value of an artist’s work is shaped by who they’re represented by. She wants to be able to actually “see” why someone’s work is worth more. I thought this was an interesting point, and one that an open source art registry could help give answers to. It seems possible that, if an online marketplace is created, digital art has a chance to break free from the constraints of value based on gallery representation.
LICENCING & LOANS
Many galleries and artists brought up the fact that art loans is currently a huge business, especially with digital art. Some artists make a lot of money from licensing and not from selling. However, the issues of tracking and managing digital assets similarly apply when attempting to loan digital artworks.
FILE AGNOSTIC
In discussions throughout our research it was clear that Reelay’s system should be file agnostic. Many different file types are used in the creation of digital art, therefore for a system to be fully effective it needs to be able to handle all kinds. This was especially important to keep in mind for the dev team.
COMPETITOR RESEARCH
Many online art inventory management systems exist, including ArtLogic, The Museum System, galleryManager, ArtBase, ArtCloud and ArtBinder. However, these are all built for physical art, using still images as representations for paintings, sculptures, etc. None of these systems have been developed to facilitate digital art.
File sharing and digital management software such as Dropbox, WeTransfer, Box and Google Drive are perfect for file storage and quick sharing. However, they do not posses online viewing capabilities necessary when securely loaning an artwork and are not designed for the needs of the digital art world participants. Hightail has more of these features, but does not include the necessary options available for inputting metadata, provenance tracking and art management.
Online viewer software companies like YouTube and Vimeo work for users dealing with video art, but are limited beyond that.
We identified Niio as Reelay’s most direct competitor. They have the ability to manage, store, loan and track shared files with online viewing capabilities. However, their focus is on curated art collections; in other words, working with artists to build a portfolio of works to display in collectors’ homes. They are also restricted to works that must be viewed on TV, not facilitating for virtual reality, augmented reality or other 3D-modelling software.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
ONLINE SALES PLATFORM
Reelay could be an online sales platform that facilitates sales of digital art. To work, this might have to involve a management system that is able to host the digital files. This would give Reelay the ability to track ownership and provenance of artworks as well as become the de facto library of digital fine art. Reelay could take a percentage of each sale or transaction.
BEAMING APP
Like controlling music from one’s phone on a bluetooth speaker; Reelay could create an app that allows artworks to be beamed to a screen. Users could set up playlists of the art they wanted displayed on screens and control it all from an app on their phone.
PLATFORM THAT CREATES SCARCITY
Piracy, forgery and copyright infringement are huge and growing issues in the digital art world. Reelay could set up a platform that allows artists to upload their work and personally put limits on the number of works that exist in the world. This platform could empower artists to make truly limited editions of digital art, prove provenance and stop theft. As the head of one New York gallery claimed, “What people want is scarcity!” This platform would need to become the de facto in the industry, so that artwork in the system would have the trust of a Reelay seal of approval.
APP THAT AUTHENTICATES & TRACKS PROVENANCE
One gallery head suggested that it’s the authentication of an artwork that makes it valuable, not the object itself. The way the world is going, everything physical is pretty much predicated with a digital file. Therefore the provenance associated with the file is what makes it valuable. Reelay could focus on building a system of authentication because there will be ways to monetise it down the road.
Reelay could build a database using blockchain technology to keep an ownership ledger of digital artwork. A blockchain system makes an irreversible timeline of data. When information is inputted in the system a block is formed and filled. Once filled, it is set in stone and becomes a part of this immutable timeline. Each block in the chain is given an exact timestamp when it is added to the chain.
This database could exist as an authentication system, since it would put a stamp of ownership on the artwork from the moment it is uploaded. The system could then track the art as it is bought, sold, traded or auctioned. Artory currently exists as a ledger, however Reelay would exist as an all-in-one content storage and management system. Additionally, this could add a level of transparency to the art world.
DIGITAL ART CONSULTANT
Galleries generally succeed based on their relationships. Reelay could work with galleries to help them continue these relationships as they expand into the digital realm. Reelay could leverage its relationships with players across the industry to work as a consultant to aid people entering the digital space.
DIGITAL PRODUCTION AGENCY
Reelay could position itself as a producer. Reelay could act as a producer for curators at art fairs, museum exhibitions or gallery opening. Reelay could use digital art hosting technology and find sponsors to partner with galleries and artists for various events.
Attending and promoting at different conferences could be a good marketing opportunity and a way to find revenue sources.
LEGAL APP
Reelay could create a platform that helps artists create legal contracts for consigning and selling their art. Reelay would supply the legal legwork to make sure artists are protected. The bigger an artist gets, the more they need a manager. In some ways Reelay could act as that manager, as a type of virtual lawyer.
PRIORITISATION
SOLUTION
To create a secure system where artists, galleries, museums and collectors can store, manage, share and track their digital art.
Reelay’s product will be superior because of its ability to centrally manage and store born-digital works while crowd-sourcing the non-invasive information necessary to enhance the accessibility and lifecycle of an artwork. Unlike possible competitors, Reelay’s system will be built specifically for the digital art market. Everything from the upload process and management to the online viewer.
IDEATE & VALIDATE
PAPER PROTOTYPE
With a firm grip on the important functionality, the next step was to lay out the content. To do this, I created a sitemap. Using the sitemap, I began to sketch out the layout and main themes of the key pages. I created a few iterations to test their workability. This is one of the iterations:
FIRST ATTEMPT AT A (MID-FIDELITY) DESIGN
My first design was based off of other inventory management systems like Gallery Manager but I adapted it to cater to the needs of digital art. Although we decided to head in a different direction initially, we knew that we would return to many of the concepts laid out in this first design in later phases.
TESTING
I performed two types of tests. In the first I spoke to ten potential users to explain our idea and get their feedback. I aimed to validate the solutions’ concept, get clarity on its components and test usability. The second consisted of me asking users to perform a set of tasks and seeing how successfully they were able to complete those tasks. After this session I would then ask some follow up questions and start a dialogue about how they felt about the product.
The feedback from users was largely positive, although they consistently found the UX overwhelming. Internally there were also concerns that the product was trying to do too much. Indeed our development team suggested the product would take a while to successfully build. As we looked back over our research we recognised that many of the features were a secondary concern to our users. We thought a streamlined version would help make the product easier to use, whilst tackling the core issues that faced the market. We were also conscious of creating a MVP (minimum viable product) that would be disruptive and successful in the market.
REVISED SITEMAP
After the testing, I redid my sitemap to adjust for my findings.
FINAL DESIGN
CONTENT & FUNCTIONALITY
In the final design I used many of the core principles that I laid out in my first design, but slimmed the content down drastically. I gave the users as few options as possible so that they would have no trouble navigating the site. Users are given wayfinding methods on every page and the heading bar has only two main options, “Inventory” and “Reelays”. This keeps it simple, we want to push users towards the benefits of our product, to either view and manage their artworks or to send and track them.
1. Sign In
Classic login features, with ability to sign up with Google or Facebook.
2. Upload Artwork
Once a user has logged in, the design is extremely intuitive and easy to navigate. To get started, the first thing users are going to want to do is start uploading their artwork. Users can either drag and drop files from their computer or connect with Google Drive.
Users can learn more about how to use Reelay by watching the informational videos provided.
3. Input Metadata
Users can begin to input the metadata associated with their artwork as the files are downloading to Reelay. Some fields will be autofilled using information that Reelay can pull from the file. Further fields can be added at the users’ discretion. Users’ input fields will be remembered and suggested when uploading other files, along with the ability for users to save default formats.
Provenance of the artwork is established and an Inventory ID number is assigned.
4. Manage Inventory
Once artworks are uploaded, they are sorted into the users’ inventory. They can be sorted alphabetically, by artist, by medium and by date created.
Artworks can be clicked on to view their information. Quick options offer the ability to share, add to a collection and download.
5. Create Collections
Collections are used to organise artworks. Creating collections gives users further control when managing their collections. Users choose their own methods of consolidation, for example: by artist, exhibition, medium or year.
6. Manage Collections
Collections are sorted similarly to works into the ‘collections’ section of the users’ inventory.
From here users can easily Reelay (share) groups of artworks and locate them using tags.
7. Reelay Artworks
Reelay is the word we use for share. Users can choose who to share with, write a subject and message. They can choose the artworks and collections they want to share and have full control over the access and permissions of the recipient:
How long they can view them.
Whether they can download them.
What resolution of the work they wish to share.
Whether the recipient can share the work with others.
8. Track Reelays
Users can track shared artworks. They are able to view who they’ve shared artworks with, when and how many times they have been viewed, if they have been downloaded and when they expire.
9. View Artworks
Reelay’s file-agnostic, online viewer allows artists working with any file format to illuminate their work. Whether they are formatted in virtual reality, augmented reality, video, audio, etc. Artists, galleries, museums and collectors can finally share and interact fully in our digital world.
UI DECISIONS
When considering the questions, “what is the app?” and “who is it for?”, I thought about certain adjectives. These adjectives informed my design decisions. Among them were: professional, sleek, modern, practical and digital. With those adjectives in mind, I generally used a minimalist, flat design style.
I broke up the design elements, creating hierarchy, using bubble-like blocks. Capitalising on whitespace, these sections give users digestible bits of information with few things to look at at a time. In some cases this allows me to clearly communicate key calls to action. For example on the “Reelays” page. Using drop shadows to make elements contrast their surroundings, similarly pushes users to complete their tasks.
I chose glaucous blue and shades of grey as the main colours of my design, with a white background. The blue has the benefit of having calming and cooling effects, whilst symbolising the sky and the heavens, it also emotes strength and trustworthiness. I decided to have just one colour to go with the greyscale since the app is going to be filled with art. I want the colours from the art to do the talking and draw the users eye. I reserved my use of colour to draw attention to the hierarchy and importance of certain elements. Other instances of colour (bright green and red) signify active or inactive states and act as a cue of urgency for the user.
I chose the font Montserrat for the headings and Helvetica Neue for the copy. They are easy to read, modern fonts, however, they are not too flashy and don’t take away from the artwork that may surround them. I didn’t want to go with anything too fancy and find the sans serif style works well with Reelay’s logo font (ITC Avant Garde).
I used very few shapes as design elements throughout the design. Again, this is to let the art do the talking. However, I do include Reelay’s logo faded in the background. This acts as a reminder to the user where they are and echos Reelay’s branding throughout the design. Similarly, so as to not take away from users’ artworks, I didn’t use any imagery throughout the design. The only imagery I inserted is on the landing page to advertise what Reelay do.
I created a few icons that act as buttons for users. They are easily recognisable as similar icons are used on other websites and apps. The only symbol that is new to users is Reelay’s logo. We use the word Reelay to mean “send” or “share”, so the use of Reelay’s symbol teaches users of its significance. Like Twitter’s logo is used to mean “tweet”. The symbolism of Reelay’s logo comes from the idea of passing a baton in an actual relay race. The two lines symbolise hands coming together, as if to pass a baton.
CLICKABLE PROTOTYPE
View Prototype
Please test the prototype for yourself by either clicking the link above or by clicking on the image below. Note: when your cursor arrow turns to a finger, you’ll know the interface is clickable. Start by trying to login!
MOBILE RESPONSIVE DESIGN
AFTERTHOUGHTS
Reelay’s product is yet to go to beta testing. Due to financial issues, it is possible it never will. So, unfortunately, I will not get to see this product go to market and work with users down the line to expand on what I started. However, as I think back on the work I did, there are a number of things I know I would do differently.
The UI. I did not think about accessibility when choosing the colours and their variation/contrast. I am sure many people with visual disabilities would struggle to interact with my designs. We did not perform any tests with users with visual or other impairments. I am sure there is much that could be improved in that department.
I think consistency is sometimes lost from page to page. I did not use a strict set of font/button size between pages. Instead I chose the size to fit the designs on each page. Similarly, as I broke up my sections, I did not use a consistent column width. So my information blocks differ from page to page depending on the content. I think designing in blocks works well when considering the information architecture. However, the shading, spacing and colours used are not consistent and do not always quite work.
I had a number of issues when communicating with the dev team. This reflected my lack of experience and understanding of their side of the process. I had issues getting across certain ideas and understanding their limitations. I often found that the dev team did not communicate their issues with my designs upfront which led to disruptions further along in the process. This was a learning curve for me, especially with the struggles of working with an outsourced dev team.
I wish we had done more guerrilla testing earlier in the process. It is a great opportunity to learn so much about one’s designs and sniff out issues as they arise. It would have been useful to discover the usability flaws specifically, since too much of our early-stage testing was show-and-tell interview style. If I had had the users interact with my designs directly, I would have learned a lot more about the successful elements of my designs and the potential flaws in my structure.
Overall I learned so much from this experience. I was truly thrown in at the deep end and am so grateful for the opportunity. This role led me to discover Product/UI/UX Design as a career path. I am looking forward to seeing where this path will take me.