Celf App - Unifying the Artist Commission Experience

Celf /kɛlv/

Unifying the Artist Commission Experience

Product

Mobile App

Duration

4 months

Project Type

Case Study Concept

Design Software

Figma

Year

2022

Role

UX/UI Designer

Introduction

As an active member of the art community, I've identified a critical gap for professional artists managing their commission services. Currently, artists cobble together multiple applications to publish, organize, and deliver their personalized art services—an inefficient workflow that fragments their creative process.

My role as a UX/UI Designer was to investigate existing tools, conduct in-depth artist interviews to understand pain points, and identify opportunities to streamline the commission process. This research led me to design a comprehensive mobile application that solves these challenges by enabling artists to offer services through an organized system, showcase their portfolio, and communicate directly with clients—all within a single, intuitive platform.

Challenge

Design forms tailored for different artists' needs, trying to avoid complex and tedious processes
Create a contact point for artists and clients to have a fluid conversation.
Design a beginner artist-friendly tool for those artists who want to start their commissions for the first time.
Design a platform that clients can also use easily and seamlessly.

Tasks

I was in charge of the start to end of the product ideation and design, using the Design Thinking methodology. I interviewed artists, researched to comprehend the problems they face, benchmarking to know what companies like Fiverr, Deviant Art, Ko-fi, and Tienda Nube offer to artists.

I designed the first screens to prototype and test the main features with real users to validate the proposal and iterate the final product based on the discovery in the UX Research stage.

Before and after comparison of Celf app design

Empathize

Meet Miriam and Joaquin!

These are my ideal users for Celf!

Interviews and Research

Thanks to the desk research I got to know what artist do to organize their commissions and what they recommend for beginner artists. Also, with the benchmarking I could identify the basic features that my application has to have and what I could improve. To validate this investigation, I interviewed 4 artists with commission-offering experience, I went deep into the way they organize and what are their pain points in their process.

Findings

The artists are interested in trying new tools that make easier their current workflow.
The beginner artists are overwhelmed by the amount of information and available tools , also they have issues pricing their services, writing terms and conditions, and organizing their commissions.
There are different ways to offer commission, based on the payment percentage (100% or 50% of the total price to start), public lists so clients know their commission state, and limited slots that clients can buy for a time defined for the artist.

Defining the MVP

Based on the artist user's needs, this is the MVP for Celf

1Create a commission
2Set pricing, styles and finishing levels
3Publish commission price table
4Accept/Decline a commission
5Deliver commission
6Receive payment
7Make a percentage or full refund
8Open and close commissions any time
9Art gallery to upload previous works
10Chatroom capable to send messages and high quality media

Architecture of information iteration result

Based on the dendrogram results, the Commission, Catalog, and Profile sections are the most important for users. During the card-sorting activity, these sections changed to Profile, Catalogue, Art Gallery, and Chat . However, the Similarity Matrix results suggest it would be more intuitive for users to group these into the three categories mentioned earlier, with Chat moved inside Commission (a new card proposed by a participant).

Iteration Note

All changes were made in order to add more customization for artists , like adding more variant prices, generic questions for clients at the moment they are requesting a new commission, and offering a fixed price if the commission is out of the box.

Ideate and prototype

In this stage, I start to design the first drafts for the screens with a crazy eight. Some of these were converted into the first screens and then the first Figma prototype to test.

Some ideas for the artist homepage trying to show the commission status, catalogue and gallery in a simple and intuitive way.

User testing

I reunited with the artist that I interviewed before to test some features and iterate to make enhancements.
In this case study, I'll show you the iterations for the home page from draft to final wireframes.

Winner Option

1st Wireframe

Final Screen

Commission status

The commission toggle was removed on theses iterations, but added again in the final screen so artist can change the status easier.

Grouped Sections

About me grouped with the social media links to enhance organization

Iterate and final design

Thanks to the usability testing, I iterate the screens converting them into high-fidelity wireframes. First I made a moodboard to define the aesthetic and then I designed the platform UI Kit using Material Design 2 as a foundation.

UI Kit

Celf app buttons and messages UI components

Prototype

You can try out Celf app here!

Final thoughts and learnings

Besides the limited time to develop this project, I found it valuable to have contact with real users, talk to them, and empathize with their problems.

Is complex to have a solution that satisfies all kinds of users (related to price tables) and today there are not any companies that have a solution.

The mentors' and colleagues' insights were very important for this project. Have a different point of view of your project riches your process and ideas.