Fusiun was a French start-up that looked to connect artists from all around the world to facilitate collaborations and create THE digital space for art.
Goals
To create a community of artists that use the platform to find inspiration, resources, partners, and financial backing for their projects. Develop an algorithm to help create connections and suggestions for each individual, tailoring their experience and helping them grow in their artistic pursuits.
Challenges
Getting into the art world is difficult without having a well-connected network.
In the digital sphere, there were a lot of social media and portfolio websites, but rarely one that combined both.
The pandemic showed that physical location was not an obstacle to creating artistic collaboration, but a lack of financial support to content creators didn’t allow a bigger growth.
Research and interviews
The business and design team developed competitive audits, market research and interviewed different actors in the art and design world. Some of the people we had the pleasure of talking to were Sylvana Lorenz, renowned gallerist and philanthropist, and Stacy Parkinson, studio coordinator at Dior’s Men, who gave us some great insights about what possible sponsors and people in the art world would look in an artist. On the other side, we interviewed different photographers, artists, designers, models, etc to have a grasp of what they would need from an app like ours.
Pain Points
Customizable portfolio: Artists wanted an app that was easy to use while being customizable to their personality and brand image.
Discovery: Not everyone has an artist circle surrounding it, so being able to discover and connect with other like-minded people was something required.
Search function: Patrons wanted a fast and easy way to find and filter the type of artist they required.
Wireframes of the website
Prototyping and user testing
We designed the prototype taking into account some basic functionalities: the sign-up /login, the search functionality, and the profile/portfolio. Once we got that down, we experimented with different customization options in the portfolio part, allowing people to take more control of their looks. Alpha testers seemed to like the options but they wanted functionality to show what they were currently working on, so be able to connect with the community. That’s how “Current projects” came to be. After the next usability test though, some testers found that part confusing so we worked into making it more user-friendly for the next round. There were multiple rounds of testing back and forth until we were satisfied with the results and we could move to working on the feed.
Website in both mobile and landscape view
