Pay the Poet
An app that keeps poetry alive in our culture by valuing artist livelihoods.
Role
As the Content Lead, I was responsible for the information architecture: user flows, site map, content strategy and UX writing. I listened closely during interviews and did some savvy Google-ing to learn industry terminology so I could speak the language of poets.
Team
Addison (Content), Jerrious (Interaction Design), Kamala (Research), Tory (UI Designer), Frank (Accessibility Analyst), Jordan (Research), Kayla (Storytelling), Austin (Client Liaison)
Scope
User research
Low-fidelity prototype
User testing
Timeline
3-week design sprint
Research & Sketch
Decide & Storyboard
Prototype & Test
Tools
Figma
Jira
Maze
Google Surveys
* This was a group project conducted through Thinkful’s UX/UI Immersion Program
Overview
The Client
Our client was self-proclaimed "lady poet" and spoken word artist, Te’erra Jones. She wanted to create a platform that gives poets a spotlight to be discovered & compensated for their craft.
The Problem Statement
Poets need a safe haven to showcase their work and get paid securely.
Discovery—Get to know the users
Literature Review
Did you know, in the US, 28 million people reported that they read poetry in 2017. That number is growing.
Competitive Landscape
We evaluated the landscape looking for competitors that: focused on poets exclusively, allowed users to book poets, and a place that poets could get paid.
No direct competitors were found, but the indirect competitors provided models and patterns that ultimately informed the creation of our final product.
The Survey
We had 41 poets and 2 promotors respond to our survey.
I authored a line of questioning that would inform our content strategy and garner key insights for further questioning in interviews.
Two questions stood out to us most:
We wanted to match our target audience's mental models while still creating a product that meets their specific needs. This reduces the cognitive load for users new to the interface. After discovering that almost 90% of poets post on social media, rather than individual blogs or online publications, we decided it was important to explore this deeper in user interviews.
Based on the responses, written poetry is the most popular medium. Some respondents reported audio recordings of spoken poetry, which was a medium we hadn’t yet considered. These results informed my content strategy, and showed us that poets want to share audio, video, images and text.
The Interviews
We set up interviews with 5 poets.
I collaborated with the research team to craft content-focused questions. The insights we garnered set us on a clear path towards creating a social safe haven for poets to share their work, get booked, and get paid.
Primary Persona
Our primary persona has pain points and goals that reflect our target users—the poets themselves.
They experience frustration finding reputable venues to perform at, and have trouble getting paid on time, if at all—even though they attract people to events and on Instagram.
Our main findings:
1. Poets love IG, and are accustomed to the upload function and interface.
2. Poets want a secure and reliable method of getting paid on time.
3. Poets want to be able to connect with fans and those who seek to book them.
Journey Mapping
Journey mapping helped us put our persona’s pain points in context and illuminated where our product would solve poets’ needs.
Define—Information Architecture
User Stories
I prioritized the user stories that addressed our top 3 HMW statements, which helped us stay within scope.
Sketches
I rallied the team to do a crazy 8s exercises focused on our app's on-boarding, feed, profile, and search feature.
I sketched 2 profile page options. One has a collage layout, while the other has a more hierarchical structure.
Next, we converged our ideas into a unified solution sketch. Our team ultimately decided on a collage grid to display profile content because it is more customizable and flexible, which poets valued in interviews.
User Flows
I mapped the flow a user would take through the app to make sure the universal design principle of simple and intuitive use was met before we started building. Here is an overview of our user flow—each grey box encompasses a separate feature or user goal.
Develop—Wireframing + Testing
Accessibility
Accessibility was top of mind—we applied universal design principles, like simple and intuitive use, and size and space for approach and use. I approached information hierarchy with a critical eye and made sure the most important information was discoverable.
Wireframes
We went through a few iterations of wireframes. Layout and spacing came first, then content, some internal testing, and more tweaks.
Iteration 1:
Iteration 2:
The Updates
We made updates based on the usability testing we conducted with 4 participants:
Navigation icons and labels are explicit.
The star (favorite) icon is used less frequently and more meaningfully.
We added the ability to send content to other users in the app with a familiar ‘share’ icon.
We moved the ‘book’ feature within messages to encourage communication.
Heuristic Evaluation
We collaborated with an external design team to evaluate our design through the lens of Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics.
Takeaways:
1. Help users recover from errors that might occur when making a donation.
2. Add visual feedback when a user clicks something.
3. Add labels to icons for universal accessibility.
Usability Testing
We used Maze to perform unmoderated usability tests with 22 participants.
Tasks
1. Create a profile.
2. Link PayPal to your account.
3. Upload a video.
4. Send another poet a message.
5. Send a poet a booking request.
I designed the booking feature within messages, which proved extremely intuitive during testing, with the highest direct path completion— 90%.
In follow-up questioning, we found that 80% of participants would download the app after testing.
"Pay the Poet is an app that helps provide funds to a very under funded art form."
— Anonymous Tester
