a much needed social media platform for indie creatives to collaborate, meet, and showcase work amidst the current inaccessible indie market
3rd place in Entertainment @QWER Hacks
see it on devpost!
Timeline: 24 Hours @QWER Hacks
Applications: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Indesign, Figma
Team: Kendall Ka,
Shirley Jiang, Erica Santos
RATIONALE
INSPIRATION
As my group and I began to discuss ways to support and bolster the underserved and hidden voices of the Entertainment industry, we thought about the "real" indie creators. The creators who are independent, starting out, and just want to create new projects and collaborate with like-minded individuals.
CONTEXT
The independent art community faces oversaturation by big corporate production companies and industry regulars. Many "indie" production companies today claim to be small companies such as A24 however are backed by bigger and established Hollywood companies.
PROBLEM
With this inaccessible and restricted community of media creators, smaller independent (indie) media creators are inhibited from creating a standing and simply starting out in an industry that is backed by strong coprorations.
How can we create a more accessible and inviting platform for media artists to collaborate?
USER RESEARCH
In order to help current indie creators we set out to understand current user processes and platforms for collaborating and connecting with other creators. We spoke to 3 key individuals in the 24 hour time frame to understand their perspectives as well as their current process of starting a project, finding individuals to collaborate and work with, and finally how they shared their work and increased traction of their projects.
SELECT QUESTIONS
If you were starting a film project, how would you plan it out? What would your first 3 steps be?
How would you complete these steps? Are there any obstacles to completing these tasks?
If you could, how would you improve your project planning process?
RESPONSES
5/5 media artists are constantly searching for a way to meet new creatives to collaborate with, who are outside of their personal network.
4/5 artists report how it is difficult to gain traction for an indie project while it is being produced and once it is released.
5/5 artists believe that there is no reliability or predictability; moreover, there is a lack of support and interconnectedness within the industry.
abandon project
idea
contact peers
produce?
low engagement
direct social
media posts
execute
KEY SOLUTIONS
FOR YOU
The For You page offers the user a trending and curated list of projects to browse for inspiration and for pleasure. This will provide users inspiration as well as the ability to explore media maker portfolios.
The Browse page gives a personalized experience of browsing projects to collaborate on. Users can search by location, media, as well as specific project status (completed, work in progress, or seeking collaborators).
The Profile will allow users to showcase projects while the Forum will allow users to discuss ideas and questions while connecting with other projectr users through the forum regarding any creative topics.
BROWSE
SHOWCASE + FORUM
IDEATION + DESIGN
Based on our interviews, we ideated through different interfaces and possible user flows. Our final solutions would in the end allow for a one-stop platform for all media creatives.
We focused on creating collaborative and accessible platform meant for creatives of all levels of experience and from diverse backgrounds.
INITIAL WIREFRAMES AND VIEW OPTIONS
We investigated popular platforms used for media collaboration and discussion. This included Quadio, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. We focused on having a curated personal experience on projectr resulting in our Trending and For You pages. We also focused on the browsing experience of finding creative opportunities through our browse feature. We then lastly came up with ways to showcase work through the Profile page.
FORUM IDEAS
The Forum was an integral part of our mission to serve and connect all media creators. We carefully sketched out different structures that projectr users would be able to discuss with and thought that the accessibility and transparency of information of Reddit would mend well with a more structured home screen with summary posts and other highlighted events of the time.
Nested comments and showcased posts will allow for a truly encouraging, accessible, and open and collaborative environment for users of all backgrounds to learn.
VISUAL DESIGN
For our logo ideas we started with the image of a projector and created our icons. We implemented those visuals into our logos and chose some bright, inviting colors for our web application platform.
PROTOTYPE
Implemented graphics and color into layout while adjusting and adding certain aspects needed like filter options for browsing.
We made sure to keep in mind our goals for accessibility and encouraging collaboration as well as using a simple and clean design to focus on the media and projects showcased.
HOME + TRENDING + BROWSE
The For You and Trending page allows users to view curated showcased projects as well as recently popular projects for the user to view. Users can view these projects not only for inspiration but also for any opportunity of future collaboration.
Media genres include music, feature films, short films, television, and many more. It should provide media creators of all kinds a platform for collaborating and fostering ideas.
SEARCH FILTERS
The search bar allows the ability to search by genre, people, projects, or the forum. When selecting People for example, it will lead to a gallery of different media artists. The Search feature will then allow users to filter by location, project status, and project genre.
This will allow users to connect with users that align with their intention as well as a quick way of finding other like-minded individuals who are searching for collaborators. It allows indie artist creators from beginners to masters to grow their network and skills easily.
PROFILE + SHOWCASE
The Profile allows users to showcase projects that they have published or are currently working on. Projectr will also have various groups that users can be part of such as "Music Video Filmographers." Users will have their connections displayed so others can view each others network. It will be easy to connect and contact each other allowing for a transparent and open community.
Users will declare career type (producer), location, current status, and current project. When clicking on projects, project pages will include a synopsis, collaborators, and social media links; this serves as a way of marketing projects. Creators can use this to advertise their projects to a community that is looking for new inspiration allowing for a more predictable way of sharing.
FORUM
The Forum consists of two layouts: a gallery view and a thread style to view posts in a more detailed way. Topic examples can include job opportunities, upcoming film festivals, and recommended camera models. It will serve as a collaborative network for users to learn, ask personal and career related questions, as well as to discuss any media related topic.
Posts will contain profiles of authors and commentators so users feel encouraged to connect and view their profiles. This entire platform will allow for a more available and open environment for indie media creators to safely and comfortably communicate.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
