Photos App
For this case study, I explored a redesign of the Photos app with the goal of integrating new features to make the app more useful, and improving the UI to make existing features more intuitive.
I created this project as one of two capstone projects for Dribbble’s Product Design Course. Here is the link to my final prototype.
My Role: Project Brief, User Research, Requirements, Market Research, UX Design, Visual Design, Prototyping
Project Brief
iPhone users take thousands of photos every year, but many people never do anything with those photos. Apple Photos is a powerful app, but many users aren’t aware of useful features because the app is difficult to navigate. How might we make it easier for people to organize, use and share their iPhone photos?
User Research
I interviewed five friends to understand how they organize and use the digital photos that they take on their iPhones. I also explored the reviews for Photos in the app store to see what users reported as their biggest pain points. After analyzing the research findings, I created a user persona to help shape product strategy for the app.
Market Research
My market research was two pronged. First, I began by looking at the most popular photo apps on the market: Apple Photos and Google Photos. I analyzed what features they offer, what makes them different, and common or unique UI patterns. Second, I looked for photo apps with unique features that solved my target user's pain points. During this exploration I found two more interesting apps: Gemini and Journi Blog.
Project Goals
Armed with insights from my user and market research, I created a series of project goals to guide my design process.
User Flows
Based on the project requirements and goals, I created three user flows to display the main paths users will take to reach a successful outcome.
Wireframes
I started the ideation phase by sketching different wireframes for the main app screens.
After sketching I chose the best ideas and combined them into lo-fi digital wireframes.
Visual Design
Photo apps generally have clean, minimal visual design so the design does not distract from the photos themselves. I chose a modern sans-serif font and a minimal color palette of white, black, gray and a blue accent color for buttons and calls to action. I utilized Figma components to minimize the number of elements needed to create the various screens needed for the app.
Prototype
Here is the link to my final prototype. Below I have outlined the solutions I implemented for each project goal along with product demos.
Problem 1 - Storage
How might we make it quick and easy for users to clean their photo library?
AI Driven Library Clean Up: Users can quickly review suggested photos to delete like screenshots, duplicates and similar photos. Alerts on the home screen tell users when new photos are ready to be reviewed and they can access the Clean screen to purge their library at any time.
Automated Cloud Backups: When creating a new album, users can choose to have the album automatically backup to a connected cloud service.
Problem 2 - Organization
How might we make it intuitive for users to organize and find photos?
Photo Library: Photos are organized logically by Year, Month or Day. Users can use the dropdown at the top of the Library to quickly view their Favorites or filter by Media Type (i.e. Video, Screenshots, Selfies).
Archive: An archive is available to move photos into after they've been sorted into an album. This removes clutter from the Recents folder and makes it obvious to users which photos have yet to be organized.
Tags and Smart Tags: Tags can be added to any photo and AI driven Smart Tags are automatically added to new photos. People can be added to photos when facial recognition fails to recognize them.
Albums and Smart Albums: Smart Albums can be created by assigning tags, people and places to an album. Anytime a new photo matches the Smart Album criteria, it is automatically added to the album.
Search: In addition to People, Places and Tags, favorites and media types are easily accessible on the Search page to help users find what they're looking for fast.
Memories: Users love the memory feature on Apple Photos that reminds them of moments from a year ago, or 5 years ago. I featured Memories prominently on the Homepage and Profile page so that users can easily look back at their favorite photos from the past.
Problem 3 - Sharing
How might we make it simple for users to share their favorite photos with friends and family?
Album Views: In addition to the traditional Gallery view, albums also have Moments and Map views which allow users to add more context and personalization to the albums they share with friends and families.
Reminders: Users can set optional reminders for custom intervals to prompt them to add photos to an album.
Share by Link: Users can share their albums via a link for friends and family outside of the app.
Problem 4 - Editing
How might we help users to quickly optimize their best photos?
Auto-enhance: Modern users don't like their photos to look as though they've been edited. Auto-enhance subtly optimizes photos in one click.
Advanced Controls: Filter, Adjust and Framing controls are also available for users who like to do a bit more.
Results & Outcome
I learned a lot through the process of working on this project. The User Research was particularly interesting because this is an app that most people interact with constantly, but each individual uses it differently. Ultimately, most users pointed to the same issues: storage and organization. I would love to see a photo app or an update to the iPhone Photos app that incorporated some of my solutions.
There are also other features beyond the scope of this project that I would be interested to explore, such as:
Batch editing
Printing and ordering photos (with monthly reminders)
Layouts and collages