Project Overview

Image Maven is aimed to be the solution for assisting photographers with organizing photoshoot locations they have scouted around their area. The features included are early stage concepts founded in the competitive analysis, directed storytelling, and usability tests I conducted.

Opportunity space

A unique part of being a photographer is that their workspace can look different every time they pick up their camera to shoot. A large part of this involves scouting for photoshoot locations beforehand and usually photographers are never “off the clock” from this task because any place has potential for being the backdrop or subject to the perfect photo. There is excitement in visualizing all of the possibilities in a space, but it can also be bogged down with the administrative side of things such as documenting the location in a way where photographers can easily retrieve the information they need at a later time.

Project Goal

Develop a tool that improves the efficiency of scouting and organizing photoshoot locations in order to streamline the photography workflow.

an app to merge touchpoints

The discovery research highlighted opportunity areas to streamline the process of location scouting and organizing. Most of the location scouting was a mix of utilizing their phone for research and footwork. Once photographers found a location that inspired them they often documented it utilizing their phones as well.

3/3 participants have found new locations through other photographers

3/3 participants used their map, notes, and camera apps to document their photoshoot locations

Creating the foundation

Before stepping in to prototyping features, it was helpful to create a site map and user task flows to give me a better sense of what screens were necessary to create a realistic experience for my usability testing.

missing the first shot

After conducting my usability test with representative users, I learned that although my prototype was easy to navigate photographers were not interested in the location crowdsourcing feature.

“I’m pretty secretive about my photoshoot locations because I’ve worked hard to find them.”

— Participant 2

“If I saw a lot of reviews from other photographers then I would probably avoid that place.”

— Participant 5

“I feel like sharing my location would devalue my work in an already saturated market.”

— Participant 6

switching angles

Luckily, all was not lost - 5/6 participants rated that they would use the app for organizing their photoshoot locations that they’ve scouted. With this piece of information I opted to cut the crowdsource feature and focus on prioritizing features that would improve the current scouting and organization aspects in a photographers workflow.