I worked on multiple roles on this project. From research to interaction design, I designed the app from the ground up. I talked to photographers and their clients about their experience booking sessions. The idea began because of my own frustrations with the way I was booking photoshoots. I would be in applications that were full of too many bells and whistles. In other words, they were not focused on my pain point which was booking more clients in a seamless way. I began by talking to other photographers to see if they experienced the same problem. Many of them said that they wished that it was easier for their clients to book with them without having to send the same email repeatedly. I created personas and user flows before designing anything in Figma.

See my sandbox here: https://bit.ly/2QJjzAT

In the design process, I followed a user-centered approach and applied a Design Thinking methodology.

Understand: Empathize & Define

In this phase I gathered both qualitative and quantitative data, I interviewed 5 photographers via zoom and created a survey. I had 15 photographers respond to the survey, some full-time, part-time, and new to the field.

When asking the interview and survey questions I used both:

Closed Questions: These questions get the quantitative data from the users. It doesn’t tell us about the context, the motivation, the cause for the response. The data obtained can be easily visualized with the help of graphical representations.

Open Questions: Open Questions are the qualitative data about a user’s behavior, action. It tells us how the user thinks about a problem. These questions required a text box to explain the cause. The Qualitative responses tend to take a lot longer to analyze.

Key insights:

• Many wish they had an all-in-one software solution for all their needs (booking, crm, gallery, and website)
• Some said they spend most of their time editing or culling out unwanted photos
• Part-time photographers find it hard with a full-time job
• Most find marketing themselves on social media time consuming

There were so many solutions that we could create using these insights. We choose to focus on a solution for an all-in-one software but knew we need to start small. We started with a simple booking app.

I thought about what it would look like to book from a photographer's client's point of view, where they would go, what would the photographer need to know. I knew they would need to have a contract, a location, a payment method, and a set time for the client to book.

Here's a link to the survey responses.

Concept and Feature Goals:

Photographer's booking availability, Calendar integration, Payment/Stripe Integration, Packages setup: Name, Length, Description, Price, Retainer, Tax, Location, Contract, Client view, Email integration, Dashboard: Upcoming events, Scheduled, Reports, Bio Link, Subscription, Gallery, Printing Integration, Automations, Inbox

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Out of Scope

• Gallery
• Printing
• Automations
• Inbox

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Explore: Ideate & Prototype

Based on these findings, I created a user flow and wireframe (see images below).

The UI became really busy, so we simplified it.

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Materialize: Test & Implement

I created a simple prototype of a booking app for photographers with a client view.

In the end, the photographer could share a link to a booking page with their available times to book. They would be able to see their sessions listed in the dashboard when they open the app. They would be able to keep track of revenue and share a page for their clients to book.

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Introspection:

We are deciding to go in a different direction regarding the user, hence a different app. I believe this prototype was perfect addition to my portfolio though and would be a great little app maybe in the future.

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Figma: https://bit.ly/3gCSgTE