Kurate

Organization & Storage App for iOS

About

A friend was unsatisfied with the current selection of organization/storage apps available. Certain applications were great for storage, but not for media customization. Conversely, applications that allowed for more customization were lacking in the organization and storage department. So, I set out to make the perfect hybrid and ultimately created Kurate.

UI/UX

User research, wireframing, prototyping, user testing, visual/interface design

Tools

Sketch, Invision, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

Competitive Analysis & Brainstorm

  • Became familiar with popular organization/storage applications like Evernote, Google Keep, Google Drive and DropBox
  • Determined that ability to create infinitely-nested directories was crucial (as seen in Google Drive, DropBox), as was the ability to easily customize any entry with images, audio, drawings and other digital media (as seen in Evernote, Google Keep)
  • Determined the user should be able to save a single media entry within multiple directories without having to duplicate it
  • Drew up some rough sketches while brainstorming with friend

User Research

  • Conducted user surveys to determine how organized users were, which methods they used to find their digital documents/media, and which organization and/or storage applications they used, if any
  • Survey results showed majority of users were “somewhat-organized” and located their documents/media via search function vs tapping through directories
  • It was decided the app’s search function would be ubiquitous and super accessible

Wireframes & User Flows

  • Created the app’s first set of wireframes in Sketch, then used those wireframes to put together some key user flows
  • The first flow below depicts how a user might find a media entry: by using the toggle and tapping through directories, or by utilizing the search function
  • The second flow depicts how a user would go about creating a new media entry

Prototyping & User Testing

  • Created a prototype with Invision
  • Had users test it out by giving them specific tasks to complete, like asking them to find a certain media entry in a certain collection (directory), create a new media entry, locate sharing options, etc.
  • User testing revealed the hamburger menu icon in the toolbar (meant to indicate user settings) was confusing users while they were trying to complete other tasks, so it was changed to a user/person icon instead
  • Users found the ‘share’ icon’s location in the new-media-entry toolbar to be unintuitive. They kept looking for it in the ‘more’ menu that appears top-right in new and existing media entries, so it was relocated there

Visual Design

  • Since the app can house different content with a wide variety of colors and textures, it was best to go with a super minimal, clean aesthetic. Mostly grayscale with one accent color for branding purposes
  • I wanted the logo to reflect this as well so ended up going with something really simple and contemporary

Polished UI

Responsive
Landing Page

Desktop

Tablet

Mobile