Boosting the submission rate from 3% to 28% of Genies artist community “Workshop”

Genies, UIUX Designer Winter 2023

Context

Genies Workshop, built for artists creating digital assets, has partnered with over 40 external creators, 200+ digital assets creations, integrating their works into the Genies ecosystem.

How it works

Artists can explore the fun prompts and start creating their ugc content then send it back to genies team to get the fashion found and work exposure from genies ecosystem.

Problem Statement

External Artists need a better way to easily onboard Genies Workshop Website and submit their works seamlessly. The current submission is only 3% due to the unclear instructions and cross-platforms submission process.

Approach

In the Workshop cross-functional team, I led the user research by conducting in-depth user interviews to identify key pain points and informed 3 actionable design goals to address user needs.

Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams, including Product Management, Artists, Marketing and Developers to revamp Workshop Website and introduce Workshop Portal. Additionally, I standardized 10+ Workshop design components to streamline future design collaboration and ensure consistency across projects.

Outcome

Genies Workshop Website

Genies Workshop Portal

Final Metrics

Increase the submission rate from 3% to 28%


Release 10+ external artists collaborations in 30 days

Reduce average approval time by 45%

User Insights

Our artists are blocked by the clueless and redundant workshop process.

How Might We

Create an efficient and seamless Workshop creation experience to boost the submission rate?

By Setting

Three Actionable Design Goals

1

Improving the prompt discover and navigation experience

2

Make it easier for artists to submit and track their works

3

Help artists to get works feedback efficiently

Creation Support

Provide FAQs, education, guidance support, easy to onboarding the creation process.

Information Architecture Redesign

Using infographic and copies to break down stop by step to educate users about the workshop.

Prompt Redesign

Humans are visual creatures especially ARTISTS. With the interactive prompt we can provide more visual hints, Inspire artists with flavor copy and prioritize key information for better clarity.

Forster Genies Artist Community

Establish more content engagement with artist and share more workshop insight in the community.

Previous Workshop

Upgraded Workshop

Design Process

Introduction

By analyzing the synthesized user pain points, I defined three key design goals, each targeting a distinct phase of the workshop experience to enhance the overall journey and ensure alignment with artists' expectations.

Design Goal 1

Improve Prompt Discover&Navigation

Workshop Website

To achieve the first goal of improving prompt discovery and navigation, I collaborated closely with our marketing team to enhance user engagement on the Workshop platform. Insights from previous user interviews revealed that artists prefer learning through visuals rather than text-heavy content. Based on this finding, we implemented infographics to onboard artists, reducing the risk of overwhelming them with complex information. We also transformed prompts into interactive experiences, incorporating curated visual hints to spark inspiration and creativity. To further support artists, we introduced a dedicated toolkits section, providing resources that alleviate the anxiety of starting from scratch and empowering artists to focus on their creative process.

Design Goal 2

Make It Easier For Artists Submitting Works

Workshop Submission Portal

To address the primary concern of simplifying the submission process for artists, we integrated the previous fragmented workflow into a streamlined, one-stop Workshop portal. Instead of requiring artists to fill out multiple forms and upload their work through platforms like Google Drive, the portal consolidates the entire production process into a single, cohesive experience.

Artists can now easily upload their work by following step-by-step instructions within the portal. They can create a detailed description of their submissions, send files in the required formats directly through the portal, and utilize an integrated checklist to ensure the accuracy and completeness of their uploads. This streamlined solution empowers artists to submit their work anytime, anywhere, with greater efficiency and confidence.

Workshop User Journey

Usability Testing

Introduction

To validate our exploration, we invited 10 external artists to usability testing both website and portal. To see whether the new workshop website and portal enhance the artists UGC journey, we asked participants to perform a series of tasks and asked them to give a usability score from 0 to 10.

Test Results

While we had some heuristics to help guide our decision making, we knew we needed to do testing with actual users to prove our hypotheses.

Artists Said:


” I really appreciate the toolkits section. Starting from scratch used to be stressful, but now I have resources to spark my creativity and guide me through the process.”


The kanban board is such a relief! I can see all my submissions, feedback, and approvals at a glance without having to search through my inbox.”


“The portal has saved me so much time—I don’t have to switch between tools or worry about missing important details anymore. It’s all right here.”

Tasting Tasks

Retrospective

Learnings

Working on this project was both exciting and challenging as I navigated a domain that required wearing multiple hats—product, visual design, and close collaboration with artists. As someone new to the Workshop project, I brought fresh, unbiased ideas that helped strengthen the artist community.

Transparency Enhancement is the biggest thing I learned in the Workshop. Due to the fast pace development and XFN needed, it’s cost team extra effort to get aligned with design updates. So I initiated a Weekly Update Template in our slack channel that help each team member to Keep everyone informed about each team’s work. Understanding what other teams are working on helps identify synergies, avoid duplication, and encourage cross-functional support.

Easy to start

Without entering the prompt information, artist can direct start with uploading.

Profile Create

Start by giving submission a name and crafting a description to share vision.

Submission Portal Homepage

Create Submission

Submission Window

Step by step

With clear step indications and file guidelines support, artists will upload their creation file in order without a mess.

Submission Portal Homepage

Build Dashboard

Error Report

Stay Updated

Seamlessly navigate to the most recent changes without any hassle

Track and Save Upload History

Provide downloadable file to keep tracking iterations and system can save up to 100 history uploading.

Clear Asset Status

Easily track the progress of your assets with a clear and organized status hierarchy.

Effortless File Feedback Notifications

Receive feedback on your files efficiently and seamlessly, all within one platform.

Design Goal 3

Help Artists To Get Feedback Efficiently

Workshop Submission Portal

We discovered that artists often struggled to locate feedback or approvals buried in a massive influx of emails. To address this, we introduced the concept of a “kanban” system.

Kanban, originating from lean project management, is a visual workflow management method that organizes tasks into columns or cards, making it easier to track progress and manage information. In our implementation, the kanban system efficiently showcases previous versions of submissions alongside feedback, approvals, and other relevant content. This approach not only streamlines access to key information but also provides users with a clear, visual representation of their submission workflow, reducing confusion and saving time.

Discovery

Hand on creation

Submit works

Approval & Prize

Clustered Themes

Research

Company Insight

In Fall 2023, Genies recognized that their artist users were having trouble discovering prompt and navigating to the UGC Creation Process in Workshop Q3 report. The Final UGC Content submission rate is only 3% and user retention rate is much lower than the expectation. So in this case, product team initiated the project to revamp Workshop Platform to boost the UCG Content submission.

User Research

During the Research, I conducted 10 user interviews with external artist to hear their thoughts on the Workshop Platform. This is what users said in our interview sessions:

” I really love the prompts; they always motivate me to create something new. But it's hard to understand the preferred style Genies wants, and that makes it confusing.”

”I've done several prompts. It was hard to understand at first, but now I'm used to it. The frustrating part is the file upload—I have to wait weeks for email confirmation and feedback, and it’s a long process to figure out what went wrong.”

After gathering 60+ data points. I slowly let the data categorize themselves into 5 major themes.

Next I synthesized themes into User Insights and came up with How Might We Statement.

Final Deliverables