Project Overview
ARtist is my first independent, free project. Immediately a problem that any artist has faced surfaced in my mind:
how can I spread my message across far distances.
To address this, I created an app that blends
new technology to reshape both the artist
and art viewers’ experiences with art.
Roles
UX Researcher, UI Designer
Collaborators
Timeline
3 months (2025)
Tools
Figma, Excel
“how might we optimize our experience with art by reducing the distance between artist intention to audience interpretation, being art viewers to becoming art creators, and art creation to art presentation”
THE PRODUCT
ARtist
To optimize our experience with art, we strive to reduce all 3 distances relevant to art viewing and creating.
Artist Intention to Audience Interpretation
Being Art Viewers to Becoming Art Creators
Art Creation to
Art Presentation
Solution Impact
The interactiveness of the app can easily be adjusted to be applied to a variety of settings for greater impact or to achieve specific goals.
Enlarge to Interactive Screen
Input: Camera
Output: React to live audience movement
Visualize Large Data Sets
Input: Dynamic data
Output: Direction based on data change
Translate Sound into Art
Input: Audio frequency
Output: Frequency influences flow field
To get a gauge of the news outlet industry and Google News’ current situation, we conducted research from numerous facets. Field research gave us context into users’ general news browsing habits. Competitor analysis gave us a glance on Google News’ current position in the market. User testing gave us deeper dive into how users interact with Google News specifically.
Research
Artist Intention to Audience Interpretation
As artists dive into more conceptual and abstract themes, the gap between intention and interpretation continues to widen, especially where context is lost. Viewers now need to seek out background information to fully understand a work, but this effort can be a barrier. To close this gap, we must make artistic context more accessible, helping audiences connect with meaning without overwhelming them.
Evolution of Art
15th
16th
17th
18th
19th
20th
Now
Evolution of Film
Third Cinema
Cinema Novo
Formalism
Impressionism
New Wave
Expressionism
Surrealism
Neorealism
Cin'ema v'erit'e
Direct Cinema
1910s
1920s
1940s
1950s
1960s
Purpose of Art Viewing and Creating
Art
1
extension of language
2
expression and abstract exploration
Film
1
exploration
2
influential
Research
Being Art Viewers to Becoming Art Creators
In today’s participatory culture, people are no longer satisfied with being passive art viewers—they want to be part of the creative process. The boundary between audience and artist is dissolving, as viewers increasingly seek not just to interpret art, but to shape it. Art is no longer a finished product to be observed, but a living experience that invites interaction, co-creation, and personal expression. We crave agency—to remix, reimagine, and leave our mark—transforming spectators into participants, and ultimately, into artists themselves.
Time Line
Technical Skill Required
*Size = popularity
*Opacity = interactiveness
Interactiveness of Art Forms
Why Does Art Exist?
Art Viewers
Art Creators
Functional Purposes
Emotional Purposes
Capture memory
Capture history
Informational
Social movement awareness
Emotional resonance
Personal significance
Entertainment
Social/political resonance
Aesthetically appealing
Functional tool
Inspiration
Self-expression
Leave a mark
Call to action
Concept expression
Cultural
Persuasion
Source of income
personal connection
non-personal connection
Closing Gap Between Viewers and Creators
1
Decreasing Technicality
As art evolves, less technical skill seems to be required in creating what is defined as “art”, reducing the benchmark for one to become an artist.
2
Increasing Emotions
There are more emotional purposes to engage in art than functional.
3
Maintaining Connection
There is more reason to engage with art with personal connection which is easily achieved if they are part of the art creation process.
Research
Art Creation to Art Presentation
How much time and effort it takes for an art creator to go from idea to exhibition in comparison to how much recognition and views they receive is a balance that all artists must make. If the distance is too short, there is often minimal reward. If the distance is too long, only established artists who can afford risk-taking would have the stamina to pull through the creation process. Our solution would aim to increase exposure of smaller projects and provide resources to back up rising artists to also pursue larger, higher-commitment projects.
Evolution of Art Forms
Physical 2D
Physical 3D
Performative
Digital 2D
Digital 3D
Trending Challenges
Game Design
AI-generated
VR/AR
height = distance between creation to presentation
Time Line
Trends
1
While art forms continue to emerge, they build off of previous works which lives infinitely through present art.
2
The time needed between the art work’s creation process up to its presentation continues to decrease.
Research
Targeted User Groups
Based on research on successful museums and social media forums, I gathered 4 main user groups when it comes to the common interest of art work exploration: foreign tourists, regular visitors, art creators, and members of established art organizations. From there, I created 4 personas in correspondence for tailored design solutions.
Emily the Tourist
Joe the Enthusiast
Paris the Artist
Sam the Curator
Goal
Emily loves to solo travel. On a city walk day, she hopes to explore the local art culture but can only find nationally-acclaimed museums online.
Paris regularly posts her doodles online. She is just beginning her artistic career and she needs a public platform to store all her work.
Sam buys AR art but doesn’t have time to travel to such niche auctions. He hopes for a convenient method to grow his collection.
Joe spends hours learning about art and their stories. He has visited hundreds of museums but is never satisfied with the short labels.
Frequency
Variable
Consistent
Consistent
Variable
Constraints
Language Barrier
Limited Resources
Shorter Attention Span
Limited Resources
Financial Budget
Time Restriction
Limited Resources
Financial Budget
Time Restriction
Limited Resources
Selective Taste
Expectations
Find city walks
Immerse in local art
Explore genres
Connect with locals
Gain publicity
Enjoy art hobby
Scout talented artists
Create curations
Pain Points
Time-consumed to locate local exhibitions
Effort to navigate and figure out logistics
Effort to navigate and figure out logistics
Cost of art viewing
Sense of engagement
Gaining publicity
Accurately showcase mediums of art online
Finding arising talent and unique styles
Branching out
Focal Points
1
Limited resources
2
Financial budget
3
Lack of long-term connection
4
One-sided interactions
Design Solution
Reducing Distances
artist intention to audience interpretation
art creation to art presentation
being art viewers to becoming art creators
ARtists
Reducing Distances
Simple art work scan and upload process
Multi-location upload of art work
Creating public curation routes from existing or augmented work
Journaling page to induce artistic reflection
Simple personalized AR art creation feature
Camera view reveals documented art work’s AI-generated description and backstory
Message feature to contact artists directly
Camera view immersing viewer in AR art
Search engine with filter options
market position
Next to Our Biggest Competitors
Pathway to Visibility
Online
Museum
ARtists
Private Gallery
experienced artists
established artists
personal style
independent
rising artists
rising artists
active
trending social/political topics
all artists
Acceptance
active
digital upload
trending social/political topics
Upload work
Locate and rent desired studio
Plan gallery layout
Set up gallery
Send proposal to museum
Research museum background
Contact museum on contract details
Set up work
Public Display
Locate desired display location
Research location regulations
Decide display method
Set up display
Gain popularity
Get recommended by curator to museum
Set up account
Fill in details
Upload work
Set up personal platform
Art Work Life-Cycle
noticed by curator
next museum
sold to client
sold/downloaded
noticed by curator
noticed by curator
sold to client
sold to curator
auctioned off
storage room
taken down
self-deconstruction
stays online
stays online in multiple locations
archived
storage room
Private Galleries
Public Display
Online
ARtists
Museum
increased exposure
fixed exposure
decreased exposure
Wireframing
System Architecture
Navigation Bar
Map page
map page | creation
map page | navigation
camera page | physical art
camera page | ar art
explore page
Community page
your art page
AR Feature
Related Workshops
Pin
Any recognizable existing art work seen through the camera lens can have this feature applied. This is a simple way to make art works more engaging and to get users more involved with the process of creating art, reducing all three types of distances.
The “?” pinpoints are replaced with the AR art for locations that users have visited.
Creation
Users can create both art works and art curations. Art works are uploaded by the user themselves and curations can be a compilation of personal and/or existing art.
The camera reveals materials and techniques used by the art work and AI-recommends related local workshops where the user can learn and/or produce similar art work.
Pinned art works remain at the top of the artist’s profile and are used to grab viewers’ attention.
Map page to explore and navigate to local art
Explore page to explore global and recommended art
Camera to identify art work and open AR art discovery
Community page to connect with other artists
Your Art page to manage art work and art journaling
Once users click “Overlay View”, they are taken to the AR view where overlaid paths guide them.
To encourage in-person visits, viewers can only “Unveil” art pieces once they arrive.
As users immerse themselves in the art works, they may take pictures to journal their visit.
The AR art creation feature is a reminder for users who are more used to one-sided appreciation of art that creating art can be simple and that any art viewer can also become an art creator.
PROTOtyping
Visual Input to Visual Output
AI provides summaries with diverse news perspectives and popularity metrics for faster information acquisition and deeper insights.
Starry Night | Vincent Van Gogh
Painting
Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore
Architecture
scan art work
code initiated
code runs
PROTOtyping
AR Feature
Accessible under the camera tab, users can build off of existing art pieces and save their own abstract visuals.
Takeaways
This project strengthened my understanding of how artistic visibility is shaped by interconnected systems of access, mediation, and interpretation across public, institutional, and digital spaces. I learned to balance individual creative expression with curatorial, audience, and platform constraints, translating ecosystem insights into a cohesive, scalable framework. This project reinforced my practice of using systems thinking and human-centered design to lower barriers to participation while preserving artistic intent.