Case Study: Foto Studio Manager
Conducted by:
Lisa Zampogna
Roles
Research, Evaluation, Interviews, Design
Location:
Twin Cities
Purpose:
Create a software solution for photographers to help them learn more about running a business, completing tasks informed by best practices, and guiding them through each step of the setup and implementation process.
Deliverables
Directed Storytelling, Contextual Inquiry, Survey, Site Map, Comparative Analysis, High Fidelity Prototype
Skills / Services
Contextual Inquiry, Directed Storytelling and Talk Aloud Protocol, User Interviews, Wireframing, Prototyping
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Zoom, Google Suite
Overview
Project Overview and What I Learned
I decided to complete a more extensive project in a space that I have a fondness for and familiarity with. I worked in the photography industry running my own business for over 15 years. Over the course of that time, I was immersed in the challenges and opportunities offered by a career in photography. One of the main hurdles is the number of areas beyond the scope of the actual photography that are important and necessary for a sustainable business. I conducted interviews with 6 users and received more insights from additional photographers through responses to a survey. I identified their pain points and formed a strategy to help photographers address some of those major hurdles through the use of a studio management application.
I learned there are many products on the market that have some, but not all features required to run a business, and others were not specifically designed for photography businesses in mind. I will now walk you through the process of the project.
Short on time? You can check out this 4 minute video presenting the highlights and prototype of my project.
The Process
The Objective
First, I determined my objective:
Identify photographers' biggest challenges for operating their business and identify opportunities to improve their overall experience with studio management software. Next, I came up with a plan to learn more about my users, their motivations, and current technology solutions.
because I’m not really structured."What will help you most?
if you don't give me a book,
I'm not gonna learn that way
I need to actually see everything.”Learning Style?
aspect. Creating the art is
the easy part."What part of your
business do you find
most challenging?
Users and Stakeholders
Primary
- Studio owner/Photographer: Users need software to conduct business in one spot.
- Photography Clients: Clients need to have a profile with access to documents like contracts, surveys, and feedback forms as well as links to their photo galleries.
Secondary:
- Contracted Photographers: Potential users, would use to get scheduling and event details for upcoming photoshoots, and other logistical information.
- Studio Employees: Similar to lead photographer/business owner
User Goals
- Run a successful photography business.
- Maximize the amount of time spent completing joy and money making activities.
- Stay organized and communicative with clients with as little effort as possible.
- Create amazing art.
- Have happy clients.
- Spend less time doing business operations.
- Find more clients.
User Interviews
Using Directed Storytelling and Contextual Inquiry, I interviewed 6 users. Each interview was conducted on zoom and lasted between 30-90 minutes. I asked them questions regarding their current business processes, and what they considered primary business functions and asked them to walk me through their current technology services to gain a better understanding of what they were using, where they experienced difficulties and identifying their overall goals.
From the user interviews, I identified some key insights:
- Want a job that allows them to connect with people, capture beautiful images and be creative.
- Figure out that they need to earn a livable wage to continue, which means learning to operate a business.
- Solo entrepreneurs
- Huge learning curve between photography, business, marketing, client acquisition., finding locations, etc.
- Users expressed not knowing really the best way to run a business and wished their software could provide more easy-to-access and simple guidance.
- Many photographers pay for software every month but only use a small fraction of the features provided. Many of the features they don’t use could help them run their businesses more efficiently.
- One user reported having paid someone more than $6k to learn the program and set it up for her business. A year later, she reports still not understanding all aspects of the program but she did say having the software operational more than paid for the expenses saved time and overhead.
Survey
During this part of my research, I wanted further clarification about why photographers entered the industry, and what their perceived strengths and weaknesses so I could obtain more insights to better strategize a solution for the user group.
Results of that survey revealed these themes:
- There is no one story to explain why photographers enter the industry, but many come from the general point of view that they wanted to make money doing something artistic.
- User qualities: creative, artistic, empathetic, passionate.
- Variety of software solutions. Many, not all inclusive.
- Users found studio management software complicated.
- Extent of use of existing software: many reported not using the full capacity of their software solutions. This resulted from complicating interfaces, large learning curves, lack of time and resources to put towards it.
Competitive Analysis
Prior to attempting to design my own solution to this opportunity area in the software solution space of the photography industry I decided to check out the competition.
Pain points in a number of platforms emerged:
- No onscreen guidance explaining the purpose of each page or module.
- No onscreen video references.
- Blank screens without any mental model for users to use to determine how to fill in information.
- No example workflows
- Most platforms did not include typical, best practice examples of emails, contracts, questionnaires, client touch point workflows, post production work flows.
Most primary platforms included:
- Client Management
- Billing and Invoicing
- Marketing Automation
- Workflows
- Contracts
- Project Management
- Proposal (or pricing) Management
- Ability to add metadata to tasks (priority, status due dates, assignee, tags, categories etc.)
- View options List/card/detail
Primary Platforms researched:
- 17Hats
- Dubasdo
- Honeybook
- Pixifi
- Studio Plus
Peripheral/supplemental software examined:
- Asana
- Pixiset
- Shoot Proof
Design Goals
Taking into consideration the research findings, I set about designing a studio management platform for photographers to help them
- Run their business
- Complete tasks informed by best practices
- Guide users through each step of the setup and implementation process.
- Present those tools in a way that is clear and easy to use.
- Provide user flexibility and customization of the tools and templates.
High Fidelity Wireframes
After conducting user research and synthesizing my findings, I set about designing an application that would solve many of the opportunity areas presented by current platforms. These high-fidelity prototypes will provide me with a good jumping off point for more user testing and feedback. For more detailed information regarding my design decisions, you can check out the annotated wireframe section of my Figjam board.
Ways to check out the final prototype:
- See the entire slideshow presentation in the YouTube video.
- Check out the Presentation Slideshow on Figma.
- Check out the Figma Protoype.
- Check out the annotated wireframes and design choice explanations in the Figjam board.
Next Steps
Moving forward, I would conduct usability testing on the new high fidelity prototype to test its usability and gain additional insights on pain points and opportunities. Additionally, it would be helpful to conduct a Kano analysis to identify whether we have missed any vital features in the current project scope.
If you'd like to learn more about this project, please do not hesitate to reach out. You can email me or connect with me on Linked In.
