I love to spend time in art gelleries and enjoy expoloration of creativites. An idea came to my mind after I had an conversation with friends. I was curious about young artists’ life experince in NYC.

I started it from research and found out an online article(link) described the circumstances that young artists were struggling with. I realized that they were facing low income and lack of approches for self-promotion. Many of them quited their art career in ealy stage, just becasue of the facts. As a designer, I wonder if I can design an app to solve their problems in real life.

To proof what I had found from these articles, I reached out my personal connections and interviewed with three different young artists in NYC. Based on their experience and the articles , I finalized three main facts that influence young artist career.

THEY ARE

Lack of chances to EXPOSE their projects

Lack of sourses to build up their NETWORKS

Lack of INCOME/SPONSORSHIP

#1: User Relationship

The existing art platforms only provide the service with a single purpose or business model, I excelled in some well-known art platforms and their services’ attributions below.

The research indicates that many art platforms only provide either news or art selling services. Their networks services developed a Superior-subordinate relationship between the users, such as sellers and buyers, or content creators and subscribers. Base on the feedbacks from the young artists I have interviewed, they claimed that this type of relationship is fragile and difficult to maintain, because the personal benefits was involved and unsustainable to develop as a friendship.

#2 Service Profit Chain

According to the companies’ revenue report from Owler, in 2017, the art companies have dramatic lower revenue than other tech companies. The main facts include different user base and different business strategies, which forced them to profit from the subscription fees and the selling commissions. But those young artists who cannot afford to pay any fees, require a sustainable free service to expand their network. How to Design an ‘ecosystem’ that benefits both users and companies’ revenue will be a challenge.

In order to understand the user’s needs, I interviewed with 10 different people who are related from art industry, includes art school students, young artists, and gallery owners.

These are the insights about why users feel difficult to expand their networks. I filtered them into three groups base on user’s goals

Base on the research, I drew out the necessary functions for the art community.

Geosocial Networking

To build better real-time community, I decided to integrate geosocial networking into YiChi. Users can explore other artists and designers base on their real-time location; Looking for the fellows who share the same taste in art.

YiChi can provide real-time information about museums or galleries based on users’ locations. It will automatically recommend the exhibitions and art events with high popularity. An easy way to initiate a topic for the users who want to meet off the grid and help them to expand their network.

News Home

News Home aims to provide real-time news happens in arts industry, using algorithms to create personalized feeds and increase user stickiness.

The Highlights banner was designed to prevent user to be isolated from topics of interest. It broadcasts rolling-news to connect users and the happening world.

Custom Navigation Bar

The custom navigation bar is designed for advanced users who frequently use YiChi in their daily activities, it will be more efficient to complete the same tasks. User can set a portal to a particular function, such as trading art, inviting people, or highlight other users.