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Apple Camera:
Guided

Taking everyday photography to the next level

iPhone 13 Pro Max mock up.png

date.

March 2022 - May 2022

role.

team.

tools.

User research /

UI + UX design

Young Kim

(User research)

Figma / Adobe Illustrator /
Adobe Photoshop

problem

According to Morning Consult, 86% of Americans say camera quality is somewhat or very important when deciding which smartphone to buy. This also means the output of the 'high-quality camera', the quality of the photo, should have a similar weight of importance as well for the vast majority of those who own mobile phones. Surpassing our expectations every year, smartphone cameras continue to evolve with even more impressive features and functionalities introduced.

But, what about us the users?

Are WE also evolving as better photographers with these improved cameras?

research

SURVEY

First, we surveyed 125 iPhone users about their phone camera usage.

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Whoa.

The survey results show users are overall happy about the current state of using the default Camera app.

However, we were still curious about individual stories and thoughts behind the survey results. What is their definition of SNS-worthy photos? How does someone take a 'quality photo' without any act of research about it? What did they mean by 'generally satisfied'?  

We decided to dive deeper into the details of the satisfaction.

USER INTERVIEWS

We interviewed 8 individuals, including non-iPhone users, with various perceptions of photography.

We asked questions about how individuals current relationship with photography, their definition of a good or valuable photo, what satisfies and frustrates them, and asked whether they want to improve on photography or not, and why.

"I don’t like taking photos. It is such a hassle.
I only take photos when my wife demands it."

AFFINITY MAP

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We gathered data from the interviews together to create an affinity map. Each box in the image above represents a quote, phrase, or story shared by an interviewee. By doing this, we were able to identify four primary insights from pain points and opportunities.

INSIGHTS

For the target users, photos are not always for themselves, but rather something to share or for someone else.

It is most important to the target users that the Camera app is approachable and simple.

Despite of the level of interest in photography, the target users want to improve in photography.

The target users lack knowledge on what defines a quality photo.

Current limitation on capacity of time or lack of motivation pushes away the target users from learning photography skills.

PERSONAS

From these five insights and data from interviews and surveys, we created two different personas, Sara and Jay. 

Sara seeks to improve in photography with minimal effort. On the other side, Jay needs to be able to take quality photos of his wife, but he doesn't have a good understanding of what a 'quality photo' is.

Persona.jpg
Persona2.jpg

How might we make a quality photo
easy to achieve from the iPhone Camera app?

MVP

SETTING THE GOAL

Despite the traditional view, nowadays, photography is counted as a form of art. Therefore, technically, there are no rules for defining a 'quality photo.' 
 

However, for Sara and Jay, who have little or no knowledge about photography and the principle of art, the application of those 'basic rules' will surely enhance the quality of the photos they take.

We focused on redesigning the Camera app to proactively guide users to follow the easily applicable principles while keeping the app's simplicity and intuitiveness. 

Through ideation, we were able to identify the key features that can successfully assist our end users to easily achieve quality photos. Using 2x2 matrix, key features that have high impact and require low effort are prioritized. 

However, we needed to narrow down the ideated features even further to set MVP.

From the data, we collected,
we created experience maps for each persona to capture the users' journey and emotional results with each touchpoint they perform within the app.

USER JOURNEY

User Journey.jpg
User Journey2.jpg

From here we could decide what actions and features were crucial and beneficial, and designed user flow, which later developed into a wireframe, around these conclusions.

 

We wanted to create a seamless experience for my target users by implementing Apple's simplicity but keeping its guidance as simple as possible, but more prominent and detailed since our target users would need more direct and thorough guidance.  

The app’s initial design involved two Composition Guides and the Lighting Assist. 

PROTOTYPE

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Composition Guides

The Composition Guides include Snap-Portrait, Landscape, and Still Life modes.

The concept of each mode is designed to suggest applicable compositions, using object detection and semantic segmentation. 

Lighting Assist icons.gif

Lighting Assist

Lighting Assist.gif

The Lighting Assist is also included in the initial design, informing users of current lighting on the subject and adjusting exposure automatically.

moving forward

There is still a lot more to explore with the Guided mode. How might we build the user onboarding while it is aligned with the current design philosophy of Apple? What kind of guidance other than composition and lighting can be provided to the end-users? What if photographic guidance can be shared with other users?

These are just some of the questions I'd like to expand on as I continue to work on this project. But there are some other prioritized next steps before answering the above questions.

First and foremost, we need to run usability tests to find if the current approach is intuitive enough to lead the users on following along with photographic principles. The data from the usability tests will set a clear direction to polish the guiding UI to be seamless.

With the improvement in UI, it is time to work with the engineers to figure out how far we can go with the concept. The current prototype presents only a few simple composition guidance while there are numerous approaches for setting a composition in the same scenery. Finding current technological limits and expanding the logic for built-in composition guides will be the next step.

Oh, I'll be very happy to talk to you, so click one of the three below and

let's connect!

© RaeKyu Park 2022 Portfolio

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