SHENGQI'S PORTFOLIO
Produced by Shengqi Liu
ABOUT ME
Thoughts. Experiences. Inspiration.
I’m so glad you’ve arrived. I’m Shengqi, a Chinese international student who will graduate from USYD soon. I like to practice drawing in my free time, especially using Procreate to make illustrations of different styles. It is helpful to my creative thinking and works in the field of design. I am currently working towards the goal of making design works that satisfy everyone!
Open Flow-IDEA9301
In response to the design brief presented by Google in cooperation with the University of Sydney Graduation Studio in 2023, our team designed an application called "Open Flow" to solve the challenges and problems raised in the design brief.
Background
As the design brief mentioned, the evolution of the World Wide Web has led to a shift in content creation, with a significant portion of new content being produced within closed app-based ecosystems. This design challenge aims to reimagine the act of content creation for the web, focusing on user needs, design attractiveness, incentivizing behaviors, leveraging unique web properties, embracing new trends, considering the role of browsers, and incorporating developments in AI. And our goal is to design a product that addresses the broader ecosystem and encourages widespread adoption.
Problem statement
The operation mode of mainstream popular video platforms cannot provide users with a good ecological environment (mainly manifested in uneven traffic (Unequal views of content)), thus causing part of the users to have decreased motivation to create content.
Target audience
Our target audience is mainly all video creators especially for low volume video creators/novice video creators.
Design process
Discover (research)
Questionnaires
Interview
Secondary Research
Competitor analysis
Online Ethnography
Define
(concept ideation)
Interview
Affinity diagrams
Storyboard
Decision Matrix
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Develop (concept development)
Sketch
Low-fidelity prototype
Usability Testing
Persona
User journey map
Deliver (finalising / prototyping)
Final prototype
Mock up
Research
Research
Research as the first stage is often the most important part of the design process. Comprehensive research can provide our team with a basis for in-depth understanding of users, competitive environment and technology trends to guide the direction and decision-making of product design and development.
In this part, we mainly use questionnaires and interviews to establish a clear problem space and design direction (solution area) for us.
Solution area
Through the reward mechanism, some video creators with low traffic can have more motivation to enjoy the creation. Give them goals to earn “virtual Coins” to encourage them to produce more high-quality work.
In addition, we also used Competitor analysis and Online Ethnography to provide us with better design opportunities.
Define (concept ideation)
We established the next design concept based on the content of the research. In this part, we first conducted online interviews with 5 respondents who have experience in video content creation. Since the content of the interview contains information, opinions and ideas, we used the design method of affinity diagrams to organize and sort out the content of the interview and obtained the following insights：
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Content creators face challenges in various aspects of their creative journey, such as skills, exposure, and engagement.
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Finding relevant professionals or communities for learning and communication can significantly enhance the quality of content creation.
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Platform algorithms and traffic distribution can impact the visibility and reach of content, creating challenges for creators in gaining exposure.
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Creative inspiration and consistent content creation are vital for maintaining audience engagement and viewership.
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Developing a unique and representative style is crucial for content creators to stand out and attract a larger audience.
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Engagement and understanding of platform algorithms play a significant role in maximizing views and reaching a wider audience.
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Based on these insights each member of our team drew up a storyboard to describe their solution and used the Decision Matrix design method to select the best one. Finally, the Open Flow design was chosen and this is also the storyboard I drew up
The storyboard of Open Flow
Develop (concept development)
The flexibility and simplicity of sketching makes it an essential part of the UI design process, we also drew initial sketches based on the defined design concept and tested and iterated on our application using the think aloud design method.
Sketch of Open Flow
Low fidelity of Open Flow
