BASIC BUT ESSENTIAL - CREATOR'S PROFILE
No matter what type of creators need a place to showcase their abilities and build their reputation, and 1TM happens to be trying to build an ecosystem that allows creators in different fields to work together, so when I first joined 1TM, my first task was to create the best profile page experience for creators on this platform. Here are some of the challenges I have encountered and the experiences I have learned during this period.
Role - UX, UI
Year - 2022
Project - 1TM
Given that the purpose of a creator's profile page is to present one's portfolio and expertise, and that there are creators from many fields (e.g. music, illustration, writing, etc.) on a collaborative platform such as 1TM, there is naturally a need for many different professionals to collaborate with each other. Thinking from the perspective of the creators, whether they are actively looking for partners, or passively being found by others, is an important goal on their profile pages, and we have listed the following three goals before proceeding with the planning of the page:
Challenges
-
How can I be known to others in the most intuitive and rapid way?
-
How can works from different professional fields be displayed on the interface?
-
How can the aim of "finding collaborative partners" be applied to the existing interface?
I tried to analyze other creator platforms, such as Behance, DeviantART and ArtStation, and after comparing with 1TM, I found that if we want to achieve the platform value we'd like to create - "let cross-field creators freely share ideas"- it was important that in addition to the freedom to display individual works,there was also enough recognition for creators from various fields to be properly categorized. In the beginning, I decided to adopt a format that presented both a list of works and a personal summary. I started talking to some of the creators and created an initial design based on the information I got about their workflow, and these early explorations set the tone for the rest of the project.
-
The initial layout - presenting the artwork and the profile on the same page
For the first challenge, I mapped out what I wanted to achieve in each section of the profile page and began to explore a number of different designs to test and iterate on them quickly. Here are a few of these explorations: a) Placing the creator description and tracking buttons in the focus of the page and making the creator description more intuitive by limiting the amount of text in the description field. b) Splitting the list of works and other information about the creator into separate pages, so that the viewer can focus more on the work or the creator itself. c) Provide an inspiration page for the creator's inspiration, so that visitors can refer to the creator's preferences and suitability, and increase the exposure of other creators.
1. How to let others know the creator in the most intuitive and fast way
-
Re-arranged artwork listing page
One of the most important tasks of a personal page on a creator's platform is to showcase work. Given that there will be creators from all walks of life on the 1TM platform, we tried to give users as much freedom as possible to create their posts (see more about the post design process here), and after many iterations and user tests we made the following design decisions: a) First of all, we use the thumbnail, brief description and category of the work as the main components of the work card, so that viewers can get the initial impression before viewing the complete content of the work. As you can see on the screen, we tried to identify the different categories on the cards, but after discussions with the creators, we integrated the categories into the landing page for finding users so that the work page would be more focused on the work itself. b) Showing that the creator has participated in and ongoing projects, which we call "Space" at 1TM. On the one hand, it can increase the awareness of the creator, and on the other hand, it can also increase the visibility of the project.
2. Showcase different types of works and personal strengths on the 1TM platform
-
Design iterations for the post card
As mentioned earlier, we have divided the creators from different fields on the portal. The next design goal was how do I filter out the people I want to work with from so many similar fields? After a few brainstorming sessions, we realised that the key was: "I want to get to know this potential partner as well as possible before deciding to work with them".
With this core objective in mind, I have made these adjustments to the interface itself and to the flow between pages: a) During the user registration process for 1TM, we designed a question "What are you most looking forward to when you join 1TM? We designed the options with collaboration in mind and finally presented the user's choice on his/her personal page (which you can of course change at any time in the back office, given that the user's purpose may change) and also provided a clear and direct "contact me" button. b) The personal page offers columns for passions and skills, and allows creators to add links to a variety of external communities and creative platforms on the page. c) As well as showing collaborators' avatars on cards, there are also fields for authors to edit collaborators' contributions in their work and projects. Incidentally, the listed collaborators also share in the profits of the project or work!
3 Interface optimisation with the aim of finding and knowing collaborators
-
Collaboration-oriented questions are added to the onboarding process and presented on the personal data page
-
After many iterations, the card design includes a variety of states
-
Consolidate information about creators on the same page
-
Creator's inspiration page
-
List of projects that creators participated in
-
Design iterations for project cards
-
Profile page backend settings
The profile pages went through many rounds of user testing and many iterations before it was developed. During this process, I worked closely with the engineering team to define new advanced features for users to implement, such as an editing system for users to modify at any time. The end result is a simple, clean, visually driven one-page summary that ensures users can easily adjust any desired field on the same page and get as close to the final result as possible. Letting other users know as quickly as possible what the creator is comfortable with and what he/she is most interested in doing by participating in the 1TM platform, in order to make collaboration happen naturally, is something I focus on when designing. We are continuing to improve it, not only to keep up with the evolution of the 1TM platform's milestones, but also to bring more help to creators using the platform, such as the achievement and badge system, so stay tuned!
The results
-
Collaborator information on the left side of the artwork page
-
Collaborator information on the project team page