Phase 1:
EMPATHIZE
Research Overview
My design process infused design thinking from start to finish, which was rooted in market and empathy research. I kicked off the project by defining my research goals and assumptions.
Research Goals:
Define arts education market trends.
Define Barnsdall’s target audience, including their behaviors, frustrations, and motivations when seeking out arts programs
Identify Barnsdall Arts’ direct and indirect competitors
Assumptions:
Users (in general) rely on the internet as primary source of information about arts education programs.
Users do not find the current Barnsdall Arts website to be a useful or relevant source of information.
Barnsdall Arts staff do not have time to maintain a website or put up current information on a consistent basis
Highlights from my market research on the arts education market are displayed below. Sources: Brookings (2019), National Endowment for the Arts (2015, 2020), California Data Project (2018), psarts.org, artsed411.org, Americans for the Arts (2016)
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Arts Ed is Valued
• The majority of people in the U.S. believe arts education has important social, emotional, behavioral, and academic benefits.• 90% of Americans reported they value K-12 arts education and 83% value community arts programs.
• Student outcomes increased in critical thinking and confidence with a combined arts- & tech-based curriculum.
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Access is Inequitable
• Low access to arts education disproportionately impacts low income and minority students.• Only 49% of California K-12 students receive any form of arts education at school.
• Nearly 9 out of 10 California schools do not meet the arts instruction criteria required by the California Education Code.
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Digital Trends
• 74% or 175 million of U.S. participants in the arts used electronic media to access arts‐related content (as of 2020).• 80% claim that social media has increased their exposure to art.
• COVID-19 has shifted arts education online, expanding the reach of web-based arts programs & activities.
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Demographics
• Common characteristics of arts education users in California: middle class, female, Millennial, a college graduate, parent.• In particular, Millennials represent the most “active arts generation” as attendees, donors, collectors, and practitioners.
• 66% of U.S. parents took action to support arts education in 2015.
Competitive Analysis
In the context of general market trends, it was important to carefully consider Barnsdall’s competition. I conducted a Competitive Analysis to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of two LA-based arts education nonprofits and two large LA institutions that offer art programs.
Provisional Personas
Crafting Provisional Personas turns demographic statistics into realistic archetypes of target users, which allowed me to begin empathizing with Barnsdall users’ goals and pain points, even at this early stage in the process. I came up with three types of Barnsdall users based on my research: “The Creative, Millennial Mom”, “The Open-Minded Educator”, and “The Art Advocate.”
User Research
User Research is at the heart of user-centered design. The process of interviewing Barnsdall’s target users enabled me to empathize with their experiences and gather valuable data that would drive my design strategy.
Method:
I prepared open-ended questions and conducted interviews via Zoom teleconferencing (due to COVID-19 limitations). The users were identified through social networking and word-of-mouth. In all, I interviewed 9 users.
Participants Snapshot:
7 females, 2 males
8 of the participants were parents; 7 had young children (under age 8)
All users identified as arts and/or education professionals
8 had engaged with Barnsdall Arts as students and/or community partners
2 also attended Barnsdall activities in their youth
Empathy Map
After conducting and transcribing 9 interviews, I arrived at my chance to define the needs of Barnsdall’s target users. Creating an Empathy Map helped me visualize what the user was thinking, doing, saying, and feeling in regards to the experiences they shared with me. This technique involved grouping similar comments together and distilling key patterns and insights, which ultimately shed light upon the problems I’d be trying to solve with the new website design.
What Users Had to Say…
“When I walk down the Main Concourse for my cancer treatments, I pause to look at the art. It brings me peace.”
- Sarah, Kaiser-Sunset hospital patient
“This is a family thing, not just a kids’ thing.”
- Cecilia, art teacher
“I’m savvy, and I couldn’t even find what I needed on their website.”
- Tristan, parent
User Research Findings
Pattern 1: Flexibility
Pattern: Participants come from diverse backgrounds, have different mindsets, skill levels, objectives, time constraints, and other circumstances/limitations.
Insight: Art programs are appealing when they accommodate participants with diverse circumstances.
Need: Users need flexibility when it comes to how they spend their time.
Pattern 2: Connection
Pattern: Users expressed a deep connection to art, that it is innate in them, and want to share it with their family and their community. They enjoy the collective aspect of it and a way to support and inspire others.
Insight: Art connects people to themselves and to others.
Need: Users need to feel connected to what they’re doing and who they are doing it with.
Pattern 3: Reliability
Pattern: Users find out about arts education activities through friends, social networks, and online sources they trust. They feel frustrated when information listed on websites is incorrect; they want to be able to know that it is up-to-date and accurate.
Insight: People seek out art activities from online and personal sources that are reliable.
Need: Information online about art programs should be reliable.
User Persona
As a culmination of my user research, I developed the User Persona of Sari, “Free-thinking Mama,” who brought Barnsdall’s target user to life. She represented a synthesis of the needs, goals, and characteristics of users in the form of a realistic and relatable human profile. I would keep Sari in mind at every future stage as a reminder of who I was designing the website for.
