Juggling is a subculture and is practiced in many countries. This project is geared around defining one particular need of a specific subculture (Juggling) and creating a system to fulfill it. This case study was completed in 4 weeks and includes user and market research, a branded suite of merchandise (the Physical Kit), branding Guide, interactive interface design and motion graphic.
February'19 - Dec'19
User Research, Interaction, Visual Design, Prototyping & Testing, Concept Development, Target Audience, Sub Culture Research
“I really like juggling but it was hard for me to learn at first to catch or when to throw the ball & did not learn the proper technique from my teacher”. - Nar, San Francisco
Since the late 1980s a large juggling subculture has developed, almost completely unknown and unrecognized by the general public. Therefore, apart from tutorials and videos, public has less information about the events or artists that are in their area/city. To take this to a competitive level one needs to practice hard and this can be achieved with this app. We need to promote this art as an hobby, exercise, stress reliving therapy and create a happy community!
An Application Based Wearable To Track The Activity
A customized application which would sync to the wearable and can track the throw, catches and time therefore helping jugglers track their progress.
Allowing new learners to also join juggling clubs and events happening in their city!
Research included surveys and findings regarding this subculture. I was able to find new communities that have various artists registered and that helped me more in understanding how these communities work. Research finding also allowed me to understand that Juggling is not just an art, it's also performed internationally for national level competitions, some people take it as a stress relief therapy and some take it as an exercise.
Market research included study of competitors and their pain points. There are various apps that teach you how to juggle with videos but they all have been outdated. I also found companies such as 'JuggleFit' who promotes juggling as an exercise. These apps helped me understand my use case and dive deep into the target audience.
Learn Juggling, its different types and techniques online and also by meeting people near your/ in your city and learn from virtual classes and tutorials
Join the community around your city or register to the Internation Jugglers’ Association. Link with the famous jugglers and connect or have a conversation with them
Promote Juggling as an exercise and a simple way to release stress. Promote Health benefits and that it helps ward off cravings, anxiety and promote juggling competitions
Track your props on your phone, track your throws and juggling movements and techniques. Improve by tracking your performance daily
After analyzing the user research and market research I found that people need to know more about this subculture as an art and also as an exercise. Another important insight was that people who move to different countries either for work or for studying find it hard to find a community where they could pursue, learn and explore this art and take it to another level.
To help jugglers improve their skill and ability to perform by tracking their progress while juggling. This solution will help them achieve their targets and also join different communities around them and promote this subculture. Interactive deliverable solution will help these artists take their skill to a competitive level or just nurture their hobby! Based on this I created personas that could represent the problems.
Based on the research and user journeys we created Information architecture
While designing the logo I wanted to keep it simplistic so that the colors would attract more. I could achieve this by using basic form of art which is circle.
I started with low fidelity wireframes and took feedback from artists around the city and made changes according to the feedback. I tested it with actual people and found that it was easy to track their activity and at the dame time join communities near them with the device and application.
The application will be connected to a device which is a wearable device. A band that will track your throws and catches while juggling and it can be also worn during shows or programs. The three circles represent throw, catch and time. It will increase and reduce in sizes according to the activity and the time circle will be constant as one can set the time for tracking the activity.
I conducted 10 walkthroughs with our prototypes in order to carry out evaluations and informal walkthroughs. The evaluators were AAU graduate students and our peers. We carried out this walkthrough by printing the screens and allowing user to interact and give their feedback. All the walkthroughs were helpful as they gave some valuable feedbacks and scope for exploring in terms of user experience.
We tested the user flow where the user starts creating a new account. then the user wants to connect with the juggling groups around him and get ttheir information.
Initial Design
After Testing
I did lot of iterations in terms of colors, layouts which would be more appealing to the users. Usability testing helped us a lot in identifying the users focus and their journey. We got lot of insights from our peers by carrying out informal walkthroughs with them. However I have always believed in testing, thus test and test till you get the best. Below are some improvements and transformations.
New user couldn't understand the process of how this app works, thus adding onboarding screens to this app was necessary. User got confused when opened connect and spend most of his time on the screen which showcases artists and groups. Adding xhat option was suggested by the uder, so it will be easy to chat with the specific group or artist.
I designed a survival kit for jugglers. This kit is a starter pack for beginners as well as for those who are at intermediate level or at competitive level. This will include a hoodie, music DVD, juggling clubs/balls and tutorial books.
Below is a concept video of this app!
Caltrain
Web Development