Reducing critique anxiety for art students through asynchronous feedback

Timeline

2 Months

Role

Product and UI/UX Designer

Team

Me!

Tools

Framer

Figma

Claude

Overview

Problem

The problem is twofold:

Students in the William Allen HS art club often find themselves not knowing what to make, or feeling like they are not skilled enough to create art. Leading them to avoid art making or spending their time in art club on their phones.

The teachers leading art club don't have a big budget to do big activities every week and when they do have big activities not everyone is engaged.

The problem is twofold:

Students in the William Allen HS art club often find themselves not knowing what to make, or feeling like they are not skilled enough to create art. Leading them to avoid art making or spending their time in art club on their phones.

The teachers leading art club don't have a big budget to do big activities every week and when they do have big activities not everyone is engaged.

Goal

Create a website where students can:

Engage with a variety of activities that will get them to practice their art skills without being perfectionists

Soothe anxiety about making art and boost self-esteem

Make it easier for the art club teachers to hold sessions where everyone is engaged whether they decide to do the in-person activity or do what they feel like on the website

Share what they are making with their peers


Create a website where students can:

Engage with a variety of activities that will get them to practice their art skills without being perfectionists

Soothe anxiety about making art and boost self-esteem

Make it easier for the art club teachers to hold sessions where everyone is engaged whether they decide to do the in-person activity or do what they feel like on the website

Share what they are making with their peers


Success metrics

Increased confidence

More participation

Faster instructor feedback

Increased confidence

More participation

Faster instructor feedback

Research

What surprised me the most

While interviewing my former teachers, I learned that my favorite parts of art club, which were the mini warm-ups we would do in the beginning where not everyone's favorite thing to do anymore. The environment that I saw when I was there is not the same now. So I have to take into account that calling something a warm-up will actually drive these kids away rather than engage them.

While interviewing my former teachers, I learned that my favorite parts of art club, which were the mini warm-ups we would do in the beginning where not everyone's favorite thing to do anymore. The environment that I saw when I was there is not the same now. So I have to take into account that calling something a warm-up will actually drive these kids away rather than engage them.

Finding: students are anxious about starting and receiving feedback

Decision: students need to be given an asynchronous format where they can explore without pressure

Compiling research and assets

After interviewing my former art teachers, I then clustered the ideas on Figjam. With these clusters, I determined primary and secondary features, alongside coding considerations. After creating my clusters I sketched out drafts of how I wanted it to look, created an asset library of colors, typography, and components. One of my main components is one I pulled off of Framer market and then vibe-coded to be able to capture whats drawn on it and then submit it to my gallery page.

After interviewing my former art teachers, I then clustered the ideas on Figjam. With these clusters, I determined primary and secondary features, alongside coding considerations. After creating my clusters I sketched out drafts of how I wanted it to look, created an asset library of colors, typography, and components. One of my main components is one I pulled off of Framer market and then vibe-coded to be able to capture whats drawn on it and then submit it to my gallery page.

First Prototype

From static to interactive with AI

With the first functional prototype done, students would be able to decide which activity to engage with, each one having its own weekly rotating prompt, and a whiteboard interface to complete it with. Taking away the decision paralysis of what to to make and how to make it.

But it still left me wondering if there was a stronger way to customize the experience, which led me to my pivot.


With the first functional prototype done, students would be able to decide which activity to engage with, each one having its own weekly rotating prompt, and a whiteboard interface to complete it with. Taking away the decision paralysis of what to to make and how to make it.

But it still left me wondering if there was a stronger way to customize the experience, which led me to my pivot.


Considerations

Pivots are not setbacks

After a mid way review with a visiting critic I discussed my accessibility challenges with low resources, and was presented another idea of making this a teacher tool instead. I was torn between my original idea and this, and landed on a hybrid solution.

Accessibility

I wanted to consider the inaccessibility of making this a physically printed project.

Printing for a large school with large class sizes while having a lack of paper for print would not make this feasible.


Adapting solution

This is where I pivoted and vibe-coded an admin page to allow the teacher more control of the product, turning it into a hybrid where it becomes a tool for teachers as well.

But I also want to acknowledge that while a website is more accessible because each student is provided a device, it may not be the best solution as students can get distracted and more screen time for youth can be looked down upon if it is not controlled.


Admin Access

Only the teacher can access this customization panel with a log in

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Admin page becomes its own resource

The biggest feature is adding and customizing their own prompts in addition to the pre-added ones sourced with AI. Allowing for the teacher to be as involved as they want to be, but also be able to fall back on presets when they get busy.


Allowing for the teacher to be as involved as they want to be, but also be able to fall back on presets when they get busy.


Student monitoring

The teacher is able to receive both public and private journal entries, and the ability to filter through them

Admin Access

Only the teacher can access this customization panel with a log in

Customization

They can also add a week and description to their prompts, search, and delete or change which prompt is active

Accessibility

I wanted to consider the inaccessibility of making this a physically printed project. Printing for a large school with large class sizes while having a lack of paper for print would not make this feasible.

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Exhibition day

Real life interactions

I set up the entire space mostly on my own and with the help of the gallery space curator for the tech and putting together of the table. My work stayed up in the Charles Addams Gallery for about a week where people were free to interact with it.

I set up the entire space mostly on my own and with the help of the gallery space curator for the tech and putting together of the table. My work stayed up in the Charles Addams Gallery for about a week where people were free to interact with it.

I set up the space mostly on my own and with the help of the gallery space curator for the tech and putting together of the table. My work stayed up in the Charles Addams Gallery for about a week where people were free to interact with it.

People interacting on opening day and some paper used by classes who came in during other times!


People interacting on opening day and some paper used by classes who came in during other times!


Next steps

Constructive criticism builds

After the exhibit I received great feedback from my professors, director, and visiting artist critics on aspects of the project that I could develop further. I was also able to observe how people interact with the product in real time which gave me valuable perspective on how it is being used.

My next steps are to continue to strengthen this project and explore more ways to vibe code unique activities and experiences before launching to my high school's art club!

Outcome

I can't yet comment on instructor feedback metric as I didn't get to interact with everyone who was in the exhibit or there outside of exhibit hours.

Users from the exhibit and college classes engaged with my project for a good part of their class time, so this shows good outcome for the engagement metric.

And also good outcome for the confidence metric, I had a student reach out to me about how it inspired their passion for art. The testimonial can be read below!

Testimonial

"…I saw your project in the design senior thesis exhibit while I was in the studio earlier and just wanted to reach out and tell u it was amazing! ! genuinely took so much out of it as im trying jump back into my passion for art and your project so beautifully highlighted the process im working through. Congrats to u for an amazing exhibition…"

"…I saw your project in the design senior thesis exhibit while I was in the studio earlier and just wanted to reach out and tell u it was amazing! ! genuinely took so much out of it as im trying jump back into my passion for art and your project so beautifully highlighted the process im working through. Congrats to u for an amazing exhibition…"

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