Artpilot
Building the digital tool for the art world's workers.
My role: Solo Designer/Researcher
Duration: 6 weeks over the summer of 2025.
Scope: Mobile app and website prototypes
Tools: Figma, Adobe CC, Miro
Deliverables: Prototypes, user flows, brand kit, research plan & synthesis
Published: 09/10/25
The project
Artpilot is a six-week project to digitise art-service bookings across mobile and web. As the sole designer, I conducted research, prototyping, user testing, and branding. Two test rounds yielded a SUS 78 and 80% task completion in unmoderated studies.
Summary & introduction
Understanding the context
Problem statement
Art services are still primarily booked by email/phone, causing errors and delays. Clients can’t compare scope or pricing, and providers lack critical site details up front.
Role and responsibilities
I conducted end-to-end product design including research planning, interviews and surveys, user flows, wireframes and hi-fi prototypes. I also ran moderated/unmoderated usability tests, synthesised findings, and iterated on designs.
Project goal
Replace ad-hoc systems with a guided booking flows and make pricing, scope, and requirements clear before checkout.
Key challenges
Removing intimidation for newcomers without alienating experts
Capturing complex job details early without overwhelming users
Replacing art-world jargon with plain language
Project constraints
Timeline limited scope of the hi-fi prototype to booking/inventory flows
Test participant in-person availability resulted in a higher reliance on unmoderated user testing
Empathizing with users
Personas, wireframes & early testing
After the competitor analysis, I mapped the key user groups that needed to be addressed:
Galleries and Cultural institutions
Corporate collections (banks, law firms, universities etc…)
Artists / makers
Private collectors / residential clients
Art advisors
Form there I was able to conduct interviews, build personas and understand the users' needs. Although many needs overlapped there were distinct differences that needed to addressed. The differences in experience with technical terms between user groups was a notable challenge as well as the complexity of services required by each user group. For example, most residential clients won't need to schedule a 50 artwork install while a company moving offices certainly will.
One of 5 personas developed to understand user needs and pain points
After developing a low fidelity prototype that explored the use of auto-fill forms and a guided ordering flow that was similar to Uber Eats' ordering structure, early testing showed users were able to quickly order a service. Additionally features designed for possible edge cases involving users who may need to book on behalf of others, overlapped with the needs of other groups such as art advisors and business clients.
Testing, feedback, and iteration
Turning research insights into design outcomes
Testing was broken up across the process, starting with early tests to prove viability and proof of concept and later to ensure mock-ups and high fidelity prototypes were not impacting the original functionality tested in early stages. The process revealed some key insights:
A need for more service clarity: Interviews showed confusion over overlapping or art-world specific terms. In response I consolidated multiple order types into a single flow with plain language, removing potential overlaps or forks in the user journey. During testing, this confusion was all but eliminated.
Reframing install considerations: Interviewees worried about install complications such as stairs, or oversized works and found language surrounding this felt blamey. By adding early scoping questions and rewriting the copy to avoid placing fault on the users no longer felt blamed for their install complications.
Professionals' need for a desktop solution: Interviews revealed that gallerists and collection managers work primarily from a desktop during office hours, not just mobile. This surfaced a need for the product to be available as a responsive website too outside of just the app.
Testing revealed valuable insights such as a SUS of 78 (above average) and 80% of unmoderated users followed the intended flow. These findings though impressive must be noted that with small sample sizes, these findings can only be directional. Study on a fully shipped version of the product would be able to gain more robust insights.
SUS across iterative rounds.
80% of unmoderated participants followed the intended flow without assistance.
Participants strongly preferred the prototype over existing structures.
More information on testing and outcomes can be provided upon request.
Refinements & design system
Moving fast, without breaking things
Interviews with commercial users (collection managers, gallerists) confirmed the need for a desktop experience alongside the app, so I designed a browser-based counterpart. Knowing this from the outset I was able to plan with some considerations in mind:
Creating variable and tokens to allow for faster altering of components across differing screen sizes/modes.
Coordinating component sizes such as icons with differing type scales
Building components with responsive structures over fixed measurements
Creating spacing systems to be used responsively.
Front-loading these responsive requirements sped up iteration and cross-component changes later despite the initial setup cost.
The development of the app home screen (seen left to right above) illustrates how over several iterations the functionality and refinement of the design system increased. Some major improvements involved removing the bundled services feature and merging the dashboard with a quick access menu.
Icon sizes for the basic set at 5 sizes to ensure standardized layouts across different screen sizes.
Brand identity
Balancing institutional and inviting
Artpilot balances a friendly, approachable tone with a minimal “white-cube” aesthetic of the art world. The brand promise—approachable, museum-quality services—brings the rigour of a gallery to the user’s door without intimidation. The typeface Suisse by Swiss Typefaces provides a workhorse sans-serif with excellent readability alongside support for a wide variety of languages and condensed styles applicable for packaging, signage, uniforms and shipping labels.
Above: A large billboard advertisement showing the brand's playful yet task-oriented identity.
Below: A mock-up of a truck used in shipping. Due to the nature of services offered, the logo needed to be highly legible and work well on transport trucks.
The prototype
Placing an order with the app
The video below shows the flow of ordering artwork to be delivered and installed. Note how autofill fields and concise summaries reduce complexity and how plain language is used whenever possible. Only relevant details are shown, and most answers are pre‑populated. Users mainly confirm each step, emulating the in store experience how having a skilled professional guide you through the process.
Flow: App home → New order → Ordering form steps 1-5 → Confirmation
Accessibility considerations
More than just contrast ratios
The design uses high‑contrast text by default, typographic guideline informed character sizes, 48px touch target sizes and other best practices, however the project doesn't stop its efforts there. The prototype affords users who rely on caregivers the ability to let others handle scheduling and payment as part of the ordering process. This can be an integral feature for anyone who may need to pass these responsibilities on, or for people who require assistance to interact with the technicians on arrival, such as people who require translation, are bed ridden and cannot point out artwork locations themselves and so on.
Card states showing elevation states included to help users with low vision.
Learning and outcomes
By the numbers
System Usability Scale score of 78
80% of unmoderated participants completed the intended flow
100% participant reported preference over exiting service models
Delivered
High-fidelity app prototypes for booking, order review, and confirmation
Browser-based counterpart
Light brand identity applied across UI, motion, and mockups
Next steps
Explore a consult flow implementing AR as a way to view frame mock-ups
Flesh out inventory features
Explore the product's feasibility being a full service inventory management system for galleries and collections
Explore the possibility of AI integration
Learning
The project illustrated how language is a design material; swapping jargon for task-oriented labels meaningfully changes behaviour. Additionally, a small set of high-leverage questions early in the flow prevents costly back-and-forth later.
Thanks for reading, let's connect!
info@gregmccarthystudios.com