Adding features to enhance the editing experience in the iOS native iPhotos app.
Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
Duration: 6 weeks
Tool: Figma
Background, Problem & Opportunity, Solutions
Understanding the User, User Journey, Competitors
Scope, Flows, WireFrames, Hi-Fidelity
User Testing, Iterations, Final Thoughts, Next Steps
Background, The Problem, & Solution
Secondary Research, Competitive Analysis, User Interviews
Information Architecture, Flows, Wireframes
User Testing, Iterations, Final Thoughts, Next Steps
The iOS Photos app is a native app within Apple devices that allows users to view, edit, and organize their photos and videos. Over the years, there have been many updates to the app, with improvements to the editing, searching, and organization features.
The process of editing photos requires time which can take away from enjoying things in the moment. Though many are satisfied with the editing capabilities of the iOS Photos app, they still go to other apps to continue their editing process. This is an opportunity to retain users and enhance their experience and satisfaction.
The iOS Photos app is convenient and efficient for most users, however, people still tend to use 3rd party apps to do or continue their editing processes. After assessing the current Photos app, there were a couple of opportunities that stood out.
1. Currently, Apple users are unable to add their edits and adjustments to multiple photos at a time which causes an inconvenience and more effort for users to rely on memory.
2. Also, though there is a filter to show only edited photos in the library, not many people are aware of it. Improving the way edited photos are organized within the app will allow users to easily differentiate which photos have been altered from the ones that haven’t.
iPhone users enjoy taking photos for various reasons, capturing memories, just for fun, or even as a serious hobby. In a survey of 17 people, when it came to editing their photos,
According the the survey, many people weren't completely satisfied with the iOS Photos app for the reasons of:
Following the survey, I interviewed 5 participants to get a better understanding of how they edit their photos and what their experiences have been like using photo editing apps. They walked me through their editing process and shared their main goals and motivations to edit photos, which ranged from making them social media ready to just having fun and enhancing their work.
Going through this journey with iPhone users helped me to identify their goals (convenience, simplicity and efficiency) and the main areas of opportunity.
Some other popular apps that people enjoyed using are VSCO, Photoshop, and Snapseed. I was curious about why users took the extra steps to use other apps when they valued convenience and the most important features provided by these apps included:
HMW: How might we enhance iPhone users’ editing experience through improved organization and efficiency?
A few comments from the surveys and interviews identified that low-quality images post-edit and limited adjustment features were also some reasons they preferred 3rd party apps, but due to technical constraints, that was out of the scope for the feasibility of this project.
Instead, I focused on users’ main goals when editing photos and other ways I could improve that experience.
Before sketching solutions, I identified what the current flow was and how the flow of the new solutions would fit in. Users have to go through this cycle each time in order to edit a photo, even if the photos were taken at the same time and would probably require the same/similar edits.
Keeping in mind the main goals for the users, I sketched a few different solutions that would help enhance their editing experience. Bulk editing and copy & paste edits would help with efficiency and reduce the need to use other apps that have similar features. Also, having a separate folder and indicators would allow users to easily scan and identify which photos have been edited to improve organization.
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I wanted to utilize user testing not only for testing out all three solutions, but also to determine which version of the copy and paste flow would be more intuitive for users. I conducted moderated testing through Zoom and unmoderated A/B testing through Maze, these were the findings:
After testing, I decided that V2 was the better flow for the copy and paste solution. Compared to V1,
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The most challenging part about this project was trying to fit the new features into the current UI patterns and make it seamless. During testing, a few users pointed out that they would've expected to see a specific option under a different button, but in order to maintain the Apple design system, changing it wouldn't have made sense. In the future, I would also implement a feature to save custom filters, since that was a feature loved by many in other editing apps.
How I would measure success:
