Background

Our client Nikki Beinstein, founder of The Serious Type, is pivoting the project to focus on a collaboration platform for values-driven creatives. We need to identify a new target user and discover what their experiences, motivations, challenges, and concerns are when collaborating on creative projects and sharing work online.

Research Questions

1. Who is our target user?
2. What are their goals and needs for collaboration?
   1. What are their needs for online vs. off-line collaboration?
   2. Do they want their content to be moderated/curated by Nikki?
3. What are the users’ current collaboration habits
   1. What are the high and lows points of collaborations
   2. How could users use online tools to facilitate collaborations
   3. What motivates a user to share their process or project online?
   4. How might we bring the experience of offline collaborations online?
   5. How might we help cultivate trust and accountability when it comes to online collaborations?

Research Methods

Comparative Analysis: we looked at existing platforms for creative collaboration and pulled out key features that we could include in TST.

Surveys: we asked people who were likely to have collaborated on creative projects for their insights on motivation, process, challenges, and tools when collaborating and sharing work online.

Interviews: we talked more in-depth with people who have collaborated on creative work to validate our assumption that users desire an online space to find collaborators and share ongoing project progress

Key Findings

Comparative Analysis:

1. Collaboration: Hitrecord, Loop Music, Kompoz, Collabr, Creative Tokyo
   1. Larger emphasis providing tools to aid collaboration.
   2. Modeling/educating creative collaborative process was less emphasized.
   3. Most developed sites were for musicians, entertainment industry, and design creatives.
   4. Content categorized with tags/genre labels, as well as date/time.
   5. Platforms provide a community for creatives to share, collaborate on, and publish work.
      1. both online and in-person collaborative options offered.
   6. Platforms mainly use donations and membership subscriptions for monetization.
   7. Varying guidelines on owning and licensing work on the platforms.
2. Activism: Catchafire, Turnup, Revolutionnaire, Taking it Global
   1. Sites that support youth in social activism were easier to find than sites for creative collaboration targeting youth.
   2. More education focus than in creative collaborative sites.
      1. teaching youth HOW to navigate the process of developing their projects
   3. Steps to engage their audience:
      1. grab attention genuinely
      2. make involvement easier
      3. create outlet for user voice and action
   4. Nonprofit model for organizations/platforms seems common.
3. Behind-the-scenes: Patreon, Kofi, Instagram, Kickstarter
   1. Platforms that allow creators to connect with their audience, post exclusive content, and/or allow financial support for projects.
   2. Not everyone can directly or have enough time to collaborate, but many people are willing to support monetarily.
   3. Filter navigation features allow content creators and audience members to search for relevant content.

Surveys:

• 82.9% of 41 users report participating in collaborative projects or activities.
• Top three topics for collaborative projects: arts, culture, and music; education-focused; social justice.
• Top three types of creative work: visual art, writing, photography.
• 90.5% of respondents report they sometimes or always have significant challenges when collaborating.