Client: Bard Mythologies
Brief: ‘The creation of an Irish Myth in my pocket app, with the overall vision to enhance and share Irish cultural wisdom to current and emerging generations’ - Sandy Dunlop, CEO of Bard Mythologies
Objective: Using best practices from Design Thinking, Human Centred Design and Agile Software Development, we aimed to develop and deliver:
1. A dynamic App rich with audio, imagery and stories.
2. A responsive promotional holding page.
3. A digital marketing strategy and product placement/business strategy option
My Role: App Design, Graphic Design, UI/UX Design, Information Architecture, Audio Production.
Team:
Peter O'Neill - Business Strategy, Agile Project Management.
Sarah Taiwo - Digital Marketing.
Lewis Murphy - Client Liaison, Info Architecture, UI/UX.
Andrew Kelly - Coding and Development.
Ray Graham - Development and Marketing.
This portfolio focuses on the design process of the project.
Bard Mythologies emerged out of a recovered practice of telling the traditional stories to the people. Having conducted events over the past 20 years that explore the stories and characters of Irish Myth, the Bard team have become passionate advocates of the value held within myths.
The challenge presented when they approached us was how to bring their experience to a wider 21st century audience using contemporary digital methods.
Unclear about the exact nature of the product, the market or the user base, they sought our help to engage a new audience with accessible cultural wisdom.
To re-engage people with stories that have been forgotten, and overlooked for their contemporary relevance, we set out to design an app that focused on shifting perceptions and giving users an attractive multimedia introduction to the subject.
Our design aims at defining the Bard’s uniqueness in the industry through high-quality modern visuals and professional audio. Attention was given to clear organisation and simple navigation to make a vast subject shrouded in obscurity appear more approachable and fun to explore thereby lowering the barrier to entry.
Keen to avoid clichés and instead tap into the symbols of a subject that people on some level are conscious of, but generally unfamiliar with, we gave Bard Mythologies a modern makeover that brings the brand to life.
To better establish our scope and further define the project, user centric research was conducted throughout the initial stages via multiple series of both national and international interviews. Surveys were conducted to gauge users attitude to Irish Mythology.
In total:
1. Substantial secondary market research / Brainstorming
2. Primary Research with 5 leading industry experts
3. 90+ Concept validation / user requirement Survey.
4. 50+ Responses - User Centric Design Survey
5. 25+ One to one surveys - End Stage Testing / Review
Some found the typical treatment of Irish myth to be off-putting, while others were very keen to reconnect with their heritage.
The main insight was that most people were unfamiliar with the stories but interested in rediscovering them if presented in a modern format.
Based on this feedback and research, several user-personas were created to help focus decisions surrounding the projects components and to be used as a key point of reference during the rest of the design process.
Eager to avoid cultural clichés and a sense of Irishness that has been overused, we looked to some of the deeper themes embedded within the stories themselves for inspiration and a direction to inform the visual design and identity.
Inspired by the rich and detailed themes and stories, various concepts were explored.
A new Bard Mythology logo began to evolve.
Starting with the app we created and iterated through several sets of wireframes. These helped us to clearly visualise the content, organise it into logical sections and establish the user interface controls.
We then created an interactive prototype using InVision. This helped us to iron out any kinks in the app flow and provided something to user-test with. The changes were then incorporated back into the wireframes before moving on to create hi-fidelity mockups.
The aim of our prototype tests was to continually monitor the navigational and architectural decisions made throughout the timeline of the apps development.
This helped us:
● Reinforce the app structure
● Validate design decisions
● Identify any bugs or areas we may have overlooked.
● Address and plan possible changes based on user testing
● Visualise how well users interacted with the app
● Evaluate and gauge if our information architecture structure is easily understandable.
The visual design evolved through a number of rounds of hi-fidelity mockups with updates and refinements being made based on user feedback, usability testing and an evolving appreciation for the conceptual underpinnings of the work.