markR

What is the problem your solution addresses?

In current society, it is easy to lose our sense of individuality and artistic expression with evolving trends and ideas. However, it is these ever-changing trends and ideas that contribute to a greater variety of creative thinking and expression. Because many individuals tend to lose touch with their creative roots, markR aims to close the existing gap between creativity and unity through the art of daily drawing. Moreover, markR addresses smaller, more common problems in the artistic community, like artistic burnout, creativity block, and low self esteem in one’s work.

Why did you pick this solution, and how does it address the problem?

Similar to daily brain or mindfulness exercises, markR provides a casual space for people to be creative every day. Each morning, users are given 10 minutes to respond to a simple daily prompt using the app’s drawing platform. Afterward, they can upload their work and view other artists’ responses. We chose this solution particularly because of its inclusivity. The target audience is not limited solely to the traditional artist community. From regular individuals who want to exercise their creative muscle to professional artists looking to share their work and practice in a stress-free environment, any person can find a way to express themselves, grow confidence in their unique artistic ability, and practice creativity daily through markR.

Inspiration

We were inspired mainly by current trending apps/programs like Wordle, CoStar, and BeReal. The one common factor among these apps is that they have different daily prompts/calls to action. Wordle is a word puzzle game that generates a different answer word every midnight. CoStar generates an AI-powered horoscope + different prompts every midnight. BeReal is a social media that notifies users at a random time every day to post a picture for their friends to see. This daily notification keeps users engaged on a long-term basis, helping them achieve goals with brain exercise/mindfulness/etc. We were inspired to apply this tactic in a solution that targeted artistic expression and creativity.

What We Learned

As relative beginners in UI/UX, we gained important insights in the prototyping and development process of the design project, from how to generate a significant idea to how to create a successful and interactive final prototype. We were also able to recognize the value of collaboration and task distribution, as working together online across different schedules posed a difficult challenge.

How We Built Our Project

We first went through several rounds of brainstorming, fleshing out or eliminating ideas that we generated under the Creative Arts track. Then, we created two detailed mood boards: one for UI inspiration and the other for our general design system (fonts, color palette, gradients). We also built a site map that detailed each of the pages that we had to create. After this preliminary process, we moved into the prototyping draft process, where we divided up pages and worked through low, mid, and ultimately high-fidelity drafts.

Challenges We Faced

As with every hack/design/think-athon, the time limit was definitely the most prominent challenge that we had to overcome. Moreover, working together virtually rather than in-person also posed a problem with scheduling and general communications. However, we worked efficiently and collaboratively, being proactive in our communication, idea development, and design work.

Built With

• figma