Understanding Procreate.

A Case Study

In this article, we will understand the Procreate interface and see it through a user journey.

Nowadays, we all depend on different apps for different uses to make our lives more comfortable. Applications have made our lives most effortless, always there for the rescue to save time and dependencies. As users, we have yet to think about how these applications help us and how many minds and ideas are behind them.
I am an artist and a visual designer whose most of my works are done digitally on different software. Therefore, we, as a Group of three people, chose Procreate.

About Procreate

Procreate is a digital illustration app explicitly made for iOS and iPad OS. It focuses on being a user freindly software which introduces a more uncomplicated and easy-to-understand user interface.This multi‑award winning creative application gives you the power to create beautiful sketches, inspiring paintings, and stunning illustrations wherever you are.

Mind map

We started making the mind map because it helps us understand what is in the interface through which we, as users, will interact

https://www.figma.com/file/uwHcH91366ns4bdZ51buUa/NIDJ_Week-1?type=whiteboard&node-id=9-1375&t=vSBNTniovRloj1J5-4

Procreate Focuses more on providing simple and effective Tools for their users.Its interface is designed so that if you look at the Screen, you will only see the tools that are required first-hand. And further, if we go in-depth, you will find many options. For example, if you look at the section of the canvas interface there, you will find only brush, eraser, colour and a few more options. Later, if you open the the brush section, it is full of many varieties of bushes, and there is also the option to manipulate them according to our needs.

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Looking at it, it seems very simple, But it has many things we can explore.Procreate is not only limited to these. It has many new features that make your work faster.

Features

• Gestures
• Multi-touch Compatibility
• Animation
• Gallery
• Time Lapse
• Apple pencil ( Tap )
• Colour Swatches and Schemes.
• Grids
• Minimal UI elements.

Users Journey

We have three different personas where we can map out the journey.

• A moderately experienced user.
• A User who is using the app for the first time.
• A frequent Procreate user.

The user Journey I took is creating an artwork where my user is using the app for the first time. I chose this persona because I can see a lot of opportunities while figuring out whether Procreate is simple to understand for new people or if there are some difficulties.

If you had to go through the map, you would find different actions within a journey and understanding, asking people about their experience will make you aware of the questions in their mind when doing an act, and maybe they all will face some issue which will eventually be the pain point for some people.

One pain point

Not being able to figure out the tools is one of the central pain points because if you have given all the facilities and are not taking advantage of them, you are investing for nothing. Similarly, because of the fantastic tools feature, we invested in Procreate but don’t know how to use them, which is unfair. You must have seen the Adjustment Panel, where you will find many options, many of us doesn’t know about them what they are for as a beginner.

Opportunity

Adding tutorials could be one of the opportunities where users can learn about the tools just by looking at them; they don’t have to put more effort into reading an additional text. A small intro click could help the users discover the tools.

Procreate World

If you look at the colour scheme of Procreate, it is so simple. It is like whatever is needed is only with colour, like the grey background and the icons, so that people can focus on their artwork instead of the background and other things like essentials, tools, text, and all will capture the attention.

Low -Fidelity

After understanding the interface and the need for the opportunity, I came up with several ideas, like -
When we drag down the option, a tutorial clip will appear.
There could be a separate option in the Adjust panel to know about the tools.
The tools have an icon in the Modify panel, so when we click on them, an intro tutorial clip will appear.

High-Fidelity

When we open the Adjustment panel, if we drag down the option can see the Intro-tutorial about the tools.

Throughout this work, I learned about many learnings that I had never expected; I never thought the apps we use daily had so many different features, but now, a sense has developed where I can see things and try to figure out the reason behind them. Understanding how small things will affect different users, and now I’m trying to see every idea through diverse perspectives.
Now, I understand that moving towards a solution requires proper research as a designer. I’m grateful we had this exercise under the appropriate guidance of Rayna Batavia; thank you so much for taking us through this new Journey of Ui/Ux, and I want to continue this Journey.
I also want to Thank My Group mates Suzanna Rabindran and @Ayush for helping me at various stages while doing the case study.