A UI/UX Case Study For Photographer/Videographer Finder APP

As a UI/UX designer passionate about creating intuitive digital experiences, I saw an opportunity to solve the challenge of finding the right photographer for life’s memorable moments. Whether for a wedding, birthday, or corporate event, people often struggle to find photographers who match their style and needs. I created an app to streamline this process, making it easy for users to discover, connect with, and book professional photographers — while providing a seamless, visually engaging experience to help them capture their special moments with confidence.

The Problem?

Finding and booking the right photographer for events like weddings or corporate gatherings can be overwhelming and time-consuming. Users often struggle to compare photographers based on style, experience, pricing, and availability. Existing platforms are cluttered or lack personalisation, making it difficult to make informed decisions and leading to frustration or missed opportunities.

The Solution

The solution is a user-friendly, visually appealing mobile app that simplifies the process of finding and booking photographers, benefiting both users and photographers. For users, the app provides an easy-to-navigate interface where they can quickly browse a curated selection of photographers based on filters like style, location, budget, and availability. For photographers, the app offers a platform to showcase their work, attract new clients, and manage bookings efficiently. This streamlined experience ensures a seamless connection, saving time and enhancing decision-making for both parties.

01.Empathize

By leveraging both secondary and primary research, I was able to empathise with the users and identify their true needs. This user-centric approach enabled me to design a solution that effectively addressed their pain points and exceeded their expectations

To maintain focus and avoid research overload, I established specific research goals before diving into online resources. This helped me to clearly define the scope of the problem and prioritise relevant information

Goals of Secondary research,

A communication channel for photographers and editors to quote potential clients and request additional information.
A user-friendly search and filtering system allowing clients to discover photographers based on their specific needs and preferences.
After conducting thorough secondary research, I identified key insights to inform my primary research and refine the problem statement

Secondary Research Insights,
Growing Demand: The increasing reliance on visual content for personal and professional branding has led to a surge in demand for photographers and videographers.
Lack of Exposure: Many talented professionals struggle to gain visibility and attract clients, despite their skills and experience.
Inefficient Matching: The current methods for connecting clients with photographers are often inefficient and time-consuming.
To address these issues, a platform is needed to connect photographers and clients efficiently, providing a solution for both parties.

Primary Research,

To validate my secondary research findings, I conducted user interview aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and pain points experienced by both photographers and clients. This qualitative research method allowed me to uncover valuable insights that would inform the design of a more user-centred solution.

Understanding the Photographer’s Perspective

Some statements from the photographers

As a photographer, I’ve spent years building my brand and growing my business through word-of-mouth and social media. But there’s always a challenge in terms of keeping everything organized. I get inquiries from all sorts of places — Instagram, emails etc but its difficult to to keep a track of whos serious and who is just inquiring.

Understanding the Client’s Perspective:

Hiring a Photographer:
What factors do you consider when choosing a photographer?
How do you typically find photographers for your needs?
What are the biggest challenges you face when hiring a photographer?

Expectations when choosing a photographer
What specific qualities or styles are you looking for in a photographer
How important is the photographers portfolio and past reviews in your decision making process?
What other factors influence your decision when selecting a photographer?

Booking Process and Communication
Would your prefer to book and pay directly through an app or would you rather handle those processes offline?
How important is direct communication with a photographer before booking? What kind of information would you want to discuss with them?

Client Pain Points and Post booking Expectations
How do you evaluate the quality of a photographer's work?
What factors influence your decision to hire a photographer again?
What would make you feel more confident or satisfied with the booking process?
What do you expect from the photographer after you’ve booked them
How do you feel about post-event follow-ups or sharing your photos?

Some statements from the clients

It’s overwhelming to sift through hundreds of photographers online. There are so many options, but it’s hard to know who will really capture the style I’m looking for.

02.Define

In the first phase, I empathized with the users. Now based on my research insights, I have to establish a clear idea of exactly which problems to solve for my users.

Affinity Mapping

After conducting user interviews, I systematically analyzed the data. By categorizing user feedback into feelings, statements, actions, thoughts, pain points, goals, and demographics, I was able to uncover recurring patterns and prioritize the most critical user needs.

Insights obtained,

Photographers want a platform thats easy to use and that will help them save time from administrative load.
Let photographers set their own pricing and package deals to fit different clients and budgets.
Help photographers manage their schedule and avoid double-bookings.
Only let real clients leave reviews to build trust and credibility.
Help photographers find the right clients by letting them filter by style.
Give photographers everything they need, like contracts, payments, and messaging, in one place.

User Persona

From the insights gathered, I observed common patterns of goals and pain points for the majority of the target audience. Putting those insights, I created two persona.

User Experience Map

Even with the main goals and pain points in hand, I still had to map out the journey the users take, to see where exactly they face these ‘pain points’ and eliminate them to create a seamless experience.

Identified places for improvement are,

Automated Booking & Pricing: Provide real-time availability sync and automated pricing packages to reduce back-and-forth and ensure transparency.
Centralized Communication: Introduce in-app messaging to handle all client inquiries, eliminating the need to manage multiple communication channels (WhatsApp, Instagram, email).
Contract Automation: Simplify the contract creation and signing process by providing digital contracts that clients can sign electronically.
Payment & Feedback Management: Implement integrated payment processing and automated follow-up for client reviews to make the post-event process smoother.

03.Ideate

User Flows

With the understanding of how the user’s journey was using the experience map, I created user flows for the app that will fill the gaps in the physical journey of the end user.

A User flow from photographers POV.

04. Design

In this fourth phase of the design thinking process, I started creating low fidelity wireframes. After many iterations, I finalized one version and converted them to high fidelity wireframes. I also prototyped them so that it can be tested out with the users in the testing phase.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Through multiple iterations, I learned to refine my wireframing process. Early versions did not fully align with project requirements, highlighting the importance of closely aligning wireframes with user flows. This led to a redesign of the screen layout for a more user-centered experience.

High Fidelity Wireframes

Style Guide — Color & Typography

The color palette for the Photographer Finder app combines sophisticated tones with calming hues to create a professional yet welcoming atmosphere. The rich tertiary colors add depth and variety, ensuring a balanced and visually pleasing user experience.

The typography system is designed to balance clarity, legibility, and modern style, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable reading experience for all users.

Font Sizing and Hierarchy

H1 (Main Title): 32px (Montserrat Medium)
H2 (Subheading): 28px (Montserrat Semi-Bold)
H3 (Section Title): 22px (Montserrat Semi-Bold)
Body Text: 12px (Karma Light)
Small Text (Captions, Footnotes): 14px (Karma Light)
Button Text: 16px, Uppercase (Montserrat Semi-Bold)

Final UI

Applying the style guide to my final high-fidelity wireframes, I started creating the UI mockups.

05.Test

It was time to test the live prototype with potential users and check how the users respond to it. Based on the testing insights, I decided if the designs needs to be altered or not.

Moderated Usability Testing

After creating the final screens, I conducted a moderated usability testing with participants that fit my target audience. I wanted to see how my users perceive the app’s main features such as,

Search Functionality:

1. Location based search

2.Specialised Filters

3.Availability

Photographers profile

Booking & Scheduling

Communication Tools

With keeping these goals in mind, I created a few tasks and prepared a questionnaire to follow during the testing session. Some of the scenarios given to the participants are,

Scenario #1
The wedding planner searches for a photographer in their specific destination and then use the advance filter to find photographer/Videographer with highest rating and a history of destination wedding which also matches their desired aesthetics. Once their search results appear their review all the photographers through their provided portfolios and inquire all of them for further discussion .

Scenario #2

The user is a Sibling of a bride searching for photographer for their sisters bridal shower.They open the app and enter their location and filter for photographers who have previous experience in bridal shower shoots. they further filter by prices range and reviews. They select a photographer, review their portfolio and inquire.

Scenario #3

Fashion Photographer looking for Inspiration
The photographer explores the apps curated collections and discovers the trending or emerging styles in the industry. They saved/Favourite their photographers, and further inquire if they wish to.

Conducting the usability testing helped me uncover some blind spots that I was not aware of during the designing phase. The major insight was to have the filters bar upfront in the home page , before the filter option was given after the user searches for a category.

Before and After Filter Search — Now the Users can Filter according to their needs firsthand

Based on this insight, I altered the Filter search placement to be at the homepage and explore page this lead to better user experience over all. Users want to filter photographers based on experience, location, style, and price. The more granular the filters, the more likely the user will find a match that suits their unique needs. There is also demand for event-specific expertise(e.g.fashion shoots, or destination weddings).

Final Prototype

Learning and Takeaways

While working on this project, I realized how crucial it is to empathize with users and understand their needs thoroughly before designing solutions.

The discovery that users across different scenarios needed tailored search options — based on specific event types, aesthetics, and budget — was a game changer. It became clear that improving the search functionality could solve a significant pain point for both casual users (e.g., family members, friends) and professionals (e.g., wedding planners and photographers and small businesses). Addressing this one issue would enhance the overall experience for most users.

As I began brainstorming, several add-on features emerged, such as the idea of fostering a photographer community, Inspiration Boards, Photo Delivery and Gallery Management, A Map view Pin Pointing Photographers NearYou.However, I had to remain focused on designing the core features first — advanced search filters, portfolio transparency, and pricing/availability details — since these were the most critical for solving user frustrations.

This project was an interesting challenge for me because I had to balance time constraints with the need to prioritize the most important features. It taught me how to streamline my ideas and focus on solving the most significant pain points first while keeping additional features in mind for future iterations.

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