Photobucket for Samsung

Photobucket for Samsung is a photo gallery app created exclusively for Samsung’s app store. In this app, you can store, share, and print your photos.

OVERVIEW

I was the sole UX/UI designer and worked with Samsung’s Partnership Team to redesign and add features to the current app.

When I began working on this project, the app had already been shipped out as a minimum viable product (MVP). My job was to completely redesign the app and create high-fidelity mocks ready to present to the Samsung Team within two weeks time.

My process while designing this app began with:

• Meticulously reviewing the current app’s functionality, features, and usability

• Studying the roadmap for upcoming versions as the next set of features was already decided on

• Reviewing user testing and feedback

• Conducting a competitive analysis of similar photo gallery apps

• Exploring the Samsung ecosystem of applications including other exclusive, created for Samsung (e.g. CNN, The Weather Channel, Workout Trainer)

App Architecture and Navigation

The feature set had already been defined by the product managers at Photobucket and Samsung, so I began by working on the overall architecture of the app, organizing the many features and sketching out the app.

The feature set included:

• Device Photos - All photos and albums stored on the user’s device plus a special “Smart Gallery” which organized photos based on data

• Cloud - A collection of all photos from the user’s Photobucket, Instagram, Facebook, and Dropbox and organized in one place.

• Vault - A gallery of photos locked behind a passcode.

• Watchface - A companion to Samsung watch devices where users could create a custom watch face slideshow of their photos.

• Camera - An in-app camera where users could take photos with or without filters.

• Print Shop - A shop where users could order products such as canvas prints and mugs with their photos printed on them.

Navigation
The user testing available indicated that users were most impressed by the “Vault” feature. In the previous version of the app it was buried in the navigation, so I brought it to the surface along with other key features for easier access.

Design

The main foundation of the app is based on the Google Material Design Standards. While utilizing these standards, I took note of Samsung's unique aesthetics and experience to ensure that the Photobucket for Samsung application would fit within the Samsung ecosystem.

I noticed that many of our competitors had a light themed design with a white background. While the light themes looked very clean and sleek, I knew from working in programs like Photoshop and Lightroom, photos stand out more and look better against a dark background. This is because of the brightness of the white background distracts from the hues, highlights, and shadows in the photo.

The Cloud

A standout feature of this app is the “Cloud” which allows users to view their photos on their Photobucket account, Facebook, Instagram, and Dropbox. This part of the app was a challenge figuring out how to make it easy for the user to access all of their accounts simultaneously, while still leaving room for additional social media accounts in future versions?

The solution was a scrollable top bar navigation. This allows the user to easily view different accounts quickly without having to go back and forth between a menu screen and viewing their photos.

The Watchface

This application also features a wearable component, the Samsung Gear watch. The user can view a ten photo slideshow and the time display on their watch. Each time the user brings the watch up to check the time, a new image appears. Alternatively, the user can swipe through their ten images on the watch.

While I did not help design this slideshow feature on the watch, I did help to create the integration with the phone. Syncing the photos from the phone to the watch was a technical challenge and limited the user to ten photos. The challenge was to let the user know that they could manually sync only ten images at a time.

Saving out for development

The development team was based in India and I did not have any direct communication with them, only through the CTO. This led me to create very detailed specifications for the development team. I created a map of each screen and what each button went to, showing gestures, toasts, and tooltips.

Below you can see the map of the entire app organized by user flows. I find having an organized flow of every part of the app makes it easy to pull individual flows for presentation, development, QA, or iteration.

Retrospective

The goal for this app was to create a quick redesign and include the specified features. I was able to do this in time and present it to Samsung for review. The application was successfully developed and released on the Samsung App store.

After the app was released, we discovered how difficult it was to get users to convert from their phone's stock gallery app to another app. On top of that, the application very features heavy and if simplified would create a better overall user experience. Our data showed that the Cloud feature was the most used feature of the application. Through more user testing I believe we could have been successful in selecting the features that our user’s desire. Therefore creating an application that could complement our users stock gallery app rather than replacing it.

For me personally, this was a great learning experience as I was able to work with Samsung’s team, learn about their processes and hone my Android design skills.