CLOUT - SOCIAL FILM APP

Cinema Lovers On Uniting Together (aka Clout), formally Hey Filmmaker, is a social networking app for the independent film industry, a central hub where film professionals can showcase their work and connect with one another in the city they live in. Think YouTube meets LinkedIn for the local film industry.

Role - Product Design, Research, Branding, UX, UI

Platform - Desktop/Mobile

Customer - Aspiring or established film professionals. The indie film enthusiast.

Outcome - Awarded government funding, launched MVP, over 2,500 profiles created.

For some time, the global independent film industry has been facing major challenges. Simply put, no simple or easy way exists for film professionals to manage their careers or connect with one another in the city they live in, especially when first starting out. They currently rely on an old-fashioned approach of growing their network by connecting in person, as a digital product has yet to surface as an industry leader to challenge the status quo.

We were tasked to design a product and user experience that would take the industry by storm. Essentially, our goal was to create 'THE' central hub where film professionals could go for all their industry needs.

REVOLUTIONIZING THE WAY FILM PROFESSIONALS CONNECT IN THEIR LOCAL FILM INDUSTRY.

THE STORY

For some time, the global independent film industry has been facing major challenges. Simply put, no simple or easy way exists for film professionals to manage their careers or connect with one another in the city they live in, especially when first starting out. They currently rely on an old-fashioned approach of growing their network by connecting in person, as a digital product has yet to surface as an industry leader to challenge the status quo.

We were tasked to design a product and user experience that would take the industry by storm. Essentially, our goal was to create 'THE' central hub where film professionals could go for all their industry needs.

REVOLUTIONIZING THE WAY FILM PROFESSIONALS CONNECT IN THEIR LOCAL FILM INDUSTRY.

THE STORY

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND.

The first step was figuring out our client's business objective. To do this we held a strategic session with Clout's core team so that we were able to finalize the business objectives and define the product's functionality and scope of work.

During this session we formulated our business & project goals and constructed a roadmap for the project.

DISCOVERY STAGE

01. Finalize product & project goals

02. Defined user types

03. Estimated risks of the project

04. Outlined flows for all user types

05. Approximated the app's functionality

06. Delivery of roadmap

How.

1. How do they connect and engage with one another?

What.

2. What issues are they facing when trying to find new talent to work with?

WHERE.

3. Where do they showcase and view eachother's work?

WHAT DID WE WANT TO KNOW?

To build an outstanding product for the customer, we first needed a thorough understanding of who the user was, what they needed, and to know what their pain points and priorities were.

The following three questions were the center piece of our UX research process that would lead us to uncovering the market gap so that we were able to build a viable solution that the target market was open to adopting.

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

HI MY NAME IS

As with most new and innovative concepts, the primary challenge was figuring out if the market actually wanted and needed what we had to offer. This would allow us to confirm if this innovative concept was going to be a hit.

Knowing our target market was our first priority. To get there, we conducted deep market research and competitive analyses to gather insight on who our ideal target market candidates were.

The results of our research: Hi my name is "Kristen"

Kristen was one of three data driven personas we were able to bring to life that helped us to understand the DNA of our potential target market. Equipped with this info we conducted an industry targeted pre-screener survey across social media looking for our real life "Kristens".

With over 500 pre-screeners completed, we created an empathy map as a visual representation to articulate what we knew. This allowed us to narrow down our list to find the perfect candidates for immersion primary research studies such as 1-on-1 interviews.

SURVEYS & INTERVIEWS

...BUT WHAT DOES THE DATA SAY?

Understanding the market and who we were targeting was a vital part in getting the equation right towards building a product that people would actually use. Our user and market research allowed us to understand what the industry currently has to offer and whether or not the customers' wants and needs were being met.

We used the following quantitative and qualitative methods to identify our competitors, target market, market trends, and consumer's behaviours.

USER & MARKET RESEARCH

QUANT.

QUAL .

AXE Interviews (Anticipated eXperience Evaluation)
Field Studies (Ethnographic Research)
Contextual Inquiry Interviews
Usability Testing

Surveys
Market & User Data Analytics
Comparative Research
Competitive Analysis

3

Intricate user persona types

500+

Pre-screeners completed

15

1 on 1 immersive interview studies

24

Research driven questions

"It's amazing how much networking you can do on a platform like this."

Bobby D.

Producer/Director/Writer

THE PROJECTS ARCHITECTURE

If we could sum up the results of our interviews in one short sentence it would be this: They loved it.

The insight gathered from both our research and market studies validated this innovative concept and gave us the data backed results needed for us to understand what feature sets we should/would be including on Clout's platform.

Based on our strategic session and research deliverables we now had, we were able to move forward with developing a product road map, product requirements document, user flows, and task flows.

Take a look at part of Clout's information architecture deliverables below.

THE DESIGN PROCESS

This is where the design started to come to life. It's where the user experience met the design aesthetics and where we focused on the more tactical, concrete elements of user interactions and reactions across the entire design platform. After we outlined the approximate functionality and flows, we started to work on designing and prototyping the app. We designed the app’s first sketches, wireframes, and low-fidelity clickable prototype.

INTERACTION & UI DESIGN

USABILITY TESTING

Before creating a final design we had to put our prototype to the test. Since we already had a list of target market participants from our preliminary research we went back and reached out to a select group to schedule usability testing sessions. This allowed us to stress test our prototype concept to uncover any functional and design element issues that may have needed iterations.

This is some of the feedback we received from our usability testing sessions.

PROTOTYPE & TESTING

This one-stop-shop app is going to modernize the film industry.

Kanda F.

Producer/Director

Social Design

Function, simplicity, and sociability are at the core of this sleekly designed user friendly app.

Geographic Location

Be able to select and change your city at the push of a button to be able to see films and profiles specifically from the city you're in.

Video Streaming

Upload your films or trailers directly to your profile, or embed them directly from YouTube or Vimeo.

SOLUTION

Connect. Unite. Create.

Welcome to Clout, a social networking app for the indie film industry. 'THE' central hub where film professionals can showcase their work and connect with one another in the city they live in.

Searchable Directory

Whether it's a specific genre of film or film professional you're looking for. Be able to sort, view, comment, and contact them at the push of a button.

User Profiles

Build your 'Clout' by showing the industry who you are, and the films you've worked on all from your profile.

Notifications

Be up to the minute on who's following you, who's liked your work, and who's messaged you to say 'Hey!'