The screens above represent parts of the first time user experience for Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP iPhone app.
The good bits:
This first time experience is conducted using video and audio. This technique isn’t normally advised because it tends to be more time consuming and isn’t as effective in distracted situations. But, in this case, it may be a great choice because it matches well with the visual/audio style of Lady Gaga’s signature experiences.
First time users are greeted immediately by a softly-lit persona named “Petka”. Instructions are provided by Petka using voice, and reinforced by textual instructions on the screen.
Petka first explains that she needs to generate an “aura” for the new user (this is a call-out to a Lady Gaga song) and that it’s required to exist in the “universe of ARTPOP”. Petka also reinforces some of the standard iOS prompts. For example, she asks “Now it’s time to find your location. Is that OK?” followed immediately by the standard iOS location alert.
To generate the aura, Petka asks the new user to type in their name, provide a location, scan his/her face using the front-facing camera (this step can be declined), and answer 4 personality questions. Once these steps have been completed, the new user is asked to touch the screen. This initiates a very lovely animation sequence while Petka explains next steps, saying that the aura is small right now, but will grow as more activities are performed in ARTPOP.
When this is complete the new user is taken to the home screen of the app. The new aura is animated and hovers at the bottom of the screen; when tapped, the user is moved into a timeline mode that shows the activity of the aura over time. While the app itself doesn’t have a whole lot of explanation as to what the different areas are for, the first time experience sets up an expectation that a new user needs to poke around and find the other functionality.
Another great part of this app is that no account creation is prompted during the first run experience. Even when past the first time experinece, the user is only prompted to create an account if they try to share one of their Arthaus creations or chat. Most of the app’s functionality is completely open without an account.
To be improved:
As mentioned earlier, the choice to use voice as the primary instruction vehicle makes sense given that this is a Lady Gaga experience. But voice always presents a recall challenge especially if a user is distracted. While some screens provide textual reinforcement and/or a back button, other parts do not, and there does not appear to be a way to replay the intro sequence once it’s complete.
The touch targets for the 4 personality questions were extremely small, and I wonder if the whole intro sequence should have been done in portrait mode to make this a lot easier. It’s a little inconsistent that the whole of the app is in portrait mode, but that this one intro sequence was done in landscape view.