Secondary Research
WHY PEOPLE START
People pick up creative skills for personal expression, enjoyment, and growth. Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory (2000) identifies three psychological needs that drive this kind of motivation: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When those needs are met, people stay engaged. When they're not, they disengage.
Ryan & Deci, "Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation" (2000)
WHY PEOPLE STOP
Slow progress, unclear instructions, time constraints, and lack of structure. Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory explains the mechanism: when the challenge of a task is too far above someone's skill level, they get frustrated and quit. Too far below, they get bored. The sweet spot is a narrow channel between the two, and most self-paced online learning environments don't maintain it.
Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990)
WHAT WORKS
Hands-on learning with immediate application. Community and peer feedback. Progress tracking and gamification. Bandura's Social Learning Theory found that people build confidence and skill by watching peers succeed at similar tasks, not just by practicing alone. Seeing someone like you figure it out is more motivating than any tutorial.
Bandura, Social Learning Theory (1977)
Microlearning — short, focused lessons designed for immediate application — outperforms long-form instruction on mobile. A 2021 study in Educational Technology Research and Development found that mobile microlearning increased knowledge, confidence, and certainty in practical decision-making.
Lee, Mobile Microlearning Design and Effects on Learning Efficacy (2021)
This gave me a foundation for understanding how people learn creative skills and what gets in the way. I didn't have a specific direction yet. I went into user interviews with open questions and let my participants guide me toward the problem worth solving.
User Interviews
How do people learn creative or hobby skills?5 Participants...
Rachel, 50
Avid birder, learning photography
Anne, 46
Learning drumming
John, 44
Musician, writer
Martha, 62
Hobby photographer, landscape architect
Shari, 45
Quilter, visual artist
...a selection of research questions:
- What motivates you?
- What drives your curiosity?
- What do you think it takes to create something meaningful?
- What makes a pursuit worthwhile?
- How do you decide what matters?
- What makes something feel difficult?
- What keeps you going when things are hard?
User Interviews: 4 Patterns Identified
"I start with simple projects because it makes learning less intimidating."
— Shari
"Most people don't want to read a wall of text."
— Rachel
"The only way is to break it down into smaller steps."
— John
— Anne
Feels frustrated by a lack of clear and accessible skill resources.
— Rachel
"I like to just dive in."
— Martha
STRUCTURE OF INFORMATION
— Rachel
"Learning alongside others is comforting."
— Rachel
"Knowing I'm part of a learning community helps to feel less isolated."
— Shari
— Martha
"Community and collaborative efforts can amplify impact of my learning"
— John
— John
Feels discouraged when she doesn't see quick improvement.
— Shari
"I don't show people poems usually, until, like, they're not always finished, but they're like, they've been worked on, they've been revised. They're not straight out the open for the most part."
— John
— Rachel
"I grew up in ballet and I quit, because it was challenging and I didn't feel like I was good enough."
—Anne
"I have really high self-standards."
— Martha
"I like TikTok, though. Whatever the topic, you'll keep getting [content]. I'm just gonna watch every video on this for like, three hours. You learn some new stuff."
— Anne
— Anne
"I had a couple of friends that write HTML teach me some very basic things. Mostly, I just asked a nerd. That was mostly how I got to finish most of the things that I did."
— Rachel
— Rachel
— Martha
"It's almost like something you have to be shown. It's like good to have, like, experts." (on learning to sew and quilt)
— Shari
"It's almost like something you have to be shown. It's like good to have, like, experts." (on learning to sew and quilt)
— Shari
Interview Insights
Two Strangers, Same Problem"I have some friends who are really good, and then I watch them shoot, and I see what they come out with, and I'm like, I bet if I actually did more technical skills, I could do that."
"I've just taught myself to do photography... I just feel like the technical knowledge is sort of the barrier between where I am now and getting better."
-RACHEL (on technical skills gap)
"My partner's a birder. I take pictures. But it's something we can do together."
"We go out our birding trips... my job is to get lots of pictures."
"I need to figure it out on my own. I'm not good at being told what to do."
-MARTHA (on learning by doing + birding trips)
Meet Julia Sterling
Freelancer
Birder
What She Needs Quick, visual lessons she can pull up in the field. A way to see how other photographers got the shot. Progress she can track without pressure.
what gets in her wayTechnical terms feel intimidating. Too many options, not enough clear starting points. Afraid of doing it wrong.
Designing for Julia's Journey
When we look at Julia's problems through this lens, we can design something to remove those barriers and make sure Julia has access to knowledge and connection, and that she's able to practice skillbuilding to build confidence. That gave us a few directions:
1. Taking microlessons and mini-courses on birding and bird photography. 2. Viewing a community photo feed that shows other users' EXIF data so she can see how they got the shot. 3. Keeping a private bird photo log and tracking her progress with birding and photography milestones. And somehow...4. making something that could give real-time guidance on what which camera settings to use in the moment, in the field.
tap to enlarge
Competitive Analysis
What's going on with Birding apps, any bird photography apps out there?Bird ID apps are commonplace - the market is pretty saturated.
General photography apps exist but aren't built for birding.
Bird photograpy courses cover technique, but they tend to be long-form and one-time learning, not something you could pull up as a quick reference in the field.
The bird app + website market mainly focuses on bird identification, not photography technique.
What if there was a tool that helps birders get better at the technical, camera side of things? Especially in the field, for when they need it most.
No product combines bird identification with photography skill-building. Existing courses teach technique but they're long-form — not something you pull up mid-hike. There's room for bite-sized, field-ready lessons that meet birders where they already are: outside, camera in hand. Pair that with a community photo feed sharing real camera settings and EXIF data, and users start learning from each other through actual shots from the field.
From Sketch to Screen
w/EXIF toggled off
Testing the Prototype
5 Participants...
Rachel, 50
Experienced birder, decent photographer (from earlier research)
Anne, 46
Casual nature app user (from earlier research)
Kendall, 35
Works in tech, nature enthusiast
Tim, 54
Works in banking, novice photographer
Jason, 41
Real estate professional
...to complete three (3) main tasks...
- Navigating from the dashboard
- Completing a lesson
- Logging a bird photo
...and one (1) surprise bonus task
-
Try out the camera setup assistant feature
Good News First
02 Navigation The accordion structure reduced clutter.
"It's less clutter, because otherwise you're looking at so many different things." — Tim
03 Engagement All five users said they'd use the product.
04 Community Bird Feed Users understood the value of seeing camera settings on shared photos.
"They could copy those settings." — Kendall
Two (02) Priority Improvements Identified:
Camera Setup Assistant | Surprise Bonus Task Results
A feature concept parked during ideation and tested as a lo-fi prototype.So I put it aside, reluctantly. During the IA phase, when I was building the sitemap and needed to commit to screens I could actually design, the camera setup assistant became a placeholder. I hadn't figured out my way of doing it yet. So I built other things. The lessons, the photo feeds, the maps and logs, the planned community features.
And then one day at 3am it hit me. A quiz (some might call it a decision tree). What's the light like? How far away is the bird? Is it moving? Three questions, eighteen possible combinations, each one returning a recommended settings card. A little digital card you can save for later, when you need it. I sketched it well into the mid-fi wireframe phase, then prototyped it and tested it with users here.
-Rachel
Kendall immediately asked if the settings card could auto-load into the phone's camera app. He started narrating a scenario out loud: the bird is right there, it's dark, it's not moving, you tap through three questions and your camera is ready.
Jason said "it gives people an actual tool."
What Changed: Tag System
The Problem: Users didn't realize auto-generated tags were clickable. Tags were not integrated systemwide.- Clear labeling
- Separated suggested from custom tags
(Before)
(After)
- Integrated tags systemwide across Photo View, Bird Feed, and Filter screens.
(After)
(After)
(After)
What Changed: Added Clarity for Public vs. Private
The Problem: Users couldn’t tell the difference between the community feed and their personal bird log.- Added header with icon and description to Bird Feed: “Discover bird photos from photographers around the world.”
- Included user avatars, names, and timestamps in Bird Feed posts for clarity on shared community space.
(Before)
(After)
- Introduced likes and comments to Bird Log cards to show engagement on shared photos.
(Before)
(After)
Changes made:
- Added user profiles to photo cards.
- Separated public and private views with a privacy toggle, so you always know where you are and whose content you’re seeing.
(Before)
(After)
(after)
Courses + Lessons
In the courses section and subsequent lessons, users are able to:
- Pull up short, targeted microlessons in the field.
- Browse bite-sized photography and birding techniques.
- Bookmark lessons to reference later.
Bird Feed
On the community photo feed of bird photos, users are able to:
- See the settings behind every photo.
- Camera settings (EXIF) data pulled automatically from the image.
- See what other people are shooting - and exactly how they got the shot.
Bird Log
In the private Bird Log, users are able to:
- Track progress privately.
- Save their photos with their camera (EXIF) settings. Keep them private or share them publicly.
- Filter photo collection by categories.
REFINED SOLUTIONS | Progress Tracking
Milestones
On the Milestones page
users are able to:
users are able to:
- Earn badges for photos, bird species, and birding locations.
- See their small wins and have a visible record of their progress.
Outcomes
Also, a lot of birders shoot photos with a DSLR. They're not on their phone taking pictures. They're on their phone learning, looking things up, logging what they shot. That's what BirdLens is for. It meets them where they already are.
I made deliberate scope decisions. I wanted to add lock icons on photos in the bird log so you could toggle public or private from the list view. I cut it because it would have had a similar ripple effect that the tag system update caused and the time constraint had already been reached - I'd add it in the next round.