where did this begin?

The idea for a collage based social platform stemmed from my bored and fed up brain early in 2021. I was staying with my parents at their house in Reading, which is just north of here, and I was sick of how boring and toxic social media was getting. I would say it was around 1 in the morning, and I had just gone downstairs to get a snack of some sort. I came back upstairs, started playing on my laptop, fiddled around with Figma, and made this screen. I then proceeded to completely forget about it for the next 9 months. This was the foundation that I worked off of to create Collage. I took the concept that I began, and mixed it with the boredom and frustration that inspired me to do that, and created a concept for a full social media program.

influence from current social media platforms

There were a few existing aspects of social media that I used to determine the direction I wanted to go with this project. My research began before I even knew it. I was subconsciously absorbing all of the things that I didn’t want to put into this app. Everything about the major social media platforms today feel the exact same. Main home feed, 4 or 5 buttons on the bottom, a splash of blue here or there. There are far too many bells and whistles, yet somehow not enough customization of what you actually want to post. 

On the flip side, one social media platform that did inspire me was VSCO. There’s a huge emphasis on creation and exploration. From the way it opens up onto the photo studio tab instead of the endless scrolling home feed, to the customization options when editing images. VSCO arguably gives users a lot of control over their content, and doesn’t bombard them with overwhelming social options. When creating the initial version of this app, I was very inspired by the layout of VSCO’s feed. It felt like a more broken up version of a feed concept, with staggered posts instead of having them the same size one after another. 

workshopping

Before developing Collage, I wanted to see how people would interact with the tools that I would be providing. Luckily, my classmates really took to the activity, and each added their own unique flair to the page they were given. It was so wonderful to see how they reacted to the creative space, and to see things they made that I might not of thought of.

The results of the workshop were better than I could have imagined. Not only did I receive some wonderful suggestions while they were working, but I also discovered so much about the way they created collages that sparked ideas for possible features in the app. The different directions that each person took with most of the same materials encouraged me to think outside the box, and cater to a much wider audience.

interface design

When first conceptualizing the project, I knew I wanted to do a few things. One of the main things was a feed of friend’s posts that scrolled horizontally instead of vertically. This was to give the feeling of book pages, but to also make people more aware of how far they are scrolling as opposed to the endless vertical scroll. The next thing was to have a unique home button, with navigation that didn’t look anything like social media has seen yet.

Within the second draft, I focused more on the structure of the app. I wanted to make sure that people could access the scrapbook of the person’s post they see on the home page. But, I also didn’t want the creator’s name to be immediately visible to the user, so as to eliminate the snap judgment one can sometimes make. 

I also wanted to develop more of the creative studio in the app. It was important to me to not only have a selection of content for people to choose from, but also to have the option to import their own material to be able to have full customization. The most recent version of Collage combines many different aspects of the previous drafts, the research done, and the workshop I ran.

promotional material

When creating a final set of deliverables for Collage, I knew I didn’t want to stray too far from the branding and style created within the app. For the small advertisement GIF, I wanted to feature a bit of what one can create with the app in a way that feels authentic to individual placement of items. I also wanted to include a bit of the inspiration and branding that pops up in other places throughout the Collage collection of material.

The larger scale poster (the first image on this page. to appear on the degree project website felt as if it should show what the app would end up looking like. The creation space feels very visually appealing, and is a good advertisement for people who want to check out other aspects of Collage.

The video advertisement is intended to pose the main questions driving the exploration of this social media form. It lets viewers know the motivation for the creation of Collage, and hopefully makes them think about the bigger picture of online communication.

presentation & execution

Overall, I am so extremely pleased with how things went at the symposium. I was very nervous leading up to it, and I practiced 10 times in the week beforehand. It seemed to have paid off because, as someone who usually stumbles over words when presenting, I was able to deliver my thoughts exactly how I wanted to. My room host Ryan had some wonderful feedback when I finished presenting; he touched on some things that I had not even thought of, and really seemed eager to talk through the information I had just shared. It was such an ideal way to have my biggest project to date received. A good amount of people showed up to listen to what I had to say, which I was so thankful for. Being able to share something so personal to me with such a great group was a spectacular way to end my college (and collage) career. Lastly, my family and boyfriend were able to attend the presentation! My fellow Blanchards were all so cute at the end with their cameras on, and we immediately had a group call after to debrief. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience, and I was on cloud 9 when it had happened!

conclusion

Something new that I want to implement in this project is a periodic prompt to encourage people to make freeform collages around a certain theme. This feels like a natural progression for the app, and like something that would connect a local community of users in a healthy way. I hope to develop this concept more in the near future. One thing that was very important to discover was how much time it took to perfect small details in the app that I wanted to make possible. Through the process of designing the aspects, to then prototyping the movement between all of them, it proved to be very time consuming. Something else I learned was that collaboration is often the key to success. Expanding your horizons beyond concepts that only you originally developed is crucial to having a versatile and fully explored concept. I also discovered that it is necessary to throw out all ideas of what feels “normal” in order to have an original concept. Otherwise, one can find themselves very limited when trying to determine the best course of action.