AllaPrima
An app that encourages artists of all skill levels and mediums to create daily through tailored prompts. Received an Honourable Mention in UX Design (2024 Student RGD Awards).
TIMELINE
Oct – Nov 2023
TEAM
Solo
skills
UX/UI Design, Visual Identity, Prototyping
BACKGROUND
Visual artists often face creative burnout, which undermines motivation and enjoyment. I researched ways to overcome this and re-kindle people's motivation for creative hobbies.
RESEARCH insights
Research focused on understanding what motivates consistent creative practice and what contributes to artistic burnout. My key takeaways were:
Intrinsic motivation drives creativity.
Artists need intrinsic motivation, defined as the “enjoyment of and interest in an activity for its own sake” (Wang et al., 2018). This is essential for tasks that require sustained effort, such as drawing, and plays a key role in preventing burnout.
Sharing art online causes performance anxiety.
Performance anxiety negatively impacts intrinsic motivation by shifting focus toward extrinsic rewards like social media engagement (Wang et al., 2018; Wu et al., 2022). This reduces creative freedom, while perfectionism further hinders motivation and passion (Hall & Hill, 2012).
Task completion reinforces motivation.
Focusing on skill development and completing tasks supports intrinsic motivation, while fear of poor performance (especially in comparison to others) undermines it (Wang et al., 2018).
Together, these insights highlighted the importance of reducing pressure while encouraging consistent, achievable goals.
pain points
People become anxious when sharing their art online.
Social media shifts the focus to engagement and lessens passion.
Finding time to dedicate to creative hobbies is not a priority for most.
There is no tangible incentive for sustaining a creative hobby.
People give up when they don't see immediate progress in their art skills.
Perfectionism hinders motivation and leads to burnout.
problem statement
Artists need a way to build confidence and consistency in their creative practice.
The goal was to help artists experiencing burnout or creative blocks rebuild confidence and consistency in their practice. The app would encourage daily creation through prompts tailored to a user’s chosen medium, ranging from quick, low-commitment exercises to more involved creative challenges.
goals
Create a motivation system for artists.
Let users set attainable goals for incorporating art into their lives.
Eliminate the performance anxiety associated with sharing art online.
Be accessible for beginners and experienced artists alike.
competitive analysis
Sketch A Day
The closest comparable product. Offers daily challenges, tutorials, and inspiration, but its community-driven model introduces competitiveness. Prompts are also vague and not suited for artists who want to develop specific skills.
Duolingo
Effective use of gamification (streaks and achievements) to encourage daily engagement. Its friendly, playful atmosphere is motivating but it is a language-learning app, not a creative tool.
design opportunity
Existing platforms either rely heavily on social comparison or lack the structure for meaningful skill development. This creates an opportunity to motivate users to create daily through personalized, low-pressure prompts that are still specific to skill level and preferred medium(s).
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
An information architecture was created to define the app’s structure and user flows.
brand
The name AllaPrima comes from an Italian phrase meaning "at first attempt," which is also the name of a wet-on-wet painting technique where paintings are typically completed in one session. AllaPrima reflects the brand’s philosophy of creating freely, without comparison or perfectionism.
design
A doodle-like style was used for the main illustration and logo to align with AllaPrima’s philosophy of embracing imperfection. While the brand includes multiple accent colours, the app's UI is limited to pink and greyscale to avoid distracting from artwork and imagery.
solution
Don't think, just create!
AllaPrima is a daily art challenge app for artists of all skill levels and mediums. It addresses creative burnout and blocks by encouraging daily creation through prompts tailored to a user’s skill level, medium(s) of choice, and available time, emphasizing consistency over perfection.
To reduce performance pressure, AllaPrima does not display other users’ work but still has light social elements to increase motivation amongst friends. Users build confidence through in-app rewards, streaks, and seeing natural improvement over time in their gallery.
Users go through an onboarding process to set goals and skill level.
Find tailored daily challenges on the home screen, based on skill level, preferred mediums, and time available.
Motivate yourself to keep creating with a daily streak and other achievements.
Search for and save references and tutorials within the app.
Make the process of creating art easier with specific references.
View past uploaded works in the gallery to see natural improvement and progress over time.
lessons learned
Designing AllaPrima reinforced the importance of creating a an engaging user experience that remains clear and approachable — not overwhelming. Overall, I learnt how to balance:
Practicality & engagement
I learned how to design interactions that sustain user interest while maintaining clarity and ease of use.
Professionalism & play
I explored how to balance a playful brand with a professional interface, creating an experience that feels credible without being overly clinical.