AI-powered Gamified Feature for Photos App

Overview

To enhance user engagement with their old photos, I proposed AI-powered gamified features for the Photos app. These features transform photo viewing into an engaging experience through visual effects and hidden meanings within old photos.

My Role

As an individual project guided by senior designers, I covered the end-to-end design process—from user research to UX/UI and graphic design.

Type

Two months challenge
at Samsung

Duration

2 Months
Jan - Feb 2023

Tools

Miro, Figma, FigJam, Blender, Illustration, After Effects

Design Challenge

How might we encourage people revisiting old photos in the Photos app more frequently?

Project Start Point

The low user revisit rate of Photos app

Services now offer highlight features,
enabling people to better view and utilize old photos.

As a result of a survey conducted with 102 people, 76% of users revisit old photos only less than twice a month.

Online Survey

98% of users still think old photos are meaningful.

Survey of 102 Gen MZ participants (conducted online from February 11 to 13, 2023) showed that 98% still find their old photos meaningful and valuable.

Problem

Old photos that users rarely revisit
don't lead to instant emotional engagement and interest.

They only revisit a few photos from their large collection of past images. There are also many more photos they haven’t looked at in a long time. When they do revisit those, it often doesn’t lead to immediate enjoyment.

Solution

Interesting metadata and gamification as solutions

The solution uses metadata and gamified features to help users discover hidden and interesting meanings in their photos. I also added visual effects to make viewing the photos more fun and engaging.

➊ Interesting Metadata hidden behind old photos as a Solution

Photos contain hidden stories. For example, even if I don’t look great in a photo, if it’s the one where I’m smiling the most in my album, it can still feel more valuable to me.

➋ Gamified feature to view the old photos in a fun way

Instead of simply viewing old photos, the process is transformed into an exciting journey to rediscover them. For example, users can select a desired location on a subway map and view photos taken in that specific area.

Playful Photo Adventures using Metadata

Users can transform photos viewing into an engaging and meaningful experience.

If a user chose the "Route Map"

Step 1.

Choose a station
you want to travel to again!

If a user chooses a station they want to travel to, the subway will head toward the selected destination. Users can look forward to seeing photos taken from that location and what kinds of photos will appear.

Step 2.

The doors open and
your photos of Zermatt appear
in the order of the places I visited.

When the destination is reached, the display lights up, the subway doors open, and your old photos are shown with a sparkling effect and music. To evoke the feeling of traveling again and make it more engaging, the photos are selected diversely using metadata—featuring food I ate, landscapes, and activities. Even if they are not well-taken, users can still find interest in the photos and attribute new meaning to them.

If a user chose the "Smile Drop"

Tap the smile icon, and the photo with the biggest smile in your app will appear.

When a user keeps clicking on the smile icon, the icon starts to crack and eventually breaks apart. Smile icons fall down like rain. Finally, a photo of the biggest smile in the album appears on the screen.

How can the idea be applied in the current Photos app practically?

A new way of sorting old photos

Traditionally, photos were categorized by simple criteria like people or places. Now, they can be organized by smile intensity, meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), temperature at the time, or the number of people.

Other Playful Photo Adventures

2022 Highlights Boxes:

To help users year-end review, this filter suggest photos per location. This filter groups photos from 2022's highlights into boxes.Choose a box and enjoy the effects tailored to the contents insidefor visual fun!

Today’s horoscope

TThis is a tarot card filter for your daily fortune. Choose a stone card you're drawn to and reveal your fortune for the day. Don't forget to check the photo on the back of the card!

Behind the Scenes of Design

User research process

Survey & Interview

How: Online survey with 58 participants, 45-minutes interviews with 3 participants

Affinity Diagram

Why: To organize the user research data and identify correlations

User Empathy & Context Model

Why: To understand user’s hidden and real thoughts, feelings and problems

Idea iteration

[Consideration]

1. How can I make exploration process more joyful? 
2. How can I better utilize the metadata in photos? 
3. How can I make users to use this feature for a long time?

[Development]

Design even the micro-interactions in an engaging way.
Utilize the various metadata included in a single photo.
Create photo filters in various ways, not just one.

Use case of example photo filter

AI Algorithm using Metadata

What I learned

I think the most important phase of this project was pausing our ongoing ideation to revisit our research. When we encountered limitations in generating ideas, we returned to the user interview data. This led us to uncover a significant insight we had previously missed: Generation Z is eager to broaden their perspectives by gaining knowledge across diverse fields. Based on this discovery, we introduced the concept of knowledge into our project, shifting the focus away from sharing ideas with other users. I believe this approach was highly successful.

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