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Case Study - Huemn
My Role
Wireframe, Design System, Product Design, Prototype
Platform
Web App / PWA / Mobile App - iOS, Android
Year
2023 - 2024
Team
Head of Product
6+ Engineers
2 Product Designers
Huemn is home to over 20 Photography brands across the country with over 300 Creatives working around the year to cover approx. 1000 weddings. Located in all major cities in India, Huemn is made up of a diverse team of IITians and creative heads who use technology to empower entrepreneurs so that they can concentrate on practicing the craft they love.
What started as a tool for Creative studios to share their work through Huemn Galleries, quickly turned into a CRM tool through which studios can run their whole business using the platform. Studios could manage their projects, manage their finances, co-ordinate with their team, manage their documents with the clients all in one platform. The team had been working on this problem statement since 2021, And when I was onboarded as a Designer on the team, we were in a major shift in strategy for the Product. - Huemn Studio was to be made available to the masses.
Project Overview
Huemn Studio and Gallery is designed to support studios from the lead nurturing stage to the delivery stage. It helps collect client requirements using forms, send quotations through proposals, manage shoots and operations with projects, handle finances, and deliver client memories via an AI-powered client gallery. It is an all-in-one tool tailored for creative photography studios.
My Role
As a designer on this project, I ensured a cross functional collaboration between the product, development and Quality Assurance. My responsibilities included crafting the design strategy, aligning user needs with business objectives, and ensuring that we build a seamless and intuitive product through design.
Few of my focus areas during my time at Huemn
Click one to know more
Huemn 2.0
Few Modules I worked on as part of our Huemn 2.0 Update -
Dashboard
One major feedback from our internal brands was the difficulty in finding key information on the platform, such as shoot details or team activities. Users had to navigate through several pages to access this information. To address this, we needed to understand what information users frequently needed to streamline access and improve the user experience.
Breakdown of the Problem
After Probing further, with our users we understood several key information points they would need at a glance -
Current Financial health of their studio which includes their expenses and revenue
The Status of the proposals being sent by them to clients
The Responses to the forms being sent by them to the clients
Activities in their Galleries - Views, Registrations, Feedbacks, Picture Downloads etc.
What is their Team Working on?
Solution
Our Approach was to categorise the data by the main modules - Projects, Finances and Proposals with Forms And Gallery modules to be made after the initial release. Since our priority at the time was to focus more on the Project Management aspect of the Studio, this decision was made by the stakeholders.
The Projects Overview focused on three main areas: Shoots, Deliverables, and Tasks. The key feature of this view is the Contributions graph for each area, showing daily activity over a long period.
This approach was chosen after careful consideration to highlight patterns over time, especially for mid and large studios with eg. 500-1000 shoots a year and larger team sizes. Displaying this data on a calendar was also considered but rejected as it would have been cluttered and hard to read with the need of many additional filters to understand the data.
Although the graph requires some learning for those unfamiliar with it, tutorials and support are provided. Additionally, future features like trend analysis and AI insights will help users understand the data better.
The finance overview focused on three main areas: Actual and Projected Profits, Monthly Performance, and Yearly Performance.
The summary was divided into Actual and Projected profits after analyzing trends in user financials. We noticed that payments received by users were segmented, with clients paying a token amount initially and the remaining payments falling into two categories: scheduled and unscheduled. Some payments had a set date, while others did not. To address this, we created an Actual and Projected Overview that summarised the amounts into received and projected payments.
Additionally, the Monthly and Yearly Performance Review concentrated on expenses and income for each respective period.
As a wedding-first platform, understanding yearly trends is crucial for photographers to anticipate busy periods. Weddings in India are seasonal, so identifying peak times for leads and closures is essential.
Additionally, knowing when other events are likely to occur helps studios plan effectively. The Proposal Overview aimed to achieve this by training an AI on data and trends from studios across India.
Initially, the feature displays data for individual studios, with plans to expand it into a comprehensive wedding calendar.
Invoicing
Being an All-in-one platform for the users, due to a long list of roadmaps and requested features from our users, Invoicing was not being prioritised on the platform. Being a crucial feature for businesses to also be able to send invoices to their clients, the feature was designed and made live to the users
Solution
The invoicing system was designed to be straightforward and user-friendly. Users could create invoices for a project from either the Projects or Accounts Module.
To minimise repetitive data entry, the system autofilled as much information as possible, linking the invoice to a project and pulling in all relevant data.
Frequently repeated items, like customer notes or terms and conditions, could be edited in the settings using the invoice preset.
Invoices could be created and shared via a link through email or WhatsApp, allowing clients to download and pay directly through the link.
Access Settings
From our understanding of our user base, we learned that studio teams typically consist of both in-house crew and freelancers. During peak seasons, studios primarily rely on freelancers since it's costly to retain full-time employees throughout the year, especially during off-seasons. Therefore, access settings need to accommodate this scenario. Allowing a member access to everything on the platform could negatively impact the experience for studio owners, so access controls must be carefully managed to reflect these dynamics.
Solution
To address access control, three access levels were created: No Access, Limited Access, and Full Access, along with two roles: Admin and Member.
Admins can add new members to the platform, whereas members cannot.
Full Access allows users to access the entire module, including all user and team-created content. Limited Access restricts users to only the content they create.
This setup prevents freelancers from viewing work created and uploaded by others, ensuring they remain within their own access boundaries.
Bonus
I also worked on revamping several modules, including Finance, Proposals, and Forms. After these updates were implemented on the platform, we witnessed a significant boost in sales and a surge in studios interested in trying out the product. It was validating to observe the increased demand following the revamp, indicating the effectiveness of the improvements made.
VE App
While Huemn was available on the web, users frequently requested mobile access. Studio owners often travel, making it challenging to manage tasks from a laptop. The platform's lack of mobile compatibility highlighted the need for a dedicated app.
Breakdown of the Problem
To tackle this problem, we asked the users what was the primary need for an app and when they travel what do they want to look after the most -
Look at new leads they received from the sent forms
Sending Quotes to users on the Go
Assigning crew to shoots and notifying them on the app
Assigning work to crew
Solution
Users can view all the responses to their forms in one place from the app. One key feature of the platform is the ability to build a proposal directly from a form response which is available on the app too.
Users can create or view shoots depending on their access levels. They also can filter shoots based on crew/dates. When creating a shoot, if the crew is already assigned to another shoot at the same time, the user is alerted of the same.
Users can create or view proposals sent to their clients from the platform. The User has to select a template from their library and can start building effortlessly and the built proposals can be shared to the client via link or email
Visitor Registration
This is a common problem many of us have faced: attending a wedding and wanting the photos taken by the photographer. Typically, you have to follow up with the host, who then follows up with the photographer, creating a lengthy process before the pictures are ready and can be shared with the guests. To address this issue, we needed to explore a more efficient solution.
Breakdown of the Problem
After closely observing the guests at a wedding and the way photographers worked, these were our observations -
Guests are more likely to register to get pictures right after they are clicked at a Photo booth or if someone they know mentions it at the venue
Studios were interested in a solution that allowed them to directly communicate with guests. This direct contact provided an additional touchpoint for marketing, which is crucial in their business where most leads come from word of mouth or referrals.
Solution
To facilitate this, studios can now generate a guest registration link for each gallery they create for an event. This feature generates both a link and a QR code for the event, allowing guests to easily access and register for the gallery.
The solution involves using QR codes displayed as standees or posters at venues. Guests can scan the QR code to directly access and download pictures from the event
Once a guest scans the QR code, they register using their phone number and a selfie. The selfie is then used by AI face recognition to identify and retrieve their pictures from all the photos uploaded in the gallery.
Attendance Management
As part of our internal operation tools, a significant problem faced by our HR team was the manual attendance system. With over 300 employees across four different branches, tracking working hours and employee availability became challenging. The situation was further complicated by the division of employees into on-site and off-site categories, making the issue worse.
Breakdown of the Problem
To address the HR team's requirements effectively, we delved deeper into understanding their needs to provide a suitable solution:
The primary requirement was to accurately log the hours worked by each employee, ensuring compliance with the mandatory 9-hour workday.
Additionally, they needed the capability to generate reports on employee attendance whenever necessary.
Solution
Employees can download the app, allowing them to scan their face to mark their attendance on the platform conveniently. This feature also tags the location of the employee, which is especially beneficial for those working from home or stationed out of the office.
The HR team can easily monitor the status of all employees across branches and departments through the provided dashboard. This dashboard allows them to track attendance and view real-time updates. Additionally, they have the capability to download reports as needed for further analysis and record-keeping.
Impact
User growth was the most quantifiable impact, with over 300 studios using Huemn
Adoption rate has increased by 66% and User engagement is at 74%
Galleries receive over 70,000 visits per month from users across 150 countries.
Internal Operation tools like Attendance Module being used by over 300+ employees and growing
There are plans to expand the new product outside of India, primarily targeting the US and Canada.
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