creating an online platform for an Indian classical dance community
All about Kathak! is a mobile app concept that is aimed at building and developing a close-knit community of Kathak aspirants, learners, and experts to facilitate communication regarding the basics and details of Kathak to pursue it as a hobby as well as a career. Since I have been pursuing Kathak for over 10 years, it gives me whereabouts about how necessary and useful would the app be.
Context
UI/UX Design | Freelance Project
Timeframe
4 weeks
Tools
Sketch, Invision Adobe XD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
Role
Research and synthesis, conceptualization, information architecture, prototyping, visual design, branding
about kathak
Kathak is one of the major Indian classical dance forms. The term Kathak means "story", and Kathakar means "the one who tells a story". Kathakars, traditionally, communicated stories from the great epics and ancient mythology through dance, songs, and music like early Greek theatre. Kathak dancers tell various stories through their hand movements and extensive footwork, but most importantly through their facial expressions. It is a very opulent form of dance that overlaps with the contemporary dance style. The dancer has to wear Ghungroos (ankle bells) while presenting it. It is of the most expressive dance form. Costumes play a very important role here.
The Opportunity
The community of Kathak dancers is large, in India and abroad. These people have a variety of needs and sometimes, struggle to find the appropriate guidance and resources to address these needs. There lies an opportunity in bringing together such people from all over the country so that they can have a robust communication channel and form a stronger community that shares the same goals and interests.
The lack of a channel to connect those who are learning but aren't getting the right content to study leads to people not pursuing Kathak at all, which was identified as the initial problem space. To expand on this further, I started putting down our thoughts around requirements for Kathak and some other needs of the large community that strives for w.r.t the awareness of this old dance form.
The solution
A platform that enables the communication between Kathak aspirants, dancers, and experts to facilitate awareness and education, which is lacking right now on many levels. The exchange of other kathak related information to form a well-connected network of people and a shared repository of valuable resources.
General requirements
University
Level 6
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level 7
Level 1
Graduate
Each level needs theory and practical to be cleared to move forward. The theory has a written exam whereas the practical exam consists of performing Kathak mostly in front of an audience.
Kathak is an art form, like any other classical demands dedication. One has to clear these exams in order to grow professionally in this dance form. It generally takes around 9 years to complete the whole course.
apply to university exam
In the concept, the app would be connected to Kathak University who holds exams twice each year. Students can log in and fill in their exam forms through the app as well.
events and workshops
Knowledge grows only when it's shared. Various and workshops prove to be very helpful for everyone, not necessarily just a student.
know your dance
History, exponents, costumes, etc build an Indian classical dance form. All these components being extremely important, one has to avail all of them to give an exam.
study for exams on the go
Syllabus and portion for each exam for theory exams. Basic dance videos by experts and legends for the practical exams.
research and synthesis
Despite Kathak is an Indian classical dance form, a huge part of the Indian community there is a lack of awareness and it seems to be fading with time. It is a challenge to keep it alive and avoid our culture from fading.
NOVICE
INTERMEDIATE
EXPERT
number of angle bells determine the expertise level
"It is impossible to clear the exam without having to refer to multiple sources for every topic hence it is time-consuming and tedious"
‘’
''My career and passion are both important to me. I can spare time only when I am traveling to study and it is physically impossible to make notes then. Since I can't do this right now, I have to keep delaying my exam which pushes my graduation further away''
‘’Managing home and kathak is already hectic for me. Having to refer to multiple sources to appear for the exams is tedious and next to impossible that’s why I had to give up Kathak after 3 years when it started getting impossible for me to manage. I had to give up on my passion due to this’’
‘’
Analysis of the existing channels of kathak
Various channels were analysed through which people currently pursue and the challenges of each channel to identify opportunity areas.
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Design considerations
Bridging the gap
The solution should provide insights to those who are want to know and pursue Kathak as their hobby or career, as well as those who are aspiring to this dance form. It should enable an individual to study for a particular level of exam without any hindrance at one single touch.
providing a dedicated platform
The solution should serve as a platform dedicated to addressing all Kathak aspirants, dancers and experts like having enough knowledge about the dance form itself, having access to a shared database of the relevant information required as per the level, and so on.
Forming a close-knit community
The solution should also build a strongly connected community of this dance form from all over the country. It should serve as a networking platform and should help them share knowledge with each other, help a student to study, be notified about events and workshops in their city, etc.
information architecture
card sorting
We tried permutations and combinations of different interaction design patterns to translate the information architecture to wireframes for a mobile device and tested them with our users.
The card sorting exercise helped us understand how our potential users would organize topics into categories that made sense to them. They were also asked to give each category a title. This exercise helped us develop information architecture.
prototype
low fidelity wire-frames
I tried out a rough prototype for testing. It gave an insight into the actual working app. I got better clarity of what is working in the app and what is not, and better insight towards the flow of each frame which was incorporated in the final design.
the app
