Handsy

Discovery plan

The initial brief for this Master’s project focused on designing a digital experience around a personal passion. I began with broad exploratory research to identify and define a viable opportunity space. Through discovery, I narrowed the focus to at-home pottery practice, shaping the direction of the final concept into a digital learning experience.

Method

Understand motivations for engaging with pottery across hobby, educational, and professional contexts.

📮 Discovery survey
👥 Interviews
💬 Forum review

Explore how users currently engage with pottery and related creative practices.

📮 Discovery survey
👥 Interviews
💬 Forum review

Identify key barriers preventing wider participation in pottery practice.

📮 Discovery survey
👥 Interviews
💬 Forum review

Understand where and how users access pottery-related content and learning resources.

📮 Discovery survey
👥 Interviews
📈 Market research

Evaluate existing pottery platforms and learning tools to identify gaps in the current experience.

📈 Market research
🏆 Competitor analysis

Assess user attitudes towards digital support within physical, hands-on creative practices.

👥 Interviews

Findings

A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Surveys established the target demographic and experience levels, while interviews and forum analysis revealed key motivations and barriers.

📮

Discovery survey

60 participants

Key Insights

• Majority of respondents were early-stage or hobby-level potters rather than professionals

• Hand-building is the most common entry method into pottery practice

• Most participants first engage with pottery through a one-off classes or workshops

• Continued pottery engagement is largely unavailable due to pottery classes being expensive or not aligned with participants schedules

👥

User interviews

5 participants

Key Insights

• Participants are driven by creative expression and making something tangible from scratch

• Pottery as a hobby is strongly associated with relaxation and emotional wellbeing

• Participants experience a lack of patience and difficulty maintaining consistent engagement

• Frustration increases when participants 'fail' or do not progress as expected

💬

Forum review

100+ comments analysed

Key Insights

• Pottery is recommended to help with low mood and by therapists to their patients

• Learning is described as slow and challenging, with a steep initial learning curve across materials, tools, and techniques

• As found in interviews, fear of failure was frequently mentioned as a barrier to starting pottery

Pain points

Without attending a pottery class, beginners don't know how to start their pottery journey.

The early-stage learning feels overwhelming due to complex techniques and materials.

Beginners experience a 'fear of failure' whens starting out and so cannot enjoy the process or experience the wellbeing affects of clay work.

The lack of structured guidance leads to slow, frustrating progression which causes some beginners to drop the hobby.

Pottery is a physical practice which makes it difficult to follow traditional screen-based tutorials.

There is no central resource of pottery inspiration or guidance, so users must switch between different applications which interrupts their flow.

Low fidelity wireframes

Based on existing patterns in learning platforms and the needs identified through research, I defined four core flows to structure the experience. These were designed to support different stages of engagement, from onboarding and guided learning through to exploration and more reflective, hands-free interaction.

onboarding

The onboarding flow collects data on the user’s experience with pottery and their goals to tailor the guidance. This reduces the early uncertainty experienced by beginners and creates a more supportive entry point.

Pain points addressed

• Without attending a pottery class, beginners don't know how to start their pottery journey.

Onboarding screens for Handsy pottery app showing welcome, features, experience questions, clay availability, goals selection, and account creation form.

personalised learning

The personalised learning plan provides a structured pathway for users to build their pottery skills. Based on onboarding, users follow step-by-step tutorials designed to support progression and confidence, using voice or gesture controls to enable a fully hands-free experience.

Pain points addressed

• The early-stage learning feels overwhelming due to complex techniques and materials.
• The lack of structured guidance leads to slow, frustrating progression which causes some beginners to drop the hobby.
• Pottery is a physical practice which makes it difficult to follow traditional screen-based tutorials.

Six mobile app screens showing a tutorial flow for gesture and voice control setup with permission requests and instructional text.

explore

The explore flow enables users to browse a range of tutorials outside of their structured pathway, supporting self-directed experimentation and discovery. User feedback is captured to adapt content difficulty and support ongoing progression.

Pain points addressed

• There is no central resource of pottery inspiration or guidance, so they must switch between different applications which interupts their flow.

Mobile app screens showing a pottery tutorial flow including skill selection, tutorial details, step-by-step instructions for coiling clay, completion confirmation, feedback request, and final congratulations.

mindful moments

The mindfulness mode, accessed within Explore and differentiated through a dark interface, supports calm, guided interaction with clay. It removes focus from outcomes, encouraging familiarity with the medium while promoting relaxation. Pre- and post-session feedback helps users track the impact on their wellbeing.

Pain points addressed

• Beginners experience a 'fear of failure' whens starting out and so cannot enjoy the process or experience the wellbeing affects of clay work.

Mobile app screens showing mindfulness tutorial flow: explore page with learning categories, feeling check-in before starting 'Setting intentions' session, session introduction with purpose message, reflection prompt about pottery and emotions, and post-session feeling check.

Usability testing

A usability study was conducted with 7 participants through a combination of remote and in-person sessions. Participants were asked to complete five tasks designed to test the app’s core flows, including onboarding, starting a tutorial, locating materials, saving content, and accessing previously completed tutorials.

Participant selection:
• 2 who have never tried pottery
• 4 who previosuilt tried a pottery class
• 1 UX/UI designer for professional feedback
‍

A sequence of six mobile screens showing a pottery app onboarding and tutorial process including app introduction, user experience questions, personalized goal setup, microphone and camera access request, gesture tutorial, and hand gesture instructions.

Task success rate and completion time were recorded to evaluate usability and efficiency. Follow-up questions were asked after each task to capture qualitative feedback, with a final rating (1–10) on likelihood to use the app, and overall impressions collected at the end of the session.

Example table ⬇️

Feedback

• The overall experience was well received, with an average rating of 7.8/10 and 100% of participants indicating they would use the app.
• The tone, branding, and overall feel were positively received, with users describing the experience as “light and easy to use”.
• The hands-free interaction was recognised as a valuable and thoughtful feature, with gesture controls clearly understood.

Improvements

• Reduce on-screen text to improve clarity and scannability.
• Move key information from pop-ups into core screens to increase visibility.
• Simplify content hierarchy to better support task completion.