MEET AMBER
"I just want one place where I can see my deadlines, my queue, and actually feel motivated to draw something for myself again."
UX / UI Case Study
FINCH
An Artist Manager App to help creators focus on creating.
01 — Context
Background
The reality
Freelance artists today don't just create — they're also their own manager, client liaison, social media team, and accountant. On top of shifting algorithms, generative-AI scraping, and gallery sites pushing intrusive features, the time left for actually making art keeps shrinking.
FINCH started as a personal frustration: it shouldn't take three apps and a spreadsheet just to keep a freelance art career running.
02 — Pain Point
Managing the work eats the time for the work
Artists keep telling us the same things:
- Project deadlines slipping
- Tracking commissions across DMs, email, Trello
- Pricing & queue chaos
- No time left for personal projects
- Creative burnout from admin overload
This isn't a discipline problem. It's a missing tool.
03 — Data Snapshot
What the research surfaced
73%
spend more time on admin than creating
89%
feel overwhelmed by managing client work
100%
want more time for personal projects
Time is the bottleneck. Not motivation, not skill — time.
Findings synthesized from contextual interviews + customer survey (3 artists, n=12 survey responses).
04 — Users
Who they are
Freelance artists are wearing every hat:
- Creator & illustrator
- Their own client manager
- Pricing & queue admin
- Social media strategist
What they want from a tool
Calm. Clarity. Time back. Motivation.
05 — Design Challenge
How Might We…
Help freelance artists keep their projects, clients, and creative habits in one place, so the business side stops stealing time from the art itself.
06 — Ideate · Diverge
Sketching the territory
Wireframe sketches across the four core flows — login, project tracking, daily streak, and commission management — to map the structure before going digital.
From paper to pixels — every interaction was sketched first.
06 — Ideate · Concept
One nest for the whole art career
CONCEPT
A mobile app that lets artists run their projects, take commissions, and keep a daily creative habit alive — all in one calm, bird-themed home.
ADDRESSES
Overwhelm from juggling tools · Lost project deadlines · Burnout from doing all the admin alone
Project Tracker
Calendar + checklist
Commissions
Types + live queue
Daily Streak
Duolingo for artists
Daily Inspiration
Discover + follow
07 — Prototype
Explore the prototype
Walk through the full FINCH experience: Home, Project Tracker, Daily Streak, and Commissions.
08 — Solution
Solution 1 · Project Tracker
Every project, in one calendar
A monthly calendar with color-coded project cards, start/due dates, and a checklist per project (sketch · lines · flat · shading). Artists see their whole month at a glance and know exactly what's overdue, in progress, or done.
Color codes
Start / due dates
Per-project checklist
Priority tags
Project Tracker — calendar view
08 — Solution
Solution 2 · Commissions
A profile-style commission hub where artists list their commission types, manage their queue, and toggle open/closed in one tap. Clients see exactly what's offered, what's available, and how long the wait is.
1
Add a type
Set name, price, examples, and a description. Drop in reference images.
2
Set the queue
Choose available slots. The queue fills automatically as commissions come in.
3
Artist Profile
Make yourself out there while getting daily recommendations of other artists.
08 — Solution
Solution 3 · Daily Streak
Duolingo, but for drawing.
A daily creative-habit loop: hit start, draw, upload, watch the streak grow. Designed to make personal art feel like a daily win, not another task on the list.
09 — Impact
Before & After
BEFORE
A typical week
- Deadlines tracked across 3 apps and a notebook
- Client DMs lost between Discord, IG, email
- Commission queue a guessing game
- Personal art put off for the 4th week in a row
"I'm working all the time and I still feel behind."
AFTER
A week with FINCH
- All deadlines on one color-coded calendar
- Commission queue updates itself
- Daily streak keeps personal art on the schedule
- Inspiration tab refills the well between projects
"I drew something for me again. First time in weeks."
10 — Reflection
What I learned
Designing for artists means designing around their creative time.
Artists don't want more features — they want the admin to disappear so the brush (or stylus) can come back out. Every screen had to earn its place against that goal.
Personal Reflection
I came to UX from being a working illustrator — FINCH is, in part, the tool I wish I'd had. Building it taught me that empathy isn't soft research; it's a constraint. The features that survived were the ones that respected an artist's most limited resource: their creative energy.
11 — Call to Action
What can you do?
Thank you — Ary Tian