Multi-method Approach for User Experience of Selfie-taking Mobile Applications

Taking selfies is a popular activity in most social media applications and applying filters/lenses to these selfies has become one of the most demanded features of such applications. This paper aims to design an application for taking selfies to minimize the heavy use of beautifying filters. To understand the current user experience of selfie-taking and filter features, multiple user experience research methods were applied in two steps. In the first step, interviews were conducted with 10 participants to collect data. The key findings of interviews were (i) the need for saving memories as users' primary goal of using the applications, (ii) the need for using slightly beautifying filters as their preferred filter type, (iii) the need for a favorite filters list, and (iv) the need for the opportunity to edit selfies after they are taken. This output of the interviews was used as an input for determining the survey questions in the second step. A total of 340 respondents completed the survey and the findings were consistent with those of the interviews. Further pointing to the rising opportunity for a new selfie-taking application designed to save selfies quickly without sharing and only apply slightly beautifying filters. More studies should focus on increasing engagement and including a saved selfie categorization feature in the design.