My thesis class was canceled on Wednesday due to the snow storm, but I was able to briefly meet with my professor on Friday to go over my thesis concept, tentatively named as “Nail Design Recipes(NDR)” or “Nail Art Cookbook” or “Instructables for Nail Artists”.

Overall feedback:

  • Kathleen said, “So, this is basically a site for artists.” She mentioned I should research on other art websites and blogs, in addition to other existing services and related sites that I checked out this week.
  • She was excited about the fact that I’m excited about this idea.

I also asked Kathleen about my target audiences, because I was having hard time narrowing down the details. She suggested the following:

  • There are going to be three major target audiences – (1) DIY amateur nail artists (2) Professional nail technicians and associated salons (3) Sellers of merchandises
  • Majority of people who are using NDR are going to be (1), because they have more time to spend time online than (2) and (3).
  • Besides online shopping sites, local nail salons can be venues for selling products that are featured in the NDR.
  • Research on the nail salon’s clients more. How often do they do their nails, go to salons, buy products, etc. How much do they spend on products and services?

Kathleen gave me some suggestions for features to be considered:

  • Advanced search option – Filtering photos and contents possibly through photo tags, keywords, shuffling/randomizing, etc.
  • Users participation and loyalty – The site has to offer something NEW every day if you want to encourage users participation and make them come back again and again. Analyze existing community sites and what has worked for them.
  • Documentation – Who’s doing the documentation? Do they have enough technology? Consider offering documentation as a service for busy nail artists, or come up with an easy-to-follow auto documenting mechanism. This is something I need to ask my target user groups.