ZineSter

Build a desktop and mobile app called ZineSter.

ONE-LINE PITCH:
Your passion to make even a small idea into a zine is the key to this app.
ZineStar creates opportunities for each creator to connect with small communities that match their interests.

TARGET USER:
- Age & context: Anyone from 10 to 60 — who has a passion to create zines to express their personal things, such as diaries, essays, personal stories, niche music scene, sci-fi, cult movies, and visual art and photos, attends art book fairs
- Pain point: Currently, there is no dedicated digital platform to upload their zines; they use social media instead, but it is buried so fast in the timeline and makes it difficult to find those zines later, and there is a possibility that it can get out of control easily and expand in an undesired way.
- Behavior: Casual computer user; also uses phone. Doesn't have to be a person who uses a computer for work.
- Motivation: By creating their own zine, they expect to be connected with the community that formed with the people who have a similar interest.
- Key insight: Although they want to be connected/involved with communities, they are often afraid of the community expanding in unexpected ways that they can't control.

SCREENS TO DESIGN:
To make the app work, here are the main screens.
-Uploading screen: upload personally created unique zine to the app, it has: image upload, title, creator, issue date, price, genre, size, number of copies, and the details as a text field, and some settings for commenting on/off, commenting only from selected community, show/hide in the Explore screen.
-Profile screen: Shows all of the users' zines and communities that they are part of.
-Community screen: List all of the communities in the app, there are a search bar and filters to find desired communities for users, and a list of the communities the user is part of.
-Explore screen: Any user can explore any zines that are listed in this app as long as each creator sets their zine to public. User can do: likes, comment(if the creator allows), and purchase(of the creator wants)

KEY USER STORIES:
-As a zine creator, I can easily upload my zine to the app.
-As a zine creator, I can control how it can be treated in the app, such as allowing commenting, sharing, and purchasing zines, so that I can control how it can expand in a community.
-As a zone creator, I want to inform my fans of information about new events and new issues.
-As a zone creator, I want to get feedback about my zines within the circles/community that I can trust.
-As a user, I want to find zines that relate to my interests and start finding other zines.
-As a user, I want to expand my zine network related to my interests and be part of those communities to get information about bookfairs or new issues from my favorite zinesters.
-As a user, I want to know my favorite zinester of information about new events and new issues.

EMOTIONAL GOAL:
ZineSter should feel like a safe place to post, share, and communicate, as most of the physical events are. Fun and safe vibe.

VISUAL DIRECTION:
The zine community is often fiercely protective of their "DIY" and "Offline" ethos. Ensure the UI feels authentic and raw—think Risograph-inspired colors:
Use overlapping "ink" textures, slightly misaligned borders (mimicking registration errors), and a limited color palette (like Fluorescent Pink, Cornflower Blue, and Black).

DO NOT:
-No, a slick, corporate "Amazon-style" interface.
-No typical social media app UX, like, follow, retweet, that makes the user's content out of control.

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