DeviantArt, the online social community for artists and art enthusiasts, today released its first mobile app, expanding the experience of its Website to hand-held devices. Users of DeviantArt for iOS and Android can both access the same artistic content and have a platform to communicate and submit art works on-the-go.
DeviantArt has admittedly taken some time to develop its mobile app, though it already optimized the site for smaller screens years ago. “We didn’t jump into mobile apps right away because we wanted to take ample time to understand and design the mobile experience for visual art in order to genuinely enhance discovery and conversation for our expanding community,” Angelo Sotira, DeviantArt’s CEO told TNW.
Now seems like the right time to take the mobile plunge. “Our community is a hotbed of visual activity that feeds popular culture and fandom, and with the DeviantArt mobile app, we are bringing creativity to people at scale and ultimately increasing accessibility to the arts, Sotira said.
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This move accompanies site changes as well. For example, the DeviantArt logo and name treatment changed in early December and new features already reflect some new design protocols. But DeviantArt is not finished,as Sotira said design changes are forthcoming through the second half of next year.
The app showcases six major sections, including news, new image collections, two social communications modules, a personalized watch list and an art submission platform.
The Today Page serves up daily news, features, curations and conversations. The What’s Hot, Undiscovered, Daily Deviations and Explore sections offer images from DeviantArt’s collection of over 33 million artists and curators.
Logged in members can make use of status updates, the Watch Feed, and the message center. Notifications is designed as the communication center where users can manage mentions, replies and messages. Submit lets you contribute art and literature to the site or compose a status update.
That brings profound changes to the DeviantArt community, considering that the site has some 33 million registered members and over 65 million monthly unique visitors with 47 percent of DeviantArt users under the age of 25 and 31 percent of existing traffic is via mobile devices.
“We look to mobile to significantly expand both participation and traffic. Without question, more art will be seen by more people now than before. The DeviantArt app serves our community’s mission: to inspire the artist in all of us,” Sotira said.
The new app is for phones only, and a tablet version is contemplated for a later date.
➤ DeviantArt [iOS and Android]
Feature image: Daniela Uhlig
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