Twitch: Hire an Artist

Marketplace for Streamers and Artists

The Customer

Monetized streamers on Twitch who are looking for artists to commission assets for their channel (emotes, badges, overlays, panels)

GOAL

Build a centralized location on Twitch to discover artists and reduce the friction that exists for streamers to find trustworthy artists to work with

The Solution

Background

Part of what makes Twitch (for the lack of a better word) “Twitchy” is its quirkiness and the ability for each streamer to customize their channel page. Most monetizing streamers add artwork and logos to represent their brand and channel. Today, Twitch provides little guidance on the process of discovering artists to commission art, leaving education, discovery, and creation of art up to word of mouth and third parties.

Artist Interviews

session structure

I conducted (8) 45-minute interview sessions with artists who created digital art for Twitch streamers. The goal was to understand the motivations and friction points artists face when working with Twitch streamers, how they run and grow their business, and how Twitch can improve in facilitating this marketplace.

General interview insights

Sense of community. There was a common theme around having an artist community - artists rely on other artists for guidance on how to properly price, create Terms of Service, and run their business successfully and competitively
Recognition is important. Artists get a sense of fulfillment seeing their work being used on a channel
Working with big name streamers creates opportunity. Artists have trouble getting their name out there but if/when they work with a well known streamer, their business grows rapidly
Word of mouth plays a big role in getting discovered. Artists mentioned joining Discord communities, posting on Twitter, and reaching out to streamers to gain traction.

“I got upset with [one of my clients] because he was saying my prices were too much. He went on Twitter and called my stuff trash...pretty much dragging me through the mud. Other artists backed me up and helped me.”

— Artist. on the importance of community

“There’s a lot of artists out there that don’t get seen...I wish those people would get a spotlight.”

— Artist Interview Participant

Design

I wanted to capture the core values that I learned in the UXR sessions:

Discoverable - Artists (both small and big) need to get the same chance at exposure
Trustworthy - Artists expressed the need to build and gain trust with streamers
Community-first - Artists learn from each other and help each other grow
Flexible - Freelancing is sometimes unpredictable, artists need a way to update relevant information including availability, pricing, etc
Visually Exciting - Our customers are streamers and artists, both of which are creative so I wanted to keep this in mind while designing