PaintWay Application
HES Class: Capstone Project
Anyone should have the opportunity to learn art, whether through beginner techniques or by expanding their existing artistic skills into something greater.
Paintway is an app where users can view or post painting techniques. Want to share a cool new technique you encountered? Or maybe you want to learn how to create a 3D effect using modeling paste? Paintway will be a hub where artist can share these ideas - step by step guides with the tool and ingredients they need. It's like food recipes, but for art.
Demo Video
What?
Paintway is a community-driven iOS app that helps artists share painting techniques, discover tutorials, and connect through creativity. Built with SwiftUI and Firebase, the app combines social sharing with practical tools to save tutorials and organize art supplies.
Why?
I created Paintway to make learning and sharing art techniques feel more accessible, social, and inspiring. Artists often learn through experimentation, conversations, and watching others work, but useful techniques and resources can be scattered across different platforms. Paintway brings these experiences together in one place, giving artists a dedicated space to share what they’ve learned, discover new techniques, and track the materials and tutorials that inspire their work.
Who?
Paintway is designed for artists of all skill levels, from beginners seeking guidance to experienced artists who want to share their knowledge. The app is especially suited for painters who enjoy learning through visual examples and step-by-step instruction, while also being part of a creative community. By encouraging artists to teach and learn from one another, Paintway turns individual creative knowledge into a shared resource for the broader art community.
How?
I began by developing the visual foundation for Paintway, creating the mood board, color palette, and logo to establish the app’s creative direction. From there, I translated my concepts into high-fidelity prototypes in Figma, using them as a guide for the user experience and development process.
I developed Paintway as a native iOS app using SwiftUI, with Firebase powering authentication, user data, and content storage. I designed the experience around a simple five-tab navigation system: Home, Search, Add Post, Shopping List, and Profile.
Throughout development, I used LLMs as a coding partner to help generate, refine, and troubleshoot code, allowing me to iterate quickly while maintaining control over the product vision and user experience. I created reusable SwiftUI components for browsing painting tutorials, displaying user profiles, and managing saved content, while integrating Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore to support user accounts and user-generated posts. I also implemented image loading for user and post photos and structured the data so artists can create, save, and organize tutorials based on materials, paint types, steps, and tags.
The project allowed me to explore the intersection of UX design, visual storytelling, AI-assisted development, and mobile development, taking Paintway from an initial concept and visual identity to a functional iOS experience.
Personas
Annie González is a dedicated high school art teacher with a passion for inspiring young artists. She delights in teaching painting and is constantly experimenting with the materials in her art kit to discover new techniques. Driven by her commitment to nurturing the next generation of artists, she enthusiastically shares fresh ideas and creative methods in her classroom. Annie also spends countless hours exploring art forums and online communities to find and adapt innovative approaches for her students.
Lexie Brown is a busy professional in her 20s living in New York City and working as an accountant at PwC. Despite her demanding schedule, she unwinds by painting in her free time. With a double major in Accounting and Studio Art, Lexie brings both creativity and expertise to her hobby. While she has occasionally sold her artwork, painting remains a personal outlet for relaxation and self-expression. Currently experiencing a creative block, Lexie is eager to find fresh inspiration and new techniques to reignite her artistic spark.
James Suh is a curious middle schooler with a budding interest in art. Although his experience with painting has mostly been limited to elementary school classes, he has always enjoyed doodling and drawing from a young age. His mom has taken him to several museums in Chicago, which has sparked his desire to learn more about art. Since formal art classes aren’t currently an option for his family, James is teaching himself through YouTube videos and TikToks, eager to explore new techniques and grow his skills.
Final Prototype
View my prototype in Figma!
