Kulayaan: Towards the Development of E-commerce Website for Incarcerated Artists from Bilibid

This study introduces the "Kulayaan" project, an ambitious initiative aimed at creating an e-commerce platform to showcase and sell artworks crafted by incarcerated artists within the New Bilibid Prison in the Philippines. Despite facing challenging circumstances, these artists have found solace and purpose in their creative expressions. Kulayaan's design emerges from insights gathered through qualitative interviews. These conversations with incarcerated artists and stakeholders informed specific website features, highlighting the distinctiveness of Kulayaan from general websites. The platform aims to not only connect these artists with a global audience but also reflects their narratives and needs through its design choices. The paper details the comprehensive development of Kulayaan, encompassing its inception, design, and implementation. It explores the potential impact of this platform on incarcerated artists and the broader landscape of e-commerce, local businesses, and the appreciation of Filipino artistry. The study primarily utilizes a quantitative research method. It collects and analyzes numerical data to evaluate various aspects of the Kulayaan project, including user experience and usability. The System Usability Scale (SUS) survey respondents consist of 8 potential buyers and 2 Bilibid prison personnel. The results show that the users found the website slightly complex. On the contrary, the average SUS score resulted in 89.5, indicating an excellent overall level of usability. By leveraging the transformative power of art and innovation, Kulayaan transcends prison walls, redefines engagement with art in the digital age, and reaches the study's desired goals. The paper can be improved by adding more respondents, which would help in the development of the application. Future researchers can utilize the study to create related research and can further improve this study by implementing more comprehensive usability tests.