Exploring Museums Guided by Knowledge
My Role
Sole UX/UI Designer
Tools Used
Miro, Pen and Paper, Adobe XD
Duration
5 Days
The Overview
GalleryPal seeks to improve the experience museums provide to visitors who explore independently. Through primary research, GalleryPal uncovered that visitors' main frustration revolved around their viewing experience. Visitors felt like they were missing the full museum experience due to the lack of accessible information on the artist and their piece. To assist GalleryPal with their vision, I conducted a GV design sprint modified for a one-person team; myself. Over five days, I devised a solution in the form of a minimum viable product to alleviate visitors' frustration with their viewing experience.
How can GalleryPal provide quick, easy-to-understand, and accessible information to users about an artist and their piece?
The Problem
GalleryPal will act as an electronic tour guide that provides summary information about artists and pieces users find most interesting by scanning a QR code associated with that piece. The integration of QR codes creates an easy marketability effect and allows anyone with a smartphone to easily access the information.
The Solution
Monday | Understanding
Research
GalleryPal conducted primary research through interviews with museum visitors and industry experts before the design sprint commenced. The data uncovered that visitors exploring the museum independently felt disappointed with their experiences due to their lack of background knowledge of artists and their work.
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Visitors tried with no avail:
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researching pieces on their phones' before or while at the museum
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listening to the information given by tour guides from afar
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reading books on an artist they were interested in
These tactics either presented too little information about artists and pieces visitors are actually interested in or overwhelming them with too much information to filter through. This pain point will be the focus of the minimum viable product.
Experts also shared additional insight that helped format the structure of the minimum viable product. Visitors resonate with information presented as a story:
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short background on the artist
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reveals the time period
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provides a fun fact about the artist
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explains why the artist created the piece
How Might We Statements
All of this led to two critical How Might We statements:
How might we improve the experience of viewing art in a museum or gallery?
How might we provide easily understandable and accessible information to users?
User Mapping
GalleryPal developed a persona out of the research:
Angela, a 23-year-old junior art director living in New York, NY.
I created an end-to-end user experience for Angela to efficiently achieve her goal of learning more about artists and their pieces while keeping in mind that Angela likes to explore museums independently.
Tuesday | Sketching
Lightning Demo
I researched apps within the museum industry for inspiration on learning tools currently provided by museums. I then examined other apps for components that could enhance an independent experience within a museum. Below are the ideas sparked by each app.
Show art that you have already scanned before for access later.
Wegmans Scan
The layout visitors are familiar with for reading information.
Waas and British Museums
Provide tours with a guided map.
MFA Mobile and British Museums
Present the information in text and audio.
Spotify
Crazy 8’s
The most important page of this app is the information page, where users will learn about a piece within the museum. So I focused eight minutes to sketch eight possible solutions of that page:
The final page is composed of three of the sketches created during the Crazy 8's exercise. Combined, they present information in a transparent, enjoyable, and user-friendly way. I then sketched a page the users would interact with both before they arrive at the information page and after to provide the initial structure to the minimum viable product.
Wednesday | Storyboarding
Storyboarding
I evaluated the solution I created the day prior and decided to keep with the overall premise of the design instead of creating a different iteration. However, I utilized storyboarding to understand how users would interact with the app and to make any adjustments if needed. While creating the storyboard, I adjusted some of the features to have a more modern look that would resonate with users as a reliable source of information.
Thursday | Prototyping
Prototyping
I curated my design as a high-fidelity prototype. I gave myself a 5-hour time frame to design and animate the prototype.
Some users might first learn about and engage with the app within the museum itself, and I wanted to incorporate this first-time user in the initial design. The QR code can be scanned by any smart device’s camera to start the interaction. When scanned, a prompt to download the app from the app store will appear. If the app is already on that device, the QR code will automatically open the app to the exact page of the piece. This will cover the accessibility aspect of the visitors’ friction point.
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From there, users can choose to learn a short overview of the piece by reading an informational excerpt or listening to an audio recording. This will cover the easy-to-understand aspect of the visitors' friction point. However, users also have the choice to learn more in-depth information about the artist and their work by clicking on the “About Artist” or “About Piece” tabs.
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Each time a user scans a QR code that directs them to the app, the information page for the piece scanned automatically gets stored in a queue for users to view later. The information page also has a save button for users to save their favorite pieces into a different queue. These queues easily allow users to recall their experiences and talk about their favorite pieces with others, covering the quick information aspect of the visitors’ friction points.
Friday | Testing
Remote Usability Testing
The main objective of the remote usability tests was to check for any friction points by observing how users engaged with the app. I tested GalleryPal with five participants that enjoy visiting museums.
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During the test, I gave each user three tasks that revolved around:
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engaging with the QR code
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learning more about the artist
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recalling museum pieces for later
Each user completed these tasks in the scope of the end-to-end user experience I created at the beginning of the design sprint. This proved that the app functions as intended with minimal friction points.
Interactive Prototype
Conclusion
Overall, users found the app easy to use and understand. By providing QR codes that lead to an easy-to-read summary of artists and their pieces, GalleryPal has alleviated the main friction point of the lack of accessible information found within museums. Additionally, since the engagement with the app can occur before a user even downloads the app, integration of GalleryPal within museums will also be seamless.
Once established, the development of additional features to alleviate the other pain points presented by the research can commence. These features could include GPS maps of participating museums' interiors so users can easily navigate museums and find pieces within them. Museums, or local tour guides, could also curate tours for individuals to purchase on the app.