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ArtWise: enhancing education at museums

ArtWise: enhancing
education at museums

ArtWise: enhancing
education at museums

the problem

Museum and gallery visitors lack approachable methods to learn more about the artwork on display that could enhance their in-person viewing experience. This issue includes both spatial and psychological factors, such as the challenge of viewing art and informational plaques up close to feeling uncomfortable speaking up with questions during a guided tour. This barrier in art education at museums causes people to be more disconnected from the artwork and easily forget their experience after visiting a museum.

solution

A personalized gallery guide that supports the in-person learning experience at museums.

role

sole UX/UI designer from end-to-end on research, analysis, and UI design.

timeline

5 day Design Sprint -
Jan 2024

solution

A personalized gallery guide that supports the in-person learning experience at museums.

role

sole UX/UI designer from end-to-end on research, analysis, and UI design

timeline

5 day Design Sprint - Jan 2024

solution

A personalized gallery guide that supports the in-person learning experience at museums.

role

A personalized gallery guide that supports the in-person learning experience at museums.

timeline

5 days (Design Sprint)

design sprint process
day 1: map

The main prioritity for the first day of the Design Sprint was to understand the problem through:


1. Secondary Research conducted via recorded interviews of (2) main user types:

  • The Museum Visitor

  • The Museum Tour Guide


  1. Identifying common themes: using the Affinity Mapping technique

  2. Putting the User (visitor) first: synthesizing research and user insights through personas and journey mapping

User Journey Map

Common Themes

Affinity mapping at the early discovery phase of this Design Sprint helped find common themes from multiple user group types in order identify the most common joys and painpoints for museum and gallery visitors. Information gathered from the Tour Guide and the visitors fell largely into 3 categories:

  1. Content: what do visitors want to learn about/what questions do guides get asked most often?

  2. The role of a Tour Guide: how does a Tour Guide support the visitor experience and how could this be enhanced by a tool such as Artwise?

  3. Visitor Challenges: what do visitors say and what do Tour Guides observe as the most common issues a visitor will encounter at a museum or gallery?

Insights about a Typical Museum Visitor

JTBD / Jobs to Be Done

The JBTD framework was applied during the mapping on Day 1 of the Sprint in order
to prioritize outcomes for users over specific product features:

  1. Enable users to learn more about art when visiting a museum

  2. Help users find museums and galleries to visit

  3. Support the ability for users to record their personal observations about art

  4. Enhance the in-person experience of visiting a museum

day 2: sketch

Quick and iterative ideation method through brainstorming on paper and Crazy-8 sketching.


Starting with "no bad ideas" to reach the good ideas.

storyboard highlights

User Journey Map

Common Themes

Affinity mapping at the early discovery phase of this Design Sprint helped find common themes from multiple user group types in order identify the most common joys and painpoints for museum and gallery visitors. Information gathered from the Tour Guide and the visitors fell largely into 3 categories:

  1. Content: what do visitors want to learn about/what questions do guides get asked most often?

  2. The role of a Tour Guide: how does a Tour Guide support the visitor experience and how could this be enhanced by a tool such as Artwise?

  3. Visitor Challenges: what do visitors say and what do Tour Guides observe as the most common issues a visitor will encounter at a museum or gallery?

Insights about a Typical Museum Visitor

JTBD / Jobs to Be Done

The JBTD framework was applied during the mapping on Day 1 of the Sprint in order
to prioritize outcomes for users over specific product features:

  1. Enable users to learn more about art when visiting a museum

  2. Help users find museums and galleries to visit

  3. Support the ability for users to record their personal observations about art

  4. Enhance the in-person experience of visiting a museum

day 2: sketch

Quick and iterative ideation method through brainstorming on paper and Crazy-8 sketching.


Starting with "no bad ideas" to reach the good ideas.

storyboard highlights

User Journey Map

Common Themes

Affinity mapping at the early discovery phase of this Design Sprint helped find common themes from multiple user group types in order identify the most common joys and painpoints for museum and gallery visitors. Information gathered from the Tour Guide and the visitors fell largely into 3 categories:

  1. Content: what do visitors want to learn about/what questions do guides get asked most often?

  2. The role of a Tour Guide: how does a Tour Guide support the visitor experience and how could this be enhanced by a tool such as Artwise?

  3. Visitor Challenges: what do visitors say and what do Tour Guides observe as the most common issues a visitor will encounter at a museum or gallery?

Insights about a Typical Museum Visitor

JTBD / Jobs to Be Done

The JBTD framework was applied during the mapping on Day 1 of the Sprint in order
to prioritize outcomes for users over specific product features:

  1. Enable users to learn more about art when visiting a museum

  2. Help users find museums and galleries to visit

  3. Support the ability for users to record their personal observations about art

  4. Enhance the in-person experience of visiting a museum

information architecture diagram

Prioritizing Scope for the Design Sprint: Primary User Flows

1. Find a museum, gallery or piece of artwork nearby
2. Scan an artwork in person to learn more about it
3. View saved artwork and notes about personalized thoughts or experiences related to the work of art

user flows

day 4: prototype

Application of accurate scale, hierarchy and UI components to an expanded number of screens based on the storyboard sketches.

  1. Low Fidelity Wireframes
    > early User Testing

  2. UI Branding

  3. Design System

  4. High Fidelity Mockups
    > User Testing

  5. Final Prototype

UI Branding

Inspired by signage and informational graphics found at museums, the look & feel of Artwise was intended to compliment the physical spaces that users would experience while using the app. Pulling from strong black and white color schemes, bold fonts and the use of negative space to make way for the artwork itself, Artwise is able to seamlessly support the existing branding of many museums and gallery brands.

brand moodboard

Design System

day 5: test

Usability testing was key to evaluating the success of the prototype bases on KPIs established on Day 1:

  • Customer Satisfaction ( scale of 1-10)

  • Task Completion Rate

  • User Error Rate

Usability Testing

A fully functional prototype of 3 user flows for the Artwise app was testing with 3 user types:

  • Visitor (occasional and frequent)

  • Student in an art program

  • Gallery curator

issue 01: accessing the app outside of a selected museum
Users were confused about how to access saved content without selecting a museum first.
solution 01: going back and thinking through the information architecture was critical! An added level of navigation was needed for users to access general app content before selecting a museum. A homepage before this museum landing page was developed in the next iteration.

issue 02: inconsistent navigation
The map and scan navigation from the museum page was not located on all other screens and caused confusion for users.
solution 02: developing a consistent navigation bar for all screens

issue 03: too much white space
solution 03: better use of valuable mobile screen space was applied in the next iteration. More information = more learning about art for users.

Final UI Design

Iteration and refinement of visual components based on Usability Testing feedback

information architecture diagram

Prioritizing Scope for the Design Sprint: Primary User Flows

1. Find a museum, gallery or piece of artwork nearby
2. Scan an artwork in person to learn more about it
3. View saved artwork and notes about personalized thoughts or experiences related to the work of art

user flows

day 4: prototype

Application of accurate scale, hierarchy and UI components to an expanded number of screens based on the storyboard sketches.

  1. Low Fidelity Wireframes
    > early User Testing

  2. UI Branding

  3. Design System

  4. High Fidelity Mockups
    > User Testing

  5. Final Prototype

UI Branding

Inspired by signage and informational graphics found at museums, the look & feel of Artwise was intended to compliment the physical spaces that users would experience while using the app. Pulling from strong black and white color schemes, bold fonts and the use of negative space to make way for the artwork itself, Artwise is able to seamlessly support the existing branding of many museums and gallery brands.

brand moodboard

Design System

day 2: sketch

Quick and iterative ideation method through brainstorming on paper and Crazy-8 sketching.


Starting with "no bad ideas" to reach the good ideas.

storyboard highlights

day 3: decide

structuring the design phase - and learning to do this early:

The process of building a site map and visually communicating Information Architecture was vital to creating a quality user experience in the later design phases.

During the Design Sprint, an information architecture diagram was not initially scoped for the project. However, once I got to user testing on Day 4 of the sprint, I realized that some important information wasn't easily accessible from the home page. I'm glad this feedback came through the user testing, but learned a lesson in the importance of understanding informational hierarchy from the start any design project.

information architecture diagram

Prioritizing Scope for the Design Sprint: Primary User Flows

1. Find a museum, gallery or piece of artwork nearby
2. Scan an artwork in person to learn more about it
3. View saved artwork and notes about personalized thoughts or experiences related to the work of art

user flows

day 4: prototype

Application of accurate scale, hierarchy and UI components to an expanded number of screens based on the storyboard sketches.

  1. Low Fidelity Wireframes
    > early User Testing

  2. UI Branding

  3. Design System

  4. High Fidelity Mockups
    > User Testing

  5. Final Prototype

UI Branding

Inspired by signage and informational graphics found at museums, the look & feel of Artwise was intended to compliment the physical spaces that users would experience while using the app. Pulling from strong black and white color schemes, bold fonts and the use of negative space to make way for the artwork itself, Artwise is able to seamlessly support the existing branding of many museums and gallery brands.

brand moodboard

Design System

Usability Testing

A fully functional prototype of 3 user flows for the Artwise app was testing with 3 user types:

  • Visitor (occasional and frequent)

  • Student in an art program

  • Gallery curator

issue 01: accessing the app outside of a selected museum
Users were confused about how to access saved content without selecting a museum first.
solution 01: going back and thinking through the information architecture was critical! An added level of navigation was needed for users to access general app content before selecting a museum. A homepage before this museum landing page was developed in the next iteration.

issue 02: inconsistent navigation
The map and scan navigation from the museum page was not located on all other screens and caused confusion for users.
solution 02: developing a consistent navigation bar for all screens

issue 03: too much white space
solution 03: better use of valuable mobile screen space was applied in the next iteration. More information = more learning about art for users.

day 5: test

Usability testing was key to evaluating the success of the prototype bases on KPIs established on Day 1:

  • Customer Satisfaction ( scale of 1-10)

  • Task Completion Rate

  • User Error Rate

Usability Testing

A fully functional prototype of 3 user flows for the Artwise app was testing with 3 user types:

  • Visitor (occasional and frequent)

  • Student in an art program

  • Gallery curator

issue 01: accessing the app outside of a selected museum
Users were confused about how to access saved content without selecting a museum first.
solution 01: going back and thinking through the information architecture was critical! An added level of navigation was needed for users to access general app content before selecting a museum. A homepage before this museum landing page was developed in the next iteration.

issue 02: inconsistent navigation
The map and scan navigation from the museum page was not located on all other screens and caused confusion for users.
solution 02: developing a consistent navigation bar for all screens

issue 03: too much white space
solution 03: better use of valuable mobile screen space was applied in the next iteration. More information = more learning about art for users.

Final UI Design

Iteration and refinement of visual components based on Usability Testing feedback

Final UI Design

Iteration and refinement of visual components based on Usability Testing feedback

Key Takeaways

  • Prioritizing design tasks based on timeline and scope

  • Regardless of project constraints, developing a clear information hierarchy at the beginning of the design phase is key in creating an experience that supports usability and scalability of a product

  • Collaboration is especially important in a Design Sprint environment

Future Opportunities

  1. Museum Ticket Booking: a valuable benefit for both users and museums partnering with the app

  2. Retail Product Suggestions: based on saved art pieces or shops at a visited museum location

  3. Sharing Art with Friends: Why do people take photos of art when they can look it up online to find (usually better) photographs? User insights suggested that content sharing is a major motivation for this behavioral trend while visiting museums.

let's make cool stuff together

connect

LinkedIn

Resume

sierracutrono@gmail.com

let's make cool stuff together

connect

LinkedIn

Resume

sierracutrono@gmail.com

let's make cool stuff together

connect

LinkedIn

Resume

sierracutrono@gmail.com

let's make cool stuff together

connect

LinkedIn

Resume

sierracutrono@gmail.com