INSD

Experiencing Art through the eyes of Artists

MY ROLE: UX/UI Designer
SCOPE: GV Design Sprint (modified for one person)
TIMELINE: 5 days

INTRODUCTION

The Google Ventures Design Sprint resources I started with were a startup kit that included:

  • The project brief

  • User research highlights

  • A persona

  • A recorded expert interview with a New York City Natural History Museum tour guide

THE PROBLEM

Museums and galleries are considering what gallery visitors experience when they come to view the exhibitions at their locations. The research shows that currently gallery visitors do not enjoy their experience and often leave frustrated without fully experiencing the product - in this case, art exhibitions.

Design Constraints to consider:

  • Focus on improving the in-person viewing experience

  • Solution should be designed for mobile devices since they’re the most common & accessible devices for users to interact with while at the museum

  • One week timeframe

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THE SOLUTION

To concentrate my efforts on enhancing the in-person viewing experience, I asked myself... How can guests connect with art while viewing it in person? How can I optimize their experience?

My solution was to incorporate image recognition to scan the artworks and create an immersive experience delivered by the artists as a means to engage the user in the artist’s world.

I also incorporated a feature to let guests build their own custom route to make getting around a gallery a snap when their time is limited.

Focused on ways to allow visitors to connect with the artwork by hearing from the artists themselves while giving them directions to their favorite pieces - I created INSD - a mobile app that takes the visitor into A Journey Through the Mind of an Artist.

SCAN FOR MORE INFO

Get to know the artist, and their process and technique.

CREATE YOUR OWN ROUTE

Get the most out of museum by focusing on favorite pieces.

THE WHYS

Understanding what I was trying to Solve

I chose these two specific features to help users the most based on the data I was given about the problem space because the research revealed two significant themes that came up frequently:

  1. NO TOURS - Most interviewees expressed liking to do their own thing and experience the art for themselves.

  2. MORE CONTEXT - Most interviewees expressed wanting to know more about the artist and what drove them to create their work.

Identifying potential problems: As every solution presents a new problem, I needed to identify another issue this solution would potentially cause. While looking outside the bounds of this specific deliverable, I became aware of a challenge that it may create if mobile devices are prohibited in at least certain galleries, depending on the exhibition.

DESIGN PROCESS

DAY 1 UNDERSTAND & MAP

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

In-depth interviews based on discovering insights, pains and needs about the existing experience for regular visitors of galleries and museums

During the discovery phase of my project, I was given review research and interview highlights from six individuals. At the interviews, users were asked...

“Tell us about a recent time you visited an art museum or gallery.”

COMBINING SIMILAR THEMES

To gain a deeper understanding of the problem, I organized and synthesized the interview findings

The Research Synthesis showed that Users:

This enabled me in identifying similarities where I might tackle the same problem for a larger audience.

And while defining what I was designing for, the idea of creating a mobile app that could take users on a…

“Journey through each Art piece”

came to my mind.

TARGET USER PERSONA

HOW MIGHT WE QUESTIONS

How might we deliver short yet thorough information about an artwork?

  • How might we provide art information quickly and easily?

  • How might we encourage users to view more art?

  • How might we offer a smooth and informative museum experience?

  • How might we make the museum experience more personal?

USER JOURNEY MAP

Who better than to hear it straight from the artist from their very own POV?

To provide a personal touch when visitors move through the gallery arriving at each artwork, the respective artist provides a behind the scenes chat either by audio or video about the artwork’s background, interesting facts, and story.

DAY 2 MARKET RESEARCH & SKETCHING

LIGHTENING DEMOS

Quick Analysis and Rapid Sketching

I gathered a large amount of information about the market very quickly to understand the standard of this type of functionality to inform how I might improve my product and subsequent experience design.

Smartify, Getty Guide, and Hirshhorn Eye incorporate intimate, personal commentary, behind the scenes anecdotes, or virtual tours in their mobile app tour guiding to personalize the experience.

Hirshhorn Eye

Smartify

Getty Guide

Key Findings: Most museum apps do not feature artist spotlight videos where the artist speaks about the art piece, and the information they offer about the art works is frequently lengthy and in-depth.

CRAZY 8’S

I utilized the Crazy 8 method and set a timer for 8 minutes and sketched 8 different variations to my most crucial user experience solution for quick experimentation and idea generation.

The critical screens were those that scanned artwork to unlock video or audio of the creator behind the work.

CRITICAL SCREENS

From the ideas generated in my Crazy 8 exercise, scanning an art piece with the phone's camera seemed to be the most immediate and straightforward option. It tackles the user's most critical point: when they need to look up information about an artwork while browsing.

  • Screen 1 - Allowing camera access to identify the artwork.

  • Screen 2 - Image recognition scans the work of art in front of them.

  • Screen 3 - Brings up the video of the artist and unlocks information about the art piece and its creator. This screen would also allow the user to learn more without feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information.

DAY 3 DECIDE

CREATING A STORYBOARD

Finalizing my design decisions through rapid iteration and improvement

The storyboard below shows lightweight wireframes for user journey through the solution of allowing visitors to engage with the artwork by hearing directly from the artists via video and audio. Besides the main scanning feature, I included the location confirmation, and brief intro carousel to show a more complete experience.

DAY 4 PROTOTYPE

HIGH FIDELITY SCREENS

Going beyond what the label provides to convey a wealth of information about the work and its artist

I spent the fourth day of the design sprint using Figma to create high fidelity screens for the INSD app to represent the user flow. The high fidelity screens depict the red route of using the app’s image recognition to scan a painting and watch the artist come to life, bringing up a plethora of information about the art and its creator.

1 - Brief Intro Carousel

Provides quick introduction to application.

2 - Add Artwork to your Route

Visitors can create their own route, in order to optimize the user’s time by allowing them to focus just on their favorite pieces.

3 - Scan Artwork Feature

4 - Unlock art piece information via video or audio

BUILDING THE PROTOTYPE

Using a combination of video and audio to convey the unique worlds of the artists behind each piece of art

Attaching a voice and a face to a name makes for a more personalized experience and brings the visitors closer to the artist, thus inserting a video was crucial. My objective was to create an immersive experience delivered by the artists as a means to submerge the user in the artist's world. During user testing, I intended to get feedback from users on their thoughts on this idea.

Why embedding video in my prototype was important

Featuring Artist Spotlight Videos in the product design helps:

  • The user gets immersed in the art gallery experience by becoming more connected to the art through the artist

  • Human connections are what make an event memorable for guests and profitable for organizers

  • Who better than to see and hear it straight from the artist from their own perspective?

DAY 5 TEST

USABILITY TESTING

With video now embedded in my prototype, I was able to evaluate all of the above aspects

After designing the high fidelity prototype of the INSD app to enhance the gallery museum experience, I conducted five remote usability tests with participants in real time via Zoom screen-share. Users were recruited through Slack channels and local neighbors interested in art to evaluate the prototype. The primary goals for testing this prototype was to learn about users' first impressions of the app, and identify the features and information that users value the most. Specifically, the immersive experience of connecting to the art through the artist’s personal intention and inspiration behind the art piece.

Before giving users their task, I provided them with some context about the app…

“To begin, we'll suppose you've just installed the INSD app and are ready to use it for the first time. You've entered the Perez Art Museum. You've entered one of the galleries and come to a halt in front of an artwork that caught your eye wanting to understand more about it.”

THE KEY TASKS

Asking the participants to complete a few tasks

  • Scan a piece to learn more about it

  • Learn more about the artist

  • Create your own private route

Scan Artwork:

  • ​5/5 completed successfully

  • Appreciated efficiency and congruency of the feature

  • Found artist’s spotlight video quite engaging

  • Found information page to be brief and easy to read

Learn More:

  • ​5/5 completed successfully

  • Liked option to read text

  • Feature was straightforward

  • Enjoyed depth of information on learn more page

Create Route:

  • ​5/5 completed successfully

  • Process was simple

  • Valued their time being considered

  • Appreciated artwork walk duration transparency

FINDINGS

Successful Outcomes Achieved - Testing was successful with 5/5 participants completing all tasks!

QUOTES FROM USERS

NEXT STEPS

  • Add in a purchase tickets section

  • Adding a language option for the audio

  • Ability to view nearby upcoming exhibits

TAKEAWAY

The Google Ventures design sprint is a fast paced result oriented method to solve problems and test a solution concept that doesn't require an enormous amount of resources or long term commitment. However, because it is meant to only take five days, it's important to only stick to the most important features and not use extra time in adding to the design.