HMOA

Class Project

  • Background
                • The Basics
                              • Challenges
                                            • Discover
                                                          • Define
                                                                        • Design
                                                                                      • Test
                                                                                                    • Next Step

                                                                                                                  The Problem

                                                                                                                  Lack of interaction between visitors and the art museum itself
                                                                                                                  1. Passively visit
                                                                                                                  2. Limited info resources during the pandemic

                                                                                                                  The demand for attracting visitors and offering engaging experiences in exhibition spaces has been growing during the pandemic. Many museums are facing risks of being closed permanently due to the pandemic crisis: museums need more visitors to support their operations and maintenance after a long time of closure, but restrictions due to the health concern have limited resources and experiences that museums can provide to the visitors.

                                                                                                                  We decided to work on the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

                                                                                                                  We collected info on problems art museums facing during the pandemic that impact their visitors’ experience:

                                                                                                                  Literature review

                                                                                                                  How is art museums’ visiting experience impacted by the pandemic?
                                                                                                                  What factors contribute to a good visit?

                                                                                                                  Field observation

                                                                                                                  How do visitors currently visit in hmoa?
                                                                                                                  What are current practices?
                                                                                                                  What issues do people encounter?

                                                                                                                  Education + Entertainment

                                                                                                                  Design a more engaging platform for visitors to better enjoy visits in the high museum of art even without art-related knowledge during the pandemic

                                                                                                                  📝 Check out detailed report on Problem Space Exploration→

                                                                                                                  Our Solution

                                                                                                                  An interactive prototype created in Figma, featuring 4 key functions

                                                                                                                  All key features are accessed through AR scanning of the artwork, emphasis interactive experience during the visits in the museum

                                                                                                                  Design Sprint -- What is it?

                                                                                                                  1. AR scanning — art-info tag

                                                                                                                  Scan artworks to obtain info through AR
                                                                                                                  • AR pins with detailed art info
                                                                                                                  • General info through info section

                                                                                                                  2. AR scanning — comments

                                                                                                                  • Read other visitors’ comments
                                                                                                                  • Post own comments
                                                                                                                  • Send own reactions

                                                                                                                  3. Create sharable postcard

                                                                                                                  Create shareable card with text + pictures of the artworks

                                                                                                                  4. Notes & Bookmarks

                                                                                                                  • Part of the art-info section
                                                                                                                  • Save artworks to access info post-visit
                                                                                                                  • Add quick notes to document thoughts

                                                                                                                  Process

                                                                                                                  Team Members

                                                                                                                  Avery Ao
                                                                                                                  Holly Sun
                                                                                                                  Abhinav Thukral
                                                                                                                  Catherine Yang

                                                                                                                  Time

                                                                                                                  08/2021 - 12/2021

                                                                                                                  My role

                                                                                                                  UX Researcher, UX Designer

                                                                                                                  Tool

                                                                                                                  Figma, Miro, Notion

                                                                                                                  Context and User Needs

                                                                                                                  • How do visitors currently obtaining info?
                                                                                                                  • What types of info do they need?
                                                                                                                  • What do they do with the info?
                                                                                                                  • What are the main types of visitors and what are their unique problems?
                                                                                                                  • Other concerns during visits?

                                                                                                                  Online Survey

                                                                                                                  Semi-structured Interview

                                                                                                                  Contextual Inquiry

                                                                                                                  Affinity Diagram

                                                                                                                  Comparative Analysis

                                                                                                                  4 main user goals

                                                                                                                  Information

                                                                                                                  Needs for variety of art-related info
                                                                                                                  ◦ Storytelling
                                                                                                                  ◦ Back stage info
                                                                                                                  ◦ Fun fact
                                                                                                                  ◦ Expert’s comments and explain actions
                                                                                                                  ◦ Look into details — limited by physical constrains
                                                                                                                  ◦ Connections between artworks and artists

                                                                                                                  AR helps to convert the passive info reading into more active exploratory process

                                                                                                                  Socialization

                                                                                                                  Demands for communicating and expressing thoughts

                                                                                                                  Documentation

                                                                                                                  Needs for recording and documenting visits

                                                                                                                  Entertainment

                                                                                                                  Expectations to have more interactive and fun visiting experience

                                                                                                                  Persona

                                                                                                                  Empathy Map

                                                                                                                  Storyboard

                                                                                                                  📝 Check out detailed report on Context and User Need Research →

                                                                                                                  Design Ideas Generation

                                                                                                                  Sketch Concepts

                                                                                                                  We created 4 concept ideas:

                                                                                                                  AR scan for info

                                                                                                                  AR scan for comments

                                                                                                                  Artists chatbot

                                                                                                                  Diary collage

                                                                                                                  #1 Feedback Session

                                                                                                                  We conducted feedback sessions with 3 target users, presenting concepts and collected feedbacks on how each idea solves their problems.

                                                                                                                  Chat bot is confusing
                                                                                                                  ◦ Users expect artist only offer info related to the artist themself

                                                                                                                  Chatbot isn't the first priority
                                                                                                                  ◦ Chatbot storytelling is interactive and engaging, but it’s not the first priority, as info offered is repetitive with AR
                                                                                                                  ◦ It could be an independent function with more potentials that requires more research and time to design

                                                                                                                  Things to consider
                                                                                                                  ◦ Scan size of the artwork / sculpture

                                                                                                                  We decided to give up chatbot feature at this point.

                                                                                                                  Wireframe

                                                                                                                  Brainstorm session

                                                                                                                  We kept 3 key features:
                                                                                                                  1. AR scan for info: embed note-taking & bookmark
                                                                                                                  2. AR scan for comment: allow sending comments and reactions
                                                                                                                  3. Create postcards and diaries

                                                                                                                  #2 Feedback Session

                                                                                                                  We conducted feedback sessions with 4 target users, testing on tasks and having users talked-aloud about their thoughts.

                                                                                                                  • Lack of feedback and notification to indicate system status
                                                                                                                  • Phrases/ wording used should be more descriptive 
                                                                                                                  • Accessibility concern
                                                                                                                  ◦ Audio info
                                                                                                                  ◦ Audio typing

                                                                                                                  Following adjustments were made based on feedback:

                                                                                                                  Modification 1: add feedback and notifications on user's actions

                                                                                                                  Modification 2: change the wording of confusing phrases

                                                                                                                  Modification 3: increase the level of accessibility

                                                                                                                  Evaluation and Validation

                                                                                                                  Prototype vr.1

                                                                                                                  The prototype is made within Figma.

                                                                                                                  AR information

                                                                                                                  After the system recognize the artwork, information about the artwork is presented through 2 forms:
                                                                                                                  1. Info pins on artworks
                                                                                                                  2. Swipe up for more info

                                                                                                                  Info pins offers detailed info related to elements within the artwork. Click to zoom into details, swipe left/right to switch between pins.

                                                                                                                  Swipe up offers general info about this art piece, including: overview, artist details, expert comments, related artworks.

                                                                                                                  Bookmarks & Notes

                                                                                                                  Users can bookmark artworks within the AR info page by clicking on the bookmark icon on bottom left. Bookmarks can be accessed through the pop up notification, or menu.

                                                                                                                  Users can also add notes to the current artwork, including text, image, video, and audio.

                                                                                                                  Within the My Bookmark section, users can access all related info & notes post-visit.

                                                                                                                  Postcards

                                                                                                                  Users can create sharable postcards using bookmarked artworks. Only one artwork could be used at a time.

                                                                                                                  Postcard is composed of the image of the artwork, a brief customizable text, time stamp and user ID. Different templates are available for various layouts.

                                                                                                                  Postcards could be shared or saved onto local devices.

                                                                                                                  Diaries

                                                                                                                  Users can create diary collage using bookmarked artwork information, comments, notes along with additional text, audio, pictures. Multiple artworks can be used for one diary.

                                                                                                                  Diaries are sharable, and can be saved onto local devices.

                                                                                                                  It can be edited at any time.

                                                                                                                  Evaluation Session #1 -- Expert-Based: Heuristic Evaluation

                                                                                                                  Goals
                                                                                                                  ◦ Evaluate the overall functionality of the prototype
                                                                                                                  ◦ Identify usability and accessibility issues of the design
                                                                                                                  ◦ Test the ease of use of the prototype among expert users
                                                                                                                  ◦ Assess the learnability of each features o the prototype
                                                                                                                  ◦ Assess the error recovery features of the system

                                                                                                                  Who
                                                                                                                  3 Experts.
                                                                                                                  ◦ Participants should be familiar with Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics
                                                                                                                  ◦ Participants should have adequate knowledge of usability evaluation
                                                                                                                  ◦ Participants should be comfortable using phones or computers to assess prototype

                                                                                                                  How
                                                                                                                  ◦ Tasks
                                                                                                                  ◦ Think-aloud
                                                                                                                  ◦ Severity rating based on Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics
                                                                                                                  ◦ Accessibility concerns

                                                                                                                  Tasks
                                                                                                                  1.
                                                                                                                  Find the information of the art + bookmark the art and add notes
                                                                                                                  2. Read comments and send reactions
                                                                                                                  3. Find previous bookmarks and notes
                                                                                                                  4. Create and share a Postcard made from the artwork

                                                                                                                  Evaluation Session #2 -- User Based: Benchmark Task Test

                                                                                                                  Goals
                                                                                                                  ◦ Understand if there is any confusion with using our system
                                                                                                                  ◦ Understand whether our system is easy to use
                                                                                                                  ◦ Check user’s likeliness of using our system and the reasons behind
                                                                                                                  ◦ Check user’s expectations of our system and whether the current prototype satisfies these expectations

                                                                                                                  Who
                                                                                                                  5 users.
                                                                                                                  ◦ All participants have visited the High Museum of Art in the recent year
                                                                                                                  ◦ Participants may have some knowledge in art, but they are surely not art experts

                                                                                                                  How
                                                                                                                  ◦ Tasks
                                                                                                                  ◦ Think-aloud
                                                                                                                  ◦ Post-task: Semi-structured interviews

                                                                                                                  Tasks
                                                                                                                  1.
                                                                                                                  Scan artwork and find information
                                                                                                                  2. Bookmark artwork and add notes
                                                                                                                  3. Read comments and send reactions
                                                                                                                  4. Find previous bookmarks and notes
                                                                                                                  5. Create and share a Postcard made from the artwork
                                                                                                                  6. Create a diary of your visit

                                                                                                                  Design Recommendations

                                                                                                                  Make the menu available globally

                                                                                                                  Users expressed the needs to access menu items on all screens, instead of only in initial scanning screen.

                                                                                                                  Add "Recent Viewed" option

                                                                                                                  For users who need quick access to the latest viewed artwork's info, we add "recent viewed" option in case when they view other pages such as postcard but need going back to previous info page.

                                                                                                                  Adjust reaction & comment display

                                                                                                                  Instead of displaying comments partially, we decided to display all comments within the scrollable section, taking off the extra step to click for all comments.

                                                                                                                  Sending reactions now is faster by clicking on emojis on the right side directly. The number of comments is also shown on the top.

                                                                                                                  Add onboarding guide

                                                                                                                  A brief onboarding guide is added to give first-time users instructions on how to interact with the less-familiar AR scanning feature.

                                                                                                                  Take off Diary feature

                                                                                                                  Diary feature was found redundant, as:
                                                                                                                  1. Note + Postcard is sufficient for users to document their visit
                                                                                                                  2. Diary feature focuses more on post-visit experience, while our focus at this stage is during-visit experience
                                                                                                                  3. Diary alone could be a mature feature requiring more time to develop

                                                                                                                  Challenges & Something to Consider

                                                                                                                  • Collaborate with the High Museum of Art
                                                                                                                  • Actual implementation of the design requires large time & labors
                                                                                                                  • User base extends from mobile device users to older population

                                                                                                                  Final Prototype