An easy way to scan and access information about artwork
Gallery Pal
Tools
Figma, Procreate
My Role
UX/UI Designer
Timeline
5 Days
About the Project
This project was a modified google ventures design sprint completed during my UX/UI program with Springboard.
The Challenge
Museums and galleries are trying to increase customer satisfaction when viewing art. GalleryPal wants to design a way to improve the experience of viewing art in a museum or gallery.
Solution
An scanner app that allows museum visitors to scan and obtain key information about works of art.
Day 1: Understanding the Problem
Discovering user needs
I used affinity mapping to synthesize the provided user research and discovered that:
User experience can improve if people were able to get tidbits about the artwork in a quick and easily digestible way.
Research Synthesis
Focusing on potential solutions, I created an affinity map and discovered the following insights about key types of information the user is looking for:
Artwork Info
Background story about the artwork
Technical Info
List materials used to create artwork
Day 2: Sketching Solutions
Smartly
An app that with a camera feature that allows users to scan artworks and provides related information about them.
Good
Scan feature is simple and easy to use, app UI is clean and easy to follow.
Needs Improvement
The UI of the artwork info page could be improved with better emphasis on important info.
Planty
A plant identification and care app.
Good
App UI is modern and fun, scan feature is easy to locate. Detail page about the plants is very well organized and the drop down options makes the information easy to digest.
Needs Improvement
Overall app design is a bit busy and overwhelming. App colors are bland.
Google Arts & Culture
Art recognizer app that uses a camera to identify artworks and provide information.
Good
The app has a favorites feature to save artworks and view later. Artwork details start with a story to grab the user's attention.
Needs Improvement
The art recognizer feature is hard to find. Artwork details page is too busy and overwhelming.
Wrapping Up
User testing Key Takeaways
Audio + Art = Better
5 out of 5 users appreciated the audio function of the artwork detail card. One user noted that it is nice to have the button prominent and easy to find so that they could listen to the audio description in tandem with examining the artwork.
Practical Information
Overall the app works as intended and users mentioned that it works as they expected it to. 4 out 5 users mentioned that the information they found in the artwork detail page was what they were expecting and wanted to see. A few users noted that they wanted more clickable links within the page to take them to suggested artworks.
Next Steps
Adding Related Artworks
All users mentioned wanting to see suggestions for similar paintings.
Bookmarks or Hearts?
I would like to test this out in the next round of testing to see if changing the bookmark button to a heart button would make the action be more universally understood.
Further improvement on the Artwork Detail Page
Better spacing of text in order to make content more digestible. Possibility of adding bullet point key takeaways to make the page more skimmable.
Location based recommendations
Multiple users wanted to see a map of recommended artworks based on the current location they were in.
Retrospective
Given the time frame of the project, I enjoyed being able to confirm or deny my theories without getting too married to my ideas. I also found that showing the basic idea of an app to people was a great jumping point for users to discover and express what they enjoyed seeing and what they wanted to see more of. Overall this project’s short turnaround time gave me more confidence with moving quickly within UX/UI processes.
A way to seamlessly get information about a piece of art in the least amount of
clicks possible.
Day 4: Prototype
Day 5: Usability Testing
Usable Application
A user noted that GalleryPal’s scan feature would be very handy in a situations when the museum is crowded and people are crowding around the same small label. All users also mentioned that they like to follow their own path when viewing artwork so the scan features allows the museum visitors the flexibility of moving around freely and choosing which artwork draws enough of their interest to scan for more information.
Fun Fact
Interesting tidbit about the artist/artwork
Skimmable
Information laid out in a way that is easy to scan
Mapping User Experience
After defining the users’ needs I mapped out a possible end-to-end user journey to convey the steps the users will take to reach their end goal.
Lightning Demos
This day was about moving from abstract ideas to concrete examples so I researched similar apps in order to draw inspiration and see how competitors solved problems similar to GalleryPal.
Crazy 8’s Sketching
I referred back to my user map from day one and decided that the most critical screen to be used for GalleryPal’s primary activity would be the artwork info page. The crazy 8’s method helped me to quickly flesh out solutions for this page and chose the design that seems to have the most concise organization of artwork details. The design I chose also features the listen to button right below the image to the right which helps users see it more prominently.
Solution Sketch
I created a three screen sketch that represents the critical screen and the screens that come before and after.
Day 3: Decide & Storyboard
Decide
I established that there were two solutions for GalleryPal to enhance a museum visitors’ experience:
Storyboard
I created a storyboard that served as a lightweight sketched wireframe to use for my prototype.
High Fidelity Prototype
I took my storyboard from day 3 and created a high fidelity prototype using Figma that served as a realistic facade of my app. I then I ran through the flow with my UX mentor to discover if there were any issues to fix before the next day’s tests.
User Testing
Using the 5 act interview technique, I conducted 5 usability tests via zoom and in person with users that have experience viewing art in museums and galleries. My primary focus was to see if the app functions as intended and to uncover any usability issues. I also wanted to get user feedback on what features they wanted to see in future iterations of GalleryPal.
Successful Primary Activity
5 out 5 users found the scanning function easy to use. Users were able to run through the flow of scanning a piece of artwork quickly without any wrong clicks. All users found the scan button immediately and understood that clicking the button would scan the art object in front of them.
An audio feature in order to get users to spend less time looking at their phone and more time viewing the artwork.