Museum Mate
Museum Mate’s ux design journey was inspired by my love of museums, in particular the Art Institute of Chicago, where I was lucky enough to serve on the evening associates board for four years while I was living in Chicago. I was motivated by the hypothesis that guests to the AIC often find it complicated to navigate, both locals and tourists, and that it can be time consuming and frustrating to hone in on exhibits and other areas of interest.
CHALLENGE
The challenge here was reevaluating scope and constraints mid ux process. Unlike what often happens with scope for ux designers my challenge was not to reign in scope creep. In fact, through user interviews and synthesis, I realized my scope was too narrow in some ways but also too expansive in others. An interesting situation as a ux designer!
Role: Lead UX Researcher and UX Designer
Timeline: 3 Weeks
Platform: iOS Mobile App
Sketch > Adobe XD
APPROACH
Business Analysis
User Interviews
Personas
Feature Prioritization
Card Sorting
User Flows
Sitemap
THE PROCESS
HYPOTHESIS & ASSUMPTIONS
I hypothesized that people have difficulty navigating larger museums and lack easy access to in-depth information on their interests whether that be a specific piece, artist, genre or special exhibit.
PROBLEM SPACE
As my interviews progressed it became clear that I needed a mobile app that solves for museum guests wanting solutions for navigating museums so they can find exhibits, events or new artists that match their interests to get the most out of their limited time.
Museum Mate Mock Up iOS Screens
THE RESEARCH
Before doing user interviews I performed a business model analysis and a competitive analysis. Interestingly a lot of insight emerged around comparative competition rather than direct competition from other museums.
Visiting museums if often a social or entertainment driven activity. The competitive analysis was most valuable looking at other activities people might engage in as entertainment experiences.
So to that end I looked not at specific organizations but rather market categories including:
boutique art galleries
walking or history tours
restaurants
shopping
In analyzing these fields I compared features like dining, discovery and education, private events or exhibitions and finally easy access.
USER INTERVIEWS
To see if my hypothesis was on the right track I interviewed six individuals from large metropolitan cities who visit museums at least a few times a year, either locally or while on vacation. I chose to focus on five areas to break the interviews into segments reflecting my assumptions around what challenges block their enjoyment of their experience.
These areas focused on what would enhance their museum experiences, what aspects of their visits bring them joy, what offerings do they find the most valuable and finally what alternative entertainment options are in their consideration set.
DATA SYNTHESIS
Through affinity mapping the responses from my interviewees I was able to analyze themes from their responses which is key in identifying the features to address those commonalities around pain points, goals, needs and frustrations. Themes included:
Personalized tour experiences
Engaging in new and surprising exhibits matching their interests
On demand information
Interactive map features
Calendar of events
Purchasing options
PERSONA
From the information gleaned from interviews and synthesizing the data I developed Ella Rousch, a fictional persona who embodies common characteristics identified through interviews and serves as a focus for designing a solution to address her needs.
Ella’s Frustrations
Too much time searching
Too many exhibits to choose from and
Too many other people crowding the galleries
Ella’s Goals
To spend less time trying to find what she is looking for
To maximize her limited time with her friends and
To take the stress out of visiting the museum.
At the conclusion of the research phase insights gleaned largely supported the hypothesis that people have difficulty navigating larger museums and lack easy access to in-depth information on their interests whether that be a specific piece, artist, genre or special exhibit.
Also, importantly, it was made clear that…
the majority of users often have limited time to engage with museums so finding what they want quickly and efficiently was a large barrier to enjoying their museum experiences.
They felt rushed, pressured by time constraints and frustrated when wasting time searching for exhibits or features that fit their interests.
THE DESIGN
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
This was the point where I went off scope, funnily enough, by going too narrow. At this stage I was still only concentrating on the Art Institute of Chicago. I set out to determine features around finding exhibits by artist, art medium, art genre or movement or museums services (e.g. museum store, café, etc.).
CARD SORT
I employed open and closed card sorting (cards sorted into user-defined categories based on their own mental models vs being sorted into set, pre-determined category titles) to see if my perceived categories reflected the mind maps of users. User’s performed five open card sorts and another group completed five closed card sorts. In the end my categories appeared in-line with users grouping methods.
MEDIUM FIDELITY & TESTING
I developed medium fidelity wireframes in Sketch and based those designs on the minimum viable product determined from my interviews, synthesis and ultimately feature prioritization. User testing was mostly successful in terms of users’ ability to navigate through tasks successfully.
The real value at this stage was gleaned from user feedback after tasks were concluded.
Here you can see the medium fidelity wireframes, as well as initial user flows and a sitemap.
Users identified that although they thought the app would be useful the limitation of just one museum meant it might end up being a “one time download” that would ultimately be deleted.
This information was immeasurably valuable in getting me to a much more user informed mockup final design. In hearing this feedback from multiple testers my ux game plan changed entirely. Scope of features was drastically reduced while scope of museums featured went from 1 to many.
Expanding my app design from one beloved museum in my own experience it was clearly necessary to look at a much larger segment. Users wanted the app to access more than one museum and expressed that their interest in the app was real.
One use, for one museum, meant the app offered valuable features but extremely limited potential for user engagement.
MOCKUPS & TESTING
In mockup design I implemented and adapted layout and features based upon my qualitative and quantitative results from the user testing of my wireframes. I went from eight functions on the home screen to four and went from one museum to many. In regard to the functions it was made clear in user testing the wireframes that expansive customization and personalization based on profile preferences, artists and curate your own experience were all out of scope for the MVP. The museums offered in the mockup version were accessed by selecting one of sixteen major U.S. metropolitan areas which then showed a screen of the available art museums in that city.
Ultimately the mock ups home screen showcased features including current exhibits and the ability to purchase tickets and qr code access all within the app, on demand information around exhibits or select pieces, an interactive “my gallery view” app, calendar of current and future featured exhibits and entry or special exhibit ticket purchase in app.
CONCLUSION
FINAL DESIGN
In terms of development the largest challenge here is the vast network of museums that would need to partner with the Museum Mate app for it to be an effective solution for users. Museums, being non-profits, often lag technologically and with other innovative solutions due to pricing constraints and board management structures.
However, users in round two of the mock up testing overwhelmingly remarked that they thought the app was something they would use and make use of in their own cities and when doing museum visits while vacationing with friends and family.
OUTCOMES & LESSONS LEARNED
The biggest lesson I learned in this ux case was around scope and the invaluable importance of listening to your users. My scope was simultaneously too narrow and too vast between only thinking about one museum and trying to offer everything to every one. By listening to my users and through user testing I was critically navigated into a far superior end product that, while inspired by my personal passion for AIC, was ultimately defined and finessed through the truly invaluable insights and feedback from my users and testers. It was a seriously rewarding exercise that taught me some very valuable lessons.
Museum Mate was conceptualized and refined into a mobile iOS app that museum enthusiasts or casual guests can use to find museums sites across 16 major metropolitan U.S. cities. I developed an app that offered users a cosmopolitan, sleek and informative ui interface to reflect the characteristics of the user demographic.