GalleryPal

An Informed Museum Experience

Museum visitors often feel uninformed, but the long descriptions provided in galleries can be overwhelming. My solution aimed to provide an intuitive mobile web app for scanning art to quickly uncover interesting insights.

The goal of this design sprint was to create an engaging mobile experience for museum-goers to easily access information about artworks during their visit.

Project Type: Personal Project

Source of Brief: Springboard & BiteSizeUX

Timeline: January 2024

Tools: Figma, FigJam, Maze

Research

To begin this project, I synthesized findings from:

  • An interview with an experienced museum tour guide

  • Selected quotes from potential users

  • A persona of a young art professional who wants quick access to art information when visiting museums

A painting with the text "The ideal museum experience is personalized to the visitor." overlaid.
A painting with the text "" overlaid.
A painting with the text "Lengthy guided tours and extensive blocks of text beside art can overwhelm visitors." overlaid.
A painting with the text "Contextualizing the art helps visitors form personal connections." overlaid.
A painting of a woman.
A painting with the text "People have distinct preferences in the information they seek about art." overlaid.

The research showed that visitors often feel uninformed and disconnected from the art, but the information available in galleries may be overwhelming or irrelevant for some visitors.

Ideate & Sketch

Since some users may not want to download an app during their visit, I opted for a mobile-optimized website to maximize potential adoption for museum visitors.

After considering eight possible solutions against multiple edge cases and technical considerations, I decided the best solution would be for visitors to use their cameras to scan and identify artwork.

I drew unconventional inspiration from:

  • GoodReads, a book-tracking app that has a feature allowing users to scan book covers to quickly find and save books in-app.

  • Snapchat, a social media app that features a camera screen upon opening.

  • Hinge, a dating app with user profiles featuring multimedia content including text, photos, and audio recordings.

After multiple sketches, I settled on this design that offered a multisensory learning experience with both audio and text-based information.

Because users had different preferences in the information they wanted to know, this design uses buttons so users have the flexibility to see the information that was most important to them.

Features

Scanning the art leads to the main screen where users can click on the buttons to learn more through the four buttons and audio clip.

Instead of causing users to scroll, tapping each button opens an overlay with information.

The four buttons provide:

  • Background information about the piece

  • More about the artist

  • Insights into the medium and/or how the piece was made

  • An audio clip of a tour guide sharing a brief story about the piece

Art can be saved so visitors can review their favorite pieces after their visit.

This feature was added after being highly requested during usability testing.

Usability Testing

I conducted 5 moderated sessions and 12 unmoderated sessions through Maze to assess the usability of my prototype and gain user feedback.

A painting with the text "100% of participants would use GalleryPal" overlaid.
A painting with the text "Suggestions for additional features: Speech-to-text functionality Recently viewed art list Recommended similar works, especially those nearby" overlaid
A painting with the text "Participants found that GalleryPal would improve their museum visits by offering app-free access, extra information, and interactivity for young visitors." overlaid.
A painting with the text "Users appreciated choosing specific audio pieces rather than full tours or guides. However, some users said they don’t often bring headphones. " overlaid.
A painting with the text "Some participants found the design cluttered, as cramming content onto a single mobile screen overwhelmed users." overlaid.
A painting with the text "Users worried about scanning accuracy for angled or partially obscured art." overlaid.

Final Prototype

Conclusion

  • GalleryPal streamlines art exploration through effortless scanning and essential exhibit details, empowering users through simple, multimodal learning.

  • The concept shows strong potential, with all usability testers expressing interest in using it for future museum visits.

  • While the current prototype assumes robust art recognition capabilities across varying conditions, future iterations may explore alternative input methods to balance technical feasibility with user needs.

Citations

All art images from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Open Access Initiative.
Wireframe Template from The More.
iPhone 14 Mockups from Faisal Mukhtar

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