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It’s 2004. Little me is in 4th grade with the other students in my class, and I’m trying not to fall asleep while the docent at the High Museum talks about the little sailboats in an ocean painting. Why are we looking at all this old painting? What’s the point of analyzing the colors of the water? When’s lunch?
While 10-year-old me wasn’t impressed by one of the leading art institutions in the Southeast, she may have been surprised to hear that 16-year-old-me--rocking thick side bangs and clumsily applied eyeliner--had fallen head over heels for art history. So much so that I ended majoring in Art History in college, and even chose to create an app for High Museum guests for my UX design portfolio.
How can the art museum encourage a deeper connection and understanding of the art to their guests, all of whom have varying levels of visual literacy? (Think: what does a 4th grader enjoy vs. a teenager vs. someone in their 70s?)
I wanted to understand how museum guests navigate the museum space and what could help enhance their experience and get them to engage more deeply with the art.
To do this, I used the following strategies.
+ Market research
+ Competitor analysis
+ Survey
+ Customer Interviews
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Based on the research, I needed to include features in the app that will provide context about the art, artist, and creation process in a way that allow for interaction with the art and other guests.
This Notion table organizes all of the features for an MVP.
The 2 primary actions that guests can take in the app are
1) participating in an audio tour and
2) scanning art to find out more information about the art and artist -- think search engine.
This is reflected in the task flows and user flows that I created in Whimsical.
“Getting a glimpse of how [artists] lived, what their thoughts, feelings, and passions were is what makes me want to come to the museum.”
High Museum guest during an interview
So, what was the verdict?
After conducting 3 usability tests (view affinity map here) as well as discussing my design with my mentor and peers, these were the primary changes that I implemented:
+ Deleted the first page that made users choose a path
+ Changed the layout of the cards on "Tours" page
+ Added labels on the map for clarity
+ Refined the search function to show search results
+ Built out the hamburger menu and included ticketing and events links
How can the High Museum of Art establish a deeper connection and understanding of art with their diverse audience?
The audio tours and videos invite guests into a deep dive of the artwork and a chance to hear from the artists, while the interactive activities are a window to different eras and artistic processes.
Also, the "Scan" feature is a simple way to access information if a guest doesn't want to embark on a 30 minute audio tour. The "Saved" page can be used as a way to plan for future visits or curate your own gallery of tours, artwork, and artists.
In these ways, this app provides a variety of ways to learn and engage with art for a wide variety of users.
