UX Case Study- Museum Experience Design
It all starts with a story.
A story that leads to discovery, thoughts, and invention. The museum is one such story. A story frozen, framed, and suspended within a space. So many characters, scenarios, and eras yet all that is displayed is a title, origin, and a number. The unsaid narrative remains hidden under layers of dust.
Project Brief
Museum visits are typically characterized by fleeting moments of surface-level admiration, often lacking in depth and leaving visitors with no substantial, lasting takeaways. This project aims to transform the museum experience by prioritizing educational engagement and fostering interactivity to create a more enriching visitor experience.
Project Objectives
- Educational Enhancement- Improve the educational value of museum visits by providing visitors with in-depth information about exhibits.
- Interactivity- Foster an interactive environment that encourages engagement and exploration.
- Takeaways- Ensure visitors leave the museum with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the displayed artifacts.
Pre-visit Research
Research Plan
Museum Background
Government Museum & Art Gallery, Chandigarh established in 1967 is managed by the Chandigarh Administration. A vision of renowned Architect Le Corbusier. The museum hosts exhibitions, art shows, and cultural events.
Proto-Personas
These were created after doing secondary research on the general notion of museum spaces, and environment catering to visitors, including the necessary details of space, artifact, and visitor.
- Students
2. Enthusiasts
3. Explorers
4. Researchers
5. Tourist
Interaction Modes
Traditional Walk-ins are the only type of interaction mode observed throughout the primary research. Tourist visitors expressed missing a narrative approach. Create recurring interests to welcome re-visits.
Exhibition Techniques
Exhibition techniques define how a museum is perceived by the visitor. These are divided into 6 categories- Aesthetic, Didactic, Hands-on, Multi-media, Minds-on, Immersive Environment. The aim is to target a holistic multi-sensory experience by activating different senses. Sensory Simulation will create a lasting impact
Field-Visit Research
Space Observations
A well-maintained Museum is a landmark of its own. Divided into 2 floors- The exhibition hall is on the ground floor where temporary exhibits are displayed. The museum is on the first floor with various displays in different sections. There is an outdoor display of stone and wood exhibits along with seating in every section. The aim was to observe space-display interaction. Light and circulation pathway plays an important role.
Display Distribution
There is a wide range of displays including coins, fabric, paintings, figurines, Gandhara sculptures, ancient Indian art, miniature paintings, decorative arts, and contemporary art. Most exhibits don’t have braille while the few that have braille are inaccessible as most spots are either behind the exhibits or at different height levels. Exhibits are static and mundane. The aim was to observe display information presentation, display-visitor interaction and notice interaction patterns along with slight behavior cues.
Visitors
A major number of visitors are tourists and educational institutions hosting day trips for students. The key was to understand the types of visitors, motivation of the visit, type of experience seeker, and mode of learning. These are further detailed in the questionnaire and insights.
Research Interviews Overview
Among various conversation attempts and trailing sessions, a total of 11 qualitative interviews along with shadowing and observation helped gather insightful details into the research. Field Research interview was conducted in 2 stages- Mid-Visit Interview and Post-Visit Interview. The Mid-Visit interview was conducted with 6 visitors and 2 attendees while the Post-Visit interview was conducted with 3 visitors. Attaching interview questionnaire for attendees and visitors as a reference on the context.
- Visitors
2. Attendee
Most Memorable Statements
- Capitol complex was closed, so we came here instead
- Show your photography ticket
- Do not touch anything
- People used brushes made from mouse and rabbit hair to get such fine details in the miniature painting
- Our field takes inspiration from character expressions, ornaments, etc
- *takes photos* bas kar poora paisa vasoolega kya bhai? Insta bro.
User Personas
There were 3 types of personas that emerged after doing the primary research of the museum in particular. Since location plays an important role in the demographical data, the assumptions changed thus reducing the number of proto-personas.
Persona 1- Visitor Seeking Education
Persona 2- Visitor seeking Cultural Aspect
Persona 3- Visitor seeking Leisure
User Journey- Solo
A visitor is mostly in a group but then some tend to drift apart and take on a solo journey of exploration. Education-seeking personas are most likely to fall under this category.
User Journey- Group
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Among group journeys, the most interesting part is the lot of interest and discussion that leads to further inquiry on the subject. These group journeys are mostly witnessed by leisure or culture seekers.
Research Insights
Interview Insights
- Missing tour guide/ missing narration
- Observing different points of interest
- Looking for different levels/layers of information
- Interested in a particular section of exhibits
- Discussion on interesting points noticed/read from the display
- Different visit purposes
- Interested in specific-details
- Readability Issues- unclear information, text-eye distance
- Ask for navigation directions
- There are fewer to no revisits in this space
Observation & Shadowing Insights
- Braille- missing in most artifacts or placement/accessibility issue
- Readability- Increase in distance from eye level
- No instruction for exhibition display activities
- Lighting on Artefact is unflattering
- Displays don't have context
- Displays are randomly placed
- Glass case and wall-aligned displays limit interactivity
- Museum path circulation is mundane
- Very generic and old data
- Move too close to Miniature paintings may lead to damage
- Data load increases so keeps appeal superficial
- Most artifacts with similar features are challenging to distinguish
- Moves monotonously till the object grabs attention
- Reads description of only interested artifact
- No solo visitors, but solo observers
- Consciously moved ahead to let the one behind observe the artifact
Final Consolidated Insights
How Might We
customize experiences for museum visitors to enhance education & create interactive experiences?
Ideation
There was Brainstorming on 3 major problem domain problems namely- Navigation, Display Presentation, and Entertainment.
Three solutions seemed to cater to most problems faced during museum visits. To further refine and pick the most suited solution, a table is created.
Both AR and Spatial Design proved promising. Keeping the Government constraint Budget in mind, the AR experience seemed the most fitting choice for this project. In case of future budget expansion, spatial experience could be proposed.
AR Experience
Now the interesting part on how all this comes life with AR! When entering the museum, the visitor pays for the AR experience and gets a AR Muse experience wristband with a QR code. This is an audio-visual experience that would require earplugs which would be provided by the museum at the start point and collected back while leaving. The visitor then scans the QR and voila! They have successfully entered the hidden AR realm. Since the 3 personas seek different experiences based on purpose of visit and experiences, the journey is customised by selecting interest areas of the museum exhibit! Once selected all the interests, the custom Navigation route in now ready to use! Visitor journey is curated based on the interests. There’s a Avatar Tour Guide who takes you through the narrative walkthrough all the while conducting games and quiz which unlocks a reward. Games start once visitor has completed a particular section of their interest Reward is in the form of a badge or an AR filter to click pictures and further download or upload to social platforms. Once the screen hovers over an artefact, it jumps to life and starts introducing itself. While giving the necessary information, it also covers facts and recent developments. There’s an option to visualise the object in different perspectives- from 360 degree view to zoom feature for coins or paintings- adding another more sensory layer of experience. The guide later asks for a feedback and rating for future improvements. Visitor leaves with a lasting impression along with an educational pool of knowledge.
Storyboarding
Information Architecture
After entering the experience through QR scan the flow moves ahead with a story-based narrative where the Avatar Guide takes you through the entire journey of Artifact interaction, Interested Space Navigation along with enhancing learning through gamification.
Feature List
- Avatar guide
- Audio-visual narration
- Information levels
- Games
- Interested spaces
- Navigation
- 360° Artefact view
- Zoom
- Rating experience
Wireframes
Initially, the thought was to create an option-based journey of selecting a particular action button namely navigation or games. But for a more narrative experience, it was turned into a scripted journey. Although a statue version of Le Corbusier looked good, the Avatar Guide was changed to a more vibrant GenZ avatar in the final UI screens.
UI Style Guide
The thought of merging two clashing styles was very appealing since art has been seen as transformative throughout the years. Choosing the Grays and the Golds. One signifies the contemporary form of art while the other more ornamental style of history. In a museum setting as well, a plain wall brings focus to the sparkling sheen of the artifact. The use of glass morphism in buttons and description boxes to depict the futuristic take on the solution.
Limitations
While I had numerous ideas for other artifacts of the museum, the time constraints compelled me to concentrate solely on the Painting space. The flow is limited to the Painting space of the Museum, as of now.
User Testing
The user testing was conducted to gather feedback and identify potential issues. The testing was done with 1 task flow with 3 testers due to limited time. There was a limitation, since recording the testing was not possible due to the prohibition of videography, and the sole phone used to demonstrate the experience was in use by the user.
Objectives
- Determine the efficiency of the design flow
- Observe difficulties to proceed to another task flow
- Notice user behavior while in the experience
Task
You’ve scanned and entered the AR experience. Now interact with your first artifact. The expected time taken to complete the task is 1min 50sec. The average time taken to complete this task was 2min 36sec. The main issue faced during the testing was a technical issue with the interactivity of the prototype.
User Testing Insights
- Naming the icons for better understanding
- Introduce a pause button in the flow to balance both worlds
UI Screens
No better way to present a narration than a video. So, let’s enter the ARMuse Experience!
Challenges
- Research Phase- A solo project takes a lot of effort from interviews to the documentation process. It proved difficult to take photos while conducting interviews on field study. Though the museum experiences a large number of visitors, the visitors are usually inclined to a silent observant journey while in the museum space, so conducting qualitative interviews was quite challenging.
- Develop Phase- AR functionality as a tool was a pleasant challenge, as it involved using software different from the standard options. After struggling with a few, Aero proved to be the most user-friendly. Also, creating a talking painting is no joke. So after testing and trying many online platforms, IOS surely helped.
- Deliver Phase- The lag in prototype interactivity was a real pain. A video interactivity would have been a better experience but then it would have restricted interactivity.
Takeaways
- Eavesdropping and gradually integrating oneself into the ongoing conversation in the space helped get insight into the during-visit mindset of the user during primary research.
- Creating a fun narrative surely boosts excitement in the project. Got acquainted with a new software tool, ie, Adobe Aero. Fun time exploring from Augmented object interactions to talking image interaction!
Future Scope
As an architect with a thesis in Museum Design, the opportunity to merge my expertise from both domains is both exciting and a source of pride. I eagerly anticipate the continued development and refinement of this project.
