Museum Talk
Project Overview
My Role
Museum Talk is an app designed to make museums more accessible for people that suffer from visual impairments. This app aims to educate users about art, and also gives descriptions, as well as the history, of paintings that you photograph with your smartphone's camera.
Idea, UX/UI, Research
Project Duration
1 month
Target Audience
13-60 years old
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator
The Problem
Going to the museum is innately a visual experience. The technology available at museums to those who are visually impaired or neurodivergent, is dated.
The Solution
My solution is to build an app that utilizes your smartphones camera, and ai technology to not only describe the artworks that you are seeing at the museum verbally, but to also give you the history of the artwork, artist, and museum itself. The option to listen to descriptions of artwork while you are navigating through the museum makes it more accessible for those who struggle to read plaques, or see art from certain distances. In addition to making museums more accessible for those who struggle with their vision, it also attracts art history enthusiasts and students looking to learn more about their favorite artists and collections.
Design Process
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Design
- User Research
- Competitor Analysis
​
- User Personas
- Empathy Maps
- User Flow
- Journey Map
- Info. Architecture
- Wireframes
_ Typography
- Colors
- Illustrations
- Branding
- Prototyping
User Research
In order for me to conduct my user research I surveyed 10 different people from each of my target user groups, resulting in 30 survey responses. ​
Question 1: "How often do you visit museums?"
a. very often ( 3-4x per month )
b. often ( 1-2x per month )
c. sometimes ( < 1x per month )
Question 2: "Do you struggle to read museum plaques?"
a. yes
b. no
c. sometimes
Question 3: "Have you used current museum technology for those with visual impairments?"
a. yes
b. no
Question 4: "Do you suffer from any type of vision loss or visual impairments?"
a. yes
b. no
Question 5: "Do you suffer from any type of vision loss or visual impairments?"
a. yes
b. no
Question 6: "How often do you find the information on museum plaques sufficient?"
a. always
b. often
c. sometimes
d. rarely
e. never
Question 7: "Are you satisfied by the current technologies in place for visually impaired museum goers?"
a. yes
b. no
Insights
My user research started by interviewing friends, family, and peers. Along the way I found myself searching for statistics, and more information to support my hypothesis.
When I started this project I had no idea how many people struggle when visiting museums, or avoid visiting them at all due to the lack of accessibility. I had assumed that with this project I could improve upon the current technologies used at museums in an engaging way that provides younger audiences with an interactive way to learn about art history. During my research I identified a large gap in the market, and pivoted my product to fill that gap. By conducting interviews, and reading through various white papers, I can confidently say that I have solved a problem that greatly impacts those who struggle with disabilites.
Competitor Analysis
When conducting competitor analysis I realized that there is a need for my product that is virtually untapped. There is one main competitor, Bloomberg Connects, but it does not utilize your smartphone's camera. Instead, the app has an already curated collection of paintings that you can browse through from anywhere.
After reading reviews for Bloomberg Connects, I noticed that many of their users disliked that the database was not accessible offline. In addition to this, many users complained about the app not using gps software, and constantly forgetting your place in the app, or the collection that you are viewing.
The only other competitor aside from Bloomberg Connects is an app created for the Württemberg State Museum in Germany. The Württemberg State Museum app was created by a company named Fluxguide who create interactive experiences for their clients and users. The Württemberg State Museum application does not currently have enough reviews to display a summary on the App Store or Google Play Store.
User Personas
Because this app aims to educate, the main target audience is those aged 14 - 55 years old. My goal with this app is to make museums more accessible to those with visual impairments, and those who are looking to continue their art education.
Based on the feedback that I received I created the following user personas:
Joshua
Age: 24
Education: BFA in Dance
Occupation: Dancer
Hometown: New York City, NY
Family: 1 Cat
Joshua is a recent college graduate who loves all things art and dance. In his free time he enjoys walking around various museums in Denver to get inspired for his upcoming dance performances. Joshua loves getting inspired by all of the amazing art that Denver has to offer, but recently has been having a hard time reading the plaques next to the artwork due to his poor eyesight and dyslexia, leaving him curious to know more about what he is looking at. Joshua needs to find an easily digestible, non-visual way to learn more information about the artwork that he is seeking inspiration from.
Emily
Age: 16
Education: Junior in High School
Occupation: Student and aspiring Artist
Hometown: Provincetown, MA
Family: Mom, Dad, little Sister, 1 Dog
Emily is currently a Junior in High School, excels in art, and plans to become an artist, just like her parents. When Alexandra is not studying art at school, or asking her parents in-depth questions at home, she likes to spend her free time going to various museums and art galleries in her hometown. Lately Alexandra has felt like she read all of the plaques, and asked all of the questions, but still needs more answers! Alexandra needs an easy way to new absorb information on her own.
Taeler
Age: 40
Education: Masters in History
Occupation: History Professor
Hometown: Boulder, CO
Family: Husband, Son, Daughter, 1 Cat
Taeler is a history professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and loves being able to use famous artworks as examples for what certain demographics of people were going through during different time periods as visual aids in her lectures, as a way to keep her students engaged in a class that they might otherwise deem “boring”. Taeler often frequents the museum near campus and is often left to her own devices when it comes to pulling up the historical relevance and information pertaining to a certain piece of art. She wants to make this information more accessible.
Joshua's User Journey
User Flow
Design
While designing the museum talk interface I went through many different iterations of wireframes before deciding on one to move forward with for the initial prototype. I explored different GPS Navigation apps and photography apps, studying their UI. I decided to keep all main elements of the app simple, for the benefit of the users who may be visually impaired, and for the sake of intuiton.
Wireframes & Prototypes
When iterating my intial wireframes I knew that I wanted the map interface to be sleek, and minimal. I wanted navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen from the start but played around with different ideas for the buttons. I ended up with very minimalistic buttons.
After deciding on my final wireframes and user flow, I got to designing! I first began with the branding for Museum Talk because I wanted to emulate the fun and engaging brand personality in the app design. I played around with a minimalistic and modern design before diving head first into the fun logo that you see on the app. I wanted the letters to seem like they are speaking to one another, or rather, you! I went in this direction because I am imagining Museum Talk as an app that brings the paintings to life, almost as if you are having a conversation with the art itself. Also, learning is fun!!!
I made sure to incorportate the logo and brand colors into the app. I chose these colors because they catch your eye, and are high contrast - alleviating some eye pain for those with visual impairments.
Final Screens
Summary
Since this was only my second UX design project, I learned a lot. I enjoyed building my user personas the most, and my biggest challenge was learning how to make my workflow in Figma faster, with less mistakes. While designing Museum Talk I also ran into a few challenges during my user research. I was having difficulty finding people to survey. I ended up interviewing close friends, family, and peers all of varying ages. Next time I will reach out to schools in my area and survey their students as well as their faculty. I think that for this specific app, reaching out to an audience that more closely represents my target audience would give me better data to build on.
My next steps are to refine this applications UX and UI before I develop and launch.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for your time and support! xo