I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified through research was users with different learning abilities who either need different language options, the ability to define certain words, or more time to complete a tour at their own pace.
This user group confirmed initial assumptions about everyday art gallery viewers, but research also revealed that learning flexibility was not the only factor limiting users from understanding art from guided tours. Other user problems included the ability for users to hear the guide, not being able to ask questions, and wanting to skip works they weren’t interested in and spend more time on the ones that did spark their interest.
Guided tours are oftentimes too slow or too fast. Users want the option to pause at art that sparks their interest and move quickly through works that do not.
Guided tours are not equipped for participants who don't speak English.
Most users cannot hear every word from the tour guide, especially if they have to stand toward the back of the crowd; making them miss key information.
Most guided tours don’t provide the ability to ask questions until the end of the tour when users aren’t near the collection in question anymore.
This is a concept for an audio tour app, Artible, that will allow users to increase their understanding of art, affecting users who speak other languages or require more self-paced learning environments. The app will allow users to complete audio tours at their own learning pace, while easily translating and defining unknown artistic terms.
Guided tours are primarily in English making it hard for non-English speakers to comprehend tour material. Tours also do not accommodate different learning capabilities or interests and are oftentimes too slow or too fast depending on the participant.
After analyzing possible future user pain points, I started laying out the user experience on paper.
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The user can progress and explore gallery collections past the home screen in two primary ways: through exploring the map or choosing to explore artistic mediums. Once there, the user can preview each collection and progress to the collection profile where the user can listen to the audio tour, summarize what they learned, and view their overall gallery progress.
Our goal for the usability studies was to allow users to explore collections, listen to an audio tour, and review a summary of the collection; while also being able to test their understanding of art within the gallery.
A research goal of ours was to encourage participants to explore a different medium from the map. A common theme discovered in the usability study was that the majority of users were unfamiliar with the artistic term ‘medium’, and require more accessible language when attempting to explore other types of art.
Another research goal was to learn from the time it took users to start and finish an audio tour. The usability study revealed the majority of users had difficulty immediately starting the audio tour, and require a clearer way to start a tour.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘medium’, but I remember seeing that on the homepage."
-Participant D
"How do I know if the audio is playing or not?"
-Participant C
Our goal for the usability studies was to allow users to explore collections, listen to an audio tour, and review a summary of the collection; while also being able to test their understanding of art within the gallery.
Another research goal was to examine how users approached finding a collection to tour. The usability study revealed the majority of users relied heavily on finding a collection based on imagery, influencing their choice to avoid the map. Users require more visuals when choosing a collection from the map.
Another research goal was to examine how users filtered the map. The usability study revealed the majority of users went back to the home screen to choose a different artist or medium, meaning these choices present on the map were not clear to users. Users require more color contrast when filtering categories.
“I think it's easy to pick a collection, but I would rather see a picture first when choosing a collection.”
-Participant A
“I think its easier to find artists from the home page”
-Participant D
Language options for non-English speaking listeners
Use of color followed WCAG standards
The app makes users' needs feel met throughout the overall user experience.
"I really like the app overall. The map especially, and being able to see where everything is in proximity to me…I think an app like this would make me want to visit art galleries more often"
While designing the Artible app, I learned that your original ideas do not always meet the user's needs you intended for. Usability studies are crucial in discovering these flaws, and each iteration of the Artible app was modified based on finding these flaws.
From the usability study, most users expressed that they would never go to an art gallery alone. The next step could be to make the audio tour experience interactive for groups.
This study was geared toward gallery viewers and their experience, a next step could be designing for the tour guides' experience and the way they interact with this type of gallery viewer.
Another next step for this project could be to analyze how local artists can showcase new collections that have been recently released.
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