02/ “Tate A Picture”- Visitor Studies & UX
UX/UI Adobe Creative Suite Design Research Literature Review User Testing Microsoft Azure
Human-centered research fueling meaningful interventions in galleries & museums which encourage creative and intentional interactions from visitors.
About
Throughout my graduate research, I’ve been fascinated with design flaws in museums and galleries. “Visitor Studies”, a field dominated by educational psychologists, intends to understand visitor engagement in cultural institutions. I’ve become attached to calling these visitors “users” instead - I believe that by thinking of attendees as users we can better understand their experience as an active engagement in the museum material rather than passive visit. My work combines visitor studies with user-experience research to understand museums and how we can make them more engaging spaces for users.
01/ Defining the Problem
As an active visitor to museums and gallieries, I’ve noticed how the concept of “going to a museum” is a very divisive decision. While it excites some, it bores others. Indeed, not just the decision, but from within the museum, I often watch people drift around, sitting, unengaged. Going to the museum can feel like something we have to do, or should do, rather than want to. These observations have inpsired me to understand more. In defining the problem, I conducted thorough research through understanding current literature. Would you like to read my literature review? It is linked below:
02/ Concept DevelopmentAs an active visitor to museums and gallieries, I’ve noticed how the concept of “going to a museum” is a very divisive decision. While it excites some, it bores others. Indeed, not just the decision, but from within the museum, I often watch people drift around, sitting, unengaged. Going to the museum can feel like something we have to do, or should do, rather than want to. These observations have inpsired me to understand more. In defining the problem, I conducted thorough research through understanding current literature. Would you like to read my literature review? It is linked below:
To kick start my process, I came up with an integrated experience I wanted to understand and bring into a museum of my choice. I decided on the Tate Modern (one of my favorite galleries), and worked on a concept which better engaged users in the experience of creating memories
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After establishing the basic integrated expeirence, I moved to creating generic personas. Given my research on Falk, I decided to narrow down to the “tourist” (an experience seeker or explorer), or the “art enthusiast” (a professional/hobbyist or facilitator). I completed basic drawings how I’d expect the experience to occur in the physical gallery.
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After establishing the basic integrated expeirence, I moved to creating generic personas. Given my research on Falk, I decided to narrow down to the “tourist” (an experience seeker or explorer), or the “art enthusiast” (a professional/hobbyist or facilitator). I completed basic drawings how I’d expect the experience to occur in the physical gallery.
3/ Prototyping & Testing
After conducting interviews on our 10 subjects, we worked out some new perameters for how this application could work. “Navigate the Tate” is an application which involves the postcard integrated experience, but generally allows users to access their tickets, maps and other logistical features.
Using Azure, a basic low-fidelity but functional prototype was produced for user-testing. The major user tests assured that people could located their purchased tickets and gallery maps and access the postcard printing features which allows for users to plan their keepsakes to be specific to their interests and prepared for them by the end of the trip.
Using Azure, a basic low-fidelity but functional prototype was produced for user-testing. The major user tests assured that people could located their purchased tickets and gallery maps and access the postcard printing features which allows for users to plan their keepsakes to be specific to their interests and prepared for them by the end of the trip.