GalleryPal
A Modified Design Sprint
GalleryPal is a new startup that wants to improve the experience of viewing art in a museum or gallery.
A modified version of GV’s Design Sprint was used to come up with a quick and reliable solution that people can access on their smartphones. As the lead designer, I was happy to take up this project as I resonate with our users’ thoughts as well.
role
Solo Designer
timeline
5 days
processes
Modified Design Sprint
tools
Adobe XD, InVision, Good ol' fashioned pen and paper
Day 1- Map
Understanding
the Problem
We spoke to seven urban, working professionals who take a keen interest in art and culture. We asked them to tell us about a recent trip to the museum. What they had to say was quite interesting. Take a look at some of the quotes:
I don't really enjoy group tours because I like to do my own thing... but sometimes I listen in to learn a few facts about the artist, or the piece itself.
I may do a little research before my visit, but I always find a work of art that catches my eye that I didn't read about beforehand.
I often wonder- what would the artist tell me about this piece if they had a minute to talk to me? How cool would that be?!!
The artist’s background, technique and intentions play an important role in helping viewers form an opinion about any work of art.
- Lena Carroll, Tour Guide at the Museum of Natural History
Persona
What would Angela do?
Angela
23 years old
Junior Art Director
New York, NY
Behavior
Since moving to New York a year ago, Angela has tried to take advantage of all the World Class art and museums in the city. She goes to the more popular museums every couple of months- usually by herself. Angela doesn't really look for specific exhibitions or artists- she just goes and browses whatever art is being showcased.
Frustrations
Angela enjoys her visits, but feels like if she knew a little more, she would have a better experience. Angela has tried to read some books and articles on the art he's seen, but loses interest due to how long and in-depth they are.
Goals
Angela wants to get quick information while looking at the art that will give her a better appreciation for it, and make her feel like she is making the most out of her visit.
Quotes
"I enjoy going to the museum, but I often leave feeling like I didn't appreciate the art to its full potential."
​
"I don't need to know everything, I just don't want to feel like I was missing out on something."
Research Synthesis
The design brief and early interviews with potential users demonstrated that the people who visit museums and galleries often feel like they do not get the complete experience while looking at the art. Furthermore, I learnt that research through the internet or books is tedious because of the lengthy articles and in-depth information. My task is to design a solo experience which gives my user enough information to form an opinion about the work of art.
Map
Considering the museums of New York as the primary destination for this project, I imagined the journey of Angela, our user in her early 20s, Junior Art Director. Angela would enter the Museum of Modern Art and look around the exhibits. She would come across something that would catch her attention and want to learn more.
Day 2- Sketch
Lightning Demos
To understand the existing solutions, I studied the direct and indirect competitors of the product. I also looked at apps that had useful features that could be integrated into GalleryPal.
Daily Art
-
This app shows the user one work of art a day with a small article that has the most relevant information regarding it.
-
It also has high resolution images of the artwork and even shows the texture when we zoom in.
Google Arts & Culture
-
The chronological organization of the artwork in the museum is very nicely done with the literal gallery view.
-
The works of prominent artists have been curated under their names with snippets of information about the artist and their inspirations.
Explorer- AMNH NYC
-
The American Museum of Natural History’s app has mini-quizzes, interesting facts and interactive elements such as selfie-frames and audio clips that replicate jungle environments or tribal beats.
-
The user can select the topics according to their interests and are given recommendations accordingly.
-
Users can also book tickets for museum visits online and skip the queues.
Products with relevant features
Shopping apps like Etsy have a lot of products for users to browse, a lot like the installations in large museums. Their search and filter features are optimized. Etsy’s Featured products come as editor’s picks and the other products on the home page are displayed by category for easy browsing.
Google Lens uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze objects and words in the real world and do a quick search.
Deepstash’s easy reading brings the user the most important points of self-improvement books and articles. The use of cards in a carousel, the option to save snippets for later and the prompt to help the user navigate to the next article or view similar stories is also quite useful.
Spotify’s player displays the lyrics and highlights them karaoke-style while the song plays. The text on a card could be highlighted the same way as the audio clip pertaining to a certain piece is played.
Duolingo’s use of gamification to teach languages is quite interesting. It rewards users with gems, tracks their progress and encourages users to return.
Crazy 8’s
While going through a museum, the user’s main goal is to get the relevant information pertaining to the artwork in front of them. The two most critical screens are:
​
-
Browsing for the art
-
Imbibing the information
The precedence would go to the screen that displays the information as this would be the user’s motivation to use the app in the first place. It will also be the most complex as the user must be able to take in the information quickly and proceed to form an opinion.
The following screens are the result of the Crazy 8s exercise- drawing 8 variations of the screen in 8 minutes.
sketches
minutes
8
Screens
4 (Focusing on different parts of the same artwork),
6 (Rapid fire quiz)
7 (Museum treasure hunt)
:are very activity based and use a lot of cognitive load.
Screens
5 (Having an artist's animation tell us their story and intention)
2 (Having bits of information appear in AR for every art piece)
are not highly feasible in bulk
Screens
3 (Simple, hierarchical display of information)
8 (Organized by a timeline)
are too standardized and could get old very easily.
Screen 1 has flashcards that display short snippets of information and an optional audio clip for flexibility. It is applicable to as many works as possible and is also easy to consume.
The screen before:
Users can search, scan or browse through curated recommendations
​
The screen after:
To help with recall and reasoning, questions for critical thinking will be played at the end of the clip.
Day 3- Decide
Storyboarding
Now well informed and inspired to get to work, I sketched out the storyboard for GalleryPal, keeping Angela in mind. The format is easily editable to include new artists' showcases as well as the classics in their rightful places.
Opening
The app will open with a splash page and ask the user for location permission before launching the home page. This will help with :
-
Launching the page of the museum that the user is in
-
Recommending nearby galleries/museums to the user.
If they refuse to give location permission, a comprehensive list of the most popular museums can be shown to them so they can explore on their own time.
Flexible Browsing
Different people like to explore museums in different ways. To give the user that kind of flexibility, the home page has been split into two sections- “Search” for when the visitor would like to know about one particular work of art (Like Angela) and “Explore” to guide visitors through tours or towards popular works and featured artists.
Formatting the information
The section that explains each work of art will have the floor and section of display mentioned to help the user navigate the museum more easily in real time.
The information will appear in the form of cards for reading mode and audio for those who have earphones or headsets.
Day 4- Prototype
Using Adobe XD, I created the first prototype for GalleryPal. A Sprint is best for testing risks, so this app is built without a traditional navigation menu. It offers multiple ways (Search bar, scan the work through a camera or taking curated tours) to explore a museum setting, like the well-known Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
While there are many features that can be added on, this sprint’s purpose is to test the app’s ability to satisfactorily inform the user about a work of art.
Day 5- Test
The Users
The participants chosen to test the GalleryPal prototype are all working in creative fields and have an inclination towards art and visual communication. They are in their 20s. They have previously visited and are very likely to visit galleries, museums and art exhibitions in different parts of the world.
GV's Five-Act Interview
Friendly welcome​
Context questions
Introduction to the prototype​
Tasks
Quick debrief
KEY INSIGHTS
1
The information must be extremely brief, like flashcards. Users did not read through an entire paragraph.
2
The “Scan the artwork” feature should be immediately available to the user at any given moment
3
The critical thinking section was highly appreciated and could include a mini quiz to allow the user to guess the right answer.
New and Improved
Although the risk of not including a bottom navigation didn't pay off, it helped me make better choices about what to include as the menu options. These incremental changes made a huge difference to the overall flow of GalleryPal.
-
Bottom navigation with three main tabs: Explore, scan and profile. This would allow the user constant access to the scan feature or use the explore tab for tours and recommendations. The profile tab would allow them to access their saved paintings and maintain a personalized profile.
-
A “like” feature for users to mark out the paintings they like in case they want to continue research. This would also help the app customize their preferences using tags and metadata, thus curating a truly personal and experiential tour.
-
3 min audio clip with minimalist cue cards that represent these facts divided into 5 sections:
-
About the artist- (Artist’s name and a quote/fact about the artwork)
-
About the artwork- Story/ thought behind it, muses etc.
-
Artwork Style- Art movement with prominent features and contemporaries
-
Historical/political relevance
-
Interesting facts and trivia (2 max)
Want to play around with the prototype?
Challenges & Scope
This project instilled in me the ability to trust the process without constantly worrying about the final outcome. It's easy to get caught up with intricacies in UX design, but setting up tasks on a timeline helped me deal with that head on.
During the sprint to develop GalleryPal, there were a lot of ideas and possible directions that the project could take. Some of them were:
​
-
Developing a sister app for smaller art exhibitions and galleries to allow up & coming artists to communicate the thought behind their works to a larger audience more effectively. This would allow patrons to donate to the artist/ buy their artwork as well.
-
Adding treasure hunts to larger museums to attract the youth and encourage interactive learning.
-
Allowing users to buy tickets to museums on the app and skip the queues
-
Adding a feature that allows museum/gallery managers to edit the order of the artwork / add new displays within the app