Museology is an app designed to be a cohesive guide, map, and informational source for art museums that visitors can use on their mobile device at their convenience.

Duration: 6 Months

Tools Used: Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator

The Role

UX/UI Designer

The Problem

Addressing one of the most commonly found issues with the museum visitor experience: confusion

The Solution

A centralized mobile app for museum visitors which aims to ease roadblocks and allow the user to spend time enjoying the institution

"I think that museums are like labyrinths a little bit."

- interview participant

Challenges & Research

When someone visits an art museum, it can be a rewarding, fun experience, or it can feel like a stressful waste of time. The potential for either can be the difference between high or low attendance numbers and therefore the survival of the museum itself. Visitors would likely benefit the most from a product that addresses these potential issues before they can occur.
Research for this project began with the question: what do users love and hate about the art museum experience? I began with an observational study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a foundation for my further research; I then recruited and conducted interviews of art museum visitors, trying to discover patterns of behavior that would eventually dictate design decisions later.  Two distinct groups of people formed from this research:

Pictured: the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Not Pictured: Rocky

Solutions

From there, I created the user stories, trying to keep equal attention to both personas (a challenge I expected to run into from the beginning; Group #1 would be significantly easier to design solutions for than Group #2). I decided that the three most important aspects of my solution would be: 

1. Users need a means of navigation through the museum (Map)
2. Users would like access to browsing the museum’s complete collection (Browse Collection)
3. Users would like a way to purchase tickets either on-the-spot or ahead of time (Plan Your Visit)

Something I had to keep in mind was the idea that Persona #2 would likely not use the product unless they absolutely had to, so I kept steps minimal and decided to not have the user need to create an account to use features such as purchasing tickets. Other features, such as browsing the gift shop, would likely link to the museum's official website and therefore were not included as a potential red route. Features given less priority, such as sharing to social media, may be included in future iterations but were excluded for now.

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Visual Identity

For the app’s UI, I wanted to keep a sense of sophistication without being too simple. The app is designed to showcase art, so the design should allow the art to be the main focus and only work to complement it in a minimalistic way. A warm neutral was chosen for the primary color, with a dark green as secondary to provide a good contrast for UI elements without being flashy. A serif typeface was chosen to maintain the sophisticated look for headers, balanced with a simple sans serif type for body text.In addition to the parameters of the style guide, stock photography and popular works of art were used as visuals, both for cards and as a background of certain screens. UI elements are rounded to keep a softer look, as another way to complement the art.

Testing

Usability testing was conducted in 2 sessions, giving participants one task per section of the app. Changes that occurred from this testing were: 

Users assumed the Ticket icon was for purchasing tickets rather than accessing prior purchases, so a label was added for clarity.

Many users thought the Continue Shopping button was actually the payment button, or at least the button that needed to be pressed to proceed rather than to go back.

Users missed the “Admission” card when trying to purchase tickets via the Visit tab.

Second round of usability testing showed these changes were successful in resolving each issue.