I started with reviewing the brief, organizing and synthesizing the research highlights (see image to the left) to aide me with developing the themes, user problem, and the goals of the project. I learned though synthesizing the research that all users enjoy viewing artwork but always left feeling unsatisfied because they didn’t have relevant knowledge on the artwork and any context they found online was too overwhelming.

The lack of context also made it difficult for the visitors to form an opinion about the art and a key motivation behind having context about the artwork was to help the visitor form an appreciation of the art and aide the viewing experience.

Shazam was able to locate the song that I was looking for by listening to only a few seconds of the song.

Wireframe Sketches

Applying my experience map as my guide, I sketched screens that comes before and after the critical screen (in purple) to understand how a user interacts with the interface, what are the results of the interaction and what would be the next step for the user with this product (see image below) of the user journey when using this product. Sketching these wireframes afforded me the opportunity to understand and revises what features had to be taken into consideration when designing the product, what aspects of the product could be improved and how much detail needed to be addressed in each screen.

Prototype

For the prototype (see images below), my emphasis was to keep it minimal and straightforward and so I chose to utilize a dark background and a basic color scheme (white and magenta), so that whichever artwork was showcased, the artwork would standout against the dark background and the insight markers would be easily visible, no matter the artwork.

Keeping to the design theme and utilizing all my research thus far, I focused on the MVP’s for each screen that focused on:

User Prototype Testing

Prior to launching the app, I wanted to conduct a user prototype test to get a fresh perspective on the app, as well as aid me in finding any mistakes that I might have on the current iteration.

Task

I proceeded with conducting user prototype testing with 5 users who have been to a museum within the last month and asked them to test the app and provide feedback on the app, the amount of time it took them to read the content and if this would aide in them appreciating the artwork.

• Users would like a function that allows them to save their favorite piece of artwork.

• Users are curious about a function shows more artwork from the same or similar artists.

• Users would like a zoom in features within the insights page of the app to expanded on the explanation about the artwork.

Reflection

I honestly think that this app can be a useful tool to museum that adds to the visitor experience. With over 15 years in the museum field, I’ve observed that visitors sometimes have trouble understanding or connecting with certain pieces of artwork. Providing the visitors a bit of context to the artwork they are viewing has always enhanced their overall satisfaction about the artwork, along with creating a better museum experience. Most of the time, this information is given to the visitors by the docent but they are not always available to provide these insights and so the GalleryPal app goes a long way towards solving this issue.

As far as the design sprint itself, I have to mention that this project had numerous challenges but by far the most difficult problem for this project was time management. The time management issue tested my ability to be organized, quickly and throughly synthesize my research, as well as find the problem, goals and solutions concurrently. I relied heavily on my experience within design and my comprehension of the design thinking model (and the appropriate methodology to generate my solutions) to aide me towards answers at the end of everyday.

Though a difficult project, I feel that at completion of this 5-Day Design Sprint I have been able build solid foundation on which I could further build this app to become a useful tool that enhances the visitor experience of viewing art.

Nothing can replace the satisfaction of viewing artwork in-person but my solution provided users the context and all the delightful and abstract philosophies of artwork to allow each user to fully appreciate the work in front of them.

Next Steps

I plan on fully developing this app because of the numerous opportunities in brand and user experience that could elevate this to a high functioning app for museum visitors.

One of the opportunities I can visualize is integrating this app into an institutions collections database. I’ve learned though my experience in working for museums that all museums have a database for every object in their collection. The database could be integrated into this app to allow users to learn about the various objects in the museums collection, whether on display or not.

Also, besides updating the features based on the user testing feedback, other features that I would like to proceed for this app is to allow visitors to save their favorite artwork as wallpaper on their phones.

Finally, I would like to further investigate other opportunities of providing more context to the users in the form of artist interview videos, user digital art based on artwork and studio tours through VR via the app.