Case Study: Virtual art gallery tour app
As a part of the Google UX design course, I took this problem statement and decided to design a solution for it. This is my first case study.
Timeline: 6 weeks
My responsibilities: User Research, Wireframing, Visual Design, Prototyping
Problem Statement
Art enthusiasts, students, and many other people who love to know about art but couldn’t physically visit Art galleries all the time. In situations like pandemics, people can’t visit museums and galleries to experience different art forms around the world.
Goals
The goal is to create a virtual tour app for art galleries for all the art enthusiasts and students present all over the world to provide them with an app that let them explore different types of art forms. The app includes galleries from all around the world.
The main purpose of the app is to make the world familiar with art within the comfort of their home.
My Process
My process includes following each and every step, from ideation to prototyping to usability studies in a thorough way. I use many iterations to come up with the desired output. My brain and thoughts are open to every outcome possible.
Research
Brainstorming
For brainstorming ideas, I prefer the pen-paper approach because it’s easy to jot down everything which comes to my mind.
By brainstorming, I came up with some ideas that I can implement in the app, such as the feed option where you can see the updates of the artists or galleries you follow. It would be like any other feed app where you see what you follow. I was quite confused about the exploring part like how will you explore the galleries so I took some inspiration from google map’s explore feature. Some other things I added are the scanning feature which helps you to scan any art and give you information about it. I was confused between the auction of art pieces and directly buying art, and I think directly buying art seemed more feasible option. Some of the things which I implemented need to review and I might change them after a usability study.
User Interviews
I interviewed potential users, participants were between the age of 15 to 45. From the interview, I learned that there were many people who never visited a single art gallery and had no idea about the ongoing exhibitions around their cities. Upon asking about the reason they mentioned that it takes a lot of time to visit galleries and museums, and they mentioned that there were many times that they missed an event because they had no idea about it.
One of the participants who is majoring in fine arts told that art galleries are expensive and he can’t afford to visit them frequently. He stated that he had to specifically search for each art and artist on google which still didn’t provide the information he needed.
Questionnaire for the research
- Have you ever visited an art gallery or art museum? If so, can you tell me about your experience?
- Do you go to galleries and museums for fun or do you go there to gather information?
- What are the reasons that stop you from visiting art galleries frequently?
- Have you ever come across an app that lets you take a tour of an art gallery?
- Do you really need an app like that in your life? Can you tell me how will it help you on a daily basis?
- What are some features that you want to see in an app like that?
- Are you interested in buying the artwork? Will it help if the app provides you with a platform for that?
- If there was an app like that which lets you explore the art and artists, would you really use it, and for what?
Competitive analysis
While searching for inspiration and researching the other art gallery tour apps, I came to know about Google arts and culture and Artland which provide somewhat similar features which I’m aiming to include in my app.
- Google Arts and Culture: Google Arts & Culture is a non-commercial initiative. It works with cultural institutions and artists around the world. Its mission is to preserve and bring the world’s art and culture online so it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere.
Strengths:
It provides information about a variety of arts and cultures.
It provides the user with a scan and cast option.
The User Interface is quite good and it’s fun and easy to use.
Weaknesses:
It doesn’t provide any information about the art gallery and newly made and published art.
There is no option to buy any art for interested people.
2. Artland: Artland is an online platform that allows users to discover galleries, artwork, and artists. Artland provides features such as virtual tours, news updates, etc.
Strengths:
It provides virtual reality tours of the art galleries.
User experience for purchasing an item is quite better than other apps.
Weaknesses:
It’s quite confusing for first-time users to use it.
User Persona
User Journey Map
Persona: Riya
Goal: To reach and explore the art gallery.
This user journey map basically tells us about the pain points and problems faced by an individual while physically visiting an art gallery. This helped me to improve those areas by finding solutions for those through an app.
Storyboard
Scenario: Use the Virtual art gallery tour app to gain information about the various art pieces.
The storyboard here represents a scenario or a story of a user that how and when they use an app. It is a great way to explain the overall process of using an app.
Wireframes
Paper Wireframes
Low fidelity Wireframes
Usability Studies: Findings
After finalizing the first phase of the digital wireframe I went through user testing with real users.
I conducted two levels of usability testing, one for the low-fidelity wireframes and one for the final high-fidelity mockup.
From the first study, I understood that the auction or buying art option should be at the front because there are many people who are solely interested in buying art, and for them, it’s not convenient to go through an extra step to find what they need.
Some of the users suggested that they would like to have a save option to save artwork as we have in other apps which would help them to go through the selected things they want.
Users were interested in the Explore view of the gallery and asked how will it work? Will they be able to view art pieces or can they also click on them to get information about it? This made me understand that clicking on the art pieces to get information is indeed needed, there is no point in just viewing the art unless something came out of it.
Mockups
Changes were made to the final mockup with respect to the usability study conducted.
High Fidelity mockups
The final mockups were drafted to give the best user experience for the user as per the user’s needs. The users can easily navigate from one screen to another to explore the galleries around them.
Style Guide
Going Forward
What I would do differently next time?
As this was my first project, there were a lot of things new to me. This project was the part of Google UX course by Coursera so I had to proceed according to the course. They mentioned a specific process and procedure that need to be followed to conduct research or to make designs which seemed forced to me sometimes. For the next project, I would like to take my own steps and processes to conduct the research.
What did I learn?
I learned a lot of things. At first, I was not sure about how this project will proceed. I had some assumptions but after conducting research I came to know that those assumptions were indeed incorrect. I came to know that there are so many things to consider and the first ideas are not always the correct ones. We need to improve at each and every step and take other people’s suggestions and criticism in a constructive way.
Check the prototype here
