Histor_Art: A mobile app for art lovers
My Role: Solo - Product Designer, UX Researcher
I personally conducted user research and interviews, developed paper and digital wireframes, mockups, low and hi-fidelity prototypes, conducted usability studies, analysed findings and iterated to deliver the final product.
Intro:
First of all, what is art?
We can consider art as an expression of our thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires, but it is even more personal than that: it's about sharing the way we experience the world, which for many is an extension of personality. It is the communication of intimate concepts that cannot be faithfully portrayed by words alone.
How art affects our lives?
Research amply demonstrates that art gives us immeasurable personal and social benefits. All kinds of art can affect our mood in a positive way, making us feel happier, calmer, or even inspired to do something.
The Problem
This mobile art project took shape during pandemic, when art galleries and museums were closed and generally, everyone’s mood wasn’t the greatest at all.
The lack of physical access during the shutdown forced the museum field to innovate towards new web experiences. It could be via virtual social events on zoom or social networks, virtual tours and/or online workshops.
These methods were innovative but still quite limited and not very satisfying as I observed later through my research.
For this reason my main question was:
How can I take what we do at the museum outside of the four walls and deliver a relevant experience to people’s homes?
The intention was to test how a mobile application, could potentially recreate a similar experience and solve users’s issues faced on other platforms - and find out how beneficial the experience could be on users.
My design process:
I followed the Design Thinking method since it's extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown. This iterative and non-linear process would be optimal to solve unpredicted issues that I could face during my journey to the final product.
User research - Understanding the user:
Step 1 - Create a pool of users:
User group data and demographic:
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6 people
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From 22 to 57 years old
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Professional & students
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Single/married with kids
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Living in suburban/metropolitan environment
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2 suffering from anxiety disorders (claustrophobia, agoraphobia, depression)
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4 of 6 of the selected users have a specific interest in arts
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2 of 6 of the selected users have a superficial interest in arts
Research methods:
Survey
Interviews
Step 2 - Empathise :
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My main focus is to understand and analyse users needs, goals, pain-points and behaviours in order to deliver clear and meaningful artifacts. This step is fundamental to get strong material for my following research and strategies
Research methods:
Survey
Interviews
ARTIFACTS
Persona
User Journey
Empathy map
Big Picture Storyboard
Interviews findings:
Top reasons to go to museums and art exhibitions were:
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They provide an effective way of learning
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They inspire
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They make you feel better
Users generally had a good feeling going to art museums, but they also mentioned some inconveniences and concerns about it.
2 people found the experience enjoyable, 1 neutral, and 3 problematic.
Top motivations being discouraged going go art museums were:
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Difficulty to get to the location
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Ticket pricing
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Difficulty to get tickets for popular exhibitions
Other motivations were:
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Exhibitions didn’t meet user expectations
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User was not provided with adequate tools to understand the art context (no exhaustive infos, no audio guides)
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Short time slots prevented the user to enjoy the experience
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Uncomfortable feeling attending to too crowded exhibitions
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Uncomfortable feeling being in a closed environment
Users's experiences with Digital alternatives:
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6/6 people would use a digital product as an alternative.
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1/6 people has not referred to any digital product. The rest of the user group mentioned: Wikipedia, Instagram and Tate.org.uk.
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Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers. Instagram is a popular social network. Tate.org.uk is a national art museum website.
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Wikipedia is perceived as too broad, the design is plain. Instagram has limited content purely based on pictures and videos. Tate.org.uk’s features were not working properly and not available on mobile devices. Interface and navigation were confusing
Top qualities a Digital Product should have (sorted by level of importance by the users):
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Easy navigation and flow
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Beautiful design
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Clear interface
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Good quality images
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Great educational content
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Organised content
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Information on upcoming exhibitions
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Chance to get tickets quickly for upcoming exhibitions
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Social features (sharing content)
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Information on local museums/art galleries
Competitive Audit :
Parallel to my User research I conducted a competitive audit to investigate what gaps the market has and what opportunities could be taken.
Wireframes:
As I reached the Ideate stage of my journey, I came up with possible design solutions that could meet the user’s needs:
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(Paper wireframes numbered with corresponding digital format)
Prototyping, Iterating and Validating
Lo-Fi Prototypes:
Click here to view the prototype on Figma
Usability Study:
My goal at this stage was to fulfil these main user needs:
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Easy navigation and flow
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Clear interface
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Organised content
Tasks Flow 1:
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Look for an artist
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Look for an artist’s artwork
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Save/add the artwork to a collection
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Share the collection to a contact
Participants:
Same user group interviewed during my previous research + 4 additional ones within the same demographic metrics.
Methodology:
Unmoderated
Recorded
Duration:
20 minutes
Location:
London
Research Data:
How long did it take to the user to complete all the tasks?
Between 45 seconds to 3 minutes.
How many users were able to successfully complete all the tasks?
8/10 participants. 2 participants stopped the test before the end of it.
Where are the users mostly getting stuck during the completion of the tasks?
Saving the artwork. Most participants clicked the menu instead of the save button (designed as a star). Only 2 participant did the task correctly at the first click.
User Post-Testing questions:
If you were not able to complete the test, what prevented you from doing so?
No clarity or instructions about how to save an artwork into a collection (the star button is not perceived as a save button. 2 participants thought it was not a functional element).
How difficult were these test assignments? (1=very easy, 5=very difficult)
Look for an artist : 1
Look for an artist’s artwork : 1
Save the artwork (to a collection) : 4
Share the collection to a contact : 1
How would you describe your overall experience with this design? And why?
Saving the artwork aside, the users feedback was generally positive. Words such as “organised” and “intuitive” were used. Users said they got quickly familiar with the prototype navigation.
If you could change one thing in this product, what would it be and why?
All the participants expressed the need to have the save button redesigned.
Participants wandered if there was a way to view the artwork in a bigger format.
My point conducting this initial usability test was to determine if my design solutions were effective to meet the users expectations and needs. Another important point was to observe how the user would interact with the product. Seeing their behaviour, attitude and body language through the test was quite significant. Now, some elements had to be replaced and others better placed, but I could see my design solution potential. Through iteration I fixed issues that were raised.
Hi- Fi Mockups:
Design system:
My Idea for Histor_Art was to design an app that would resemble the aesthetic and tone of an art museum... but how? Have you ever wondered how museums choose their walls colour? And what colours are good and what aren’t? Well, neither I was able to answer all these questions but through my research on this matter I found very interesting resources.
The following sources were an useful answer to my questions:
How a colour designer creates the perfect backdrop for famous art
Hi- Fi Prototype:
Prototyping goals to meet and improve:
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Clear interface
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Beautiful design
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Good quality images
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Organised content
At this point I had enough room to test a second user flow to meet these points too:
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Social features (sharing content)
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Information on upcoming exhibitions
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Information on local museums/art galleries
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Chance to get tickets quickly for upcoming exhibitions
Usability Study:
2 Flows tested:
Flow 1
Same task as previous usability study
Flow2 :
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Find an art gallery
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Find upcoming exhibitions
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Click ticket link
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Participants:
Same group from previous usability test
Methodology:
Unmoderated
Recorded
Duration:
30 minutes
Location:
London
Research Data:
How long did it take the user to complete all the tasks from both flows?
Between 1.5minutes to 2.5 minutes.
How many users were able to successfully complete all the tasks?
10/10 participants.
How would the user describe the overall experience with this design?
The general feedback was very positive. Users were not showing any apparent difficulty to meet the goals. Through the recordings the attitude, behaviour and body language showed positive signs of enjoyment. Good feedback was received on the design and aesthetic. Words used to describe the experience were: “engaging”, ”beautiful”, “fun”, “relaxing”.
The audio feature was highly praised, it was perceived as a useful tool to make the experience more enjoyable (one participant had a temporary visual impairment at the time of the Usability test and found this feature to be a great benefit).
If users could change this product, what would it be and why?
Users were unanimous, they wanted to be able to zoom in and enlarge the artwork image.
A button would be more aesthetically pleasing than a clickable link to purchase tickets.
Would you recommend this product to other people?
10/10 users would recommend it
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After this test I designed solutions to solve the issues that were raised and I iterated the testing phase until I reached a satisfying result.
What did Histor_Art deliver that was similar to attending to an art museum or gallery?
Art museums and art galleries visits are a unique experience. There are many reasons why people visit them. As mentioned, they are great for stimulating new ideas, providing new perspectives in our lives and gaining new knowledge.
Despite the challenging task to recreate such experience, I was able to deliver a product that users are happy to use and describe as they were visiting an art museum.
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Fixing the issue
As my previous usability study report showed, users needed a tool to better view the paintings. My design solution presented a full screen view of the artwork that the user can zoom in and also enlarge specific areas with the help of magnifying lens. A micro-view of the artwork can be enabled to help the user locating his position on the canvas. A similar solution was seen on the National Gallery mobile app during my competitive audit. A final testing of the design proved it to be successful.
What the users think
Takeaway:
A very interesting fact was that this product would not only offer an alternative to whom may not be able to easily attend to art galleries and museums like:
- people with poor work/life balance
- Students
- Low income people
- Permanently or temporarily impaired persons
- People with psychological issues preventive them to enjoy the experience
- People living in rural areas
But my research showed how this app could trigger interest in people who did not have a particular curiosity in arts, in fact, two participants in my studies were really enjoying the experience using Histor_Art despite describing themself as not particularly interested in arts.
I thought that these experiences, such as visiting art museums and galleries, may vary a lot from person to person, so I considered that, for some, it could be tiring and boring to shuffle from one exhibition to the next one and not understand what they were looking at.
My purpose having them as part of my studies, was to determine if this app could spark any interest in them and give a more personal and enjoyable experience than the previous ones at museums.
I was very happy to hear that they enjoyed the app and even thought to recommend it to a friend!
Next steps:
I believe that AR could be a great way to enhance the user experience in this context.
Enlarging and zooming the artworks was a valid solution to solve the issue, but the screen size is a practical impediment. AR could be may be an optimal solution to solve the problem.
I will iterate research and further test Histor_Art in order to develop further solutions.
A tablet version of Histor_Art will be tested in future.
Thank you so much!
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Thank you so much for your time reviewing my work on Hirstor_Art! If you would like to see more or get in touch, my contact is provided here below:
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