ART+ : The VR Museum
"Museums are temporarily closed, but arts and culture will never be quarantined."
This page is under developing, let’s take a look at the mockups!
Duration
2021. 12 - 2021. 03, 4 months
Design Team
Individual Work
Tools
Figma | Miro | Adobe Suite
ART+ is a VR museum app that provides virtual reality tours for museum lovers that are unable to physically visit museums due to the time/ geographic/ budget limitations.
With ART+, visitors can get access to artworks all over the world, have fun discussions with other museum lovers, enjoy the virtual tours that the system recommends based on users' tastes, and make their own collections.
01 - EMPHASIZE
Are there really problems visiting physical museums?
If yes, what changes do we need?
To answer these questions, I established these research goals:
Explore visitors' motivations for visiting physical museums
Identify dissatisfactions or inconveniences experienced during visits
Evaluate users' attitudes toward digital museum tours.
Primary Research
I conducted 1-1 interviews with 5 individuals of different genders, religions, and ages ranging from 15 to 65. They shared their museum visiting experiences, expectations, and concerns about digital museum tools.
Interviewer 01
Keywords: convenient, knowledge
Y, a 16 years old senior high student living in a small county in China.
"The nearest museum is 2 hours of drive from me, and I don't have too much free time. I'm preparing for my college exam."
Interviewer 02
Keywords: visiting alone, complete visit
J, a 28-year-old programmer living in San Francisco.
"I always do to museums during weekends by myself, and I would like to see every part of the museum, but some visit flows are confusing with a lot of detours"
Interviewer 03
Keywords: accessibility, low-tech life
E, 65 years old, retired and living in valley areas in Los Angeles.
"I often feel exhausted after a museum visit. The interpretation text is often too small to see. And not too many museums have audio assistance."
Primary Research Key Insights
Those are the pain points of physical museum visiting that I found from the 1-1 interviews:
Access
Visitors can't visit museums due to geography, time, or financial issues.
Detour
People hate detours in visiting museums.
Sharing
People love to share their tours on social media.
Interpretation
People want clear interpretations of exhibitions.
Get closer
People hope to get closer to the exhibits and even touch them.
Secondary Research
What are the constraints of current museums?
After reading passages and discussions on the internet, Quora, and Tumbler, I categorized the opinions into 4 aspects both from the museum side and the visitor side:
Museum Side
Museums have limited opening hours. A lot of them are closed on Mondays.
Challenging Visitor Scheduling
People may feel too busy, exhausted, financially constrained, or engrossed in digital devices to visit a museum.
Visitor Side
Visitors are having a hard time navigating museum websites and ticketing systems.
Challenging Visitor Scheduling
Museums are struggling with new forms of marketing and outreach.
Information Asymmetry
People are unaware of the smaller museums in their area.
Visitors struggle with tracking exhibitions and events due to scattered information across multiple platforms.
Exhibitions are subject to the tastes and restrictions of certain donors and curators that resulted in a hierarchy of “cultural value”.
Limited Display Space
Visitors are disappointed when they only see a small portion of the collection is on display.
Visitors may feel rushed during guided tours, which prevents them from fully engaging with the artwork.
Visitors find crowded museum tours frustrating;
Visitors can't get close enough to see art details.
Unfulfilling Art Tours
Museums have concerns about visitors damaging works on display.
Secondary Research Key Insights
My research has revealed several areas of "unmatch" between museums and visitors:
Challenging Visitor Scheduling: The unmatch between museum opening times and visitor schedules.
Information Asymmetry: The unmatched availability of information resulted in underdeveloped outreach efforts.
Limited Display Space: The unmatch in terms of what is exhibited versus what visitors want to see.
Unfulfilling Art Tours: The unmatch between art protection and visitors' desire to appreciate it close.
02 - DEFINE
Reframing the problem
Synthesize our first and second research, we can reframe the problem as followings:
1. HMW design an accessible and user-friendly virtual museum tool?
1. HMW design an accessible and user-friendly virtual museum tool?
2. HMW assist visitors in discovering virtual tours that align with their interests?
3. HMW help visitors gain a deeper understanding of the artworks?
4. HMW create a community of art enthusiasts where people can share their perspectives and common interests?
Personas
Meet our 2 signature users here!
Jarvis, a middle-class museum lover.
Yuhan, an underrepresented senior student.
🎂 Age
🎓 Education
🏠 Hometown
31
Master
Pittsburg, PA
Jarvis Phillip
Software Developer Engineer
“ Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
Jarvis Phillip
Software Developer Engineer
“ Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
🎂 Age
🎂 Age
🏠 Hometown
Master
Master
🧍♂️ He is...
An SDE living in the bay area, San Francisco. During weekends, Jarvis loves to go to exhibitions with his partner to unwind from his workweek. He is mostly interested in natural science exhibits and immersive art shows.
😰 He feels...
Frustrated with other visitors disrupting his experience
Confused by detours
Difficulty finding museums that match his interests
💭 He wants...
To rekindle his passion for life and balance it with his daily work
To view exhibits peacefully and repeatedly
To share his art tour experiences on social media through photos.
🧍♂️ He is...
An SDE living in the bay area, San Francisco. During weekends, Jarvis loves to go to exhibitions with his partner to unwind from his workweek. He is mostly interested in natural science exhibits and immersive art shows.
😰 He feels...
Confused by detours
Frustrated with other visitors disrupting his experience
Difficulty finding museums that match his interests
💭 He wants...
To rekindle his passion for life and balance it with his daily work
To view exhibits peacefully and repeatedly
To share his art tour experiences on social media through photos.