Vienna Modern Art Gallery App
Project duration: June - August 2021
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Christina Laing—UX Research, UX Designer, Visual Designer, Interaction Designer, Motion Designer
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Responsibilities included conducting user research, wireframing and prototyping.
Project Overview
The Problem
The Vienna Modern Art Gallery has no artist information publicly available for up and coming artists, and no centralized way to see when a specific artist is having their next exhibition.
The Goal
Create an app that provides interesting information about the artists that the gallery represents and allows people to “favorite” artists they particularly like, share them with friends, and to see when they might be exhibiting work next.
Design Thinking
I used the design thinking framework in this case study, to create solutions that address a real user's problem and are functional and affordable.
User Research: summary
I conducted user interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified through research was busy professionals who want to attend art gallery exhibitions, but have difficulty identifying interesting artists and when they will be exhibiting next.
The majority of research pointed to a distinct lack of public-facing information about artists, lack of social engagement with artists, as well as a lack of useful gallery apps in general.
User Research: Pain Points
Pain Point 1
Difficult finding publicly available information on lesser known artists online – thus the basis for the gallery bio app
Pain Point 2
Gallery openings are not well advertised and users don’t find out about them in time. The app would let the public know which artists are going to be exhibiting, and when.
Pain Point 3
Gallery openings are not well advertised and users don’t find out about them in time. The app would let the public know which artists are going to be exhibiting, and when.
Pain Point 4
Difficult to discover new artists that align to specific genres without wasting a lot of time. This app has a “suggested” feature to help guide users.
Persona: Derrick
Problem Statement
Derrick is an art collector who needs a central repository for exhibition information because of their busy schedule.
Persona: Amanda
Problem Statement
Amanda is an artist who needs a way to meet/discover new artist friends because she loves the social aspect of art.
Paper Wireframes
Iterating on different ideas for each screen of the app using paper provided a great, quick way to hone in on better ways to display information and get to a more final prototype
Digital Wireframes
Refining the paper wireframes into digital wireframes meant referring back to my user research and peer feedback.
Having a favorites area was a common request during user research, and I took it a step further by allowing clickable tags so users could find related artists and easily by using keywords.
Low-fidelity prototypes
Usability study: findings
I conducted two rounds of remote, unmonitored usability studies with 5 participants.
Round One
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Users have a hard time finding the favorites/calendar button on the page
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Users had a hard time distinguishing when an artist had already been added
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Users had a hard time finding the navigation bar
Round Two
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Users thought that homepage could be better organized
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Users needed a back button on the pages in the app
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Found that the white text on yellow was not accessible compliant
Refining the Design
Users wanted a quick and easy way to add events to the calendar, so the button was moved further up on the page to facilitate a more efficient journey.
Users wanted a quick and easy way to add events to the calendar without navigating to the event page, so a quick add button was added to the results pages.
Mockups
High-fidelity prototype
Accessibility considerations
1
Altered the color way from white text on yellow to pass accessibility standards by changing to black on yellow
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2
Created two different flows in order for a user to add an event to the calendar, and for a user to add an artist to the favorites list, ensuring accessibility.
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3
Created an overlay pop up to give the user more obvious direct feedback when performing an action, instead of solely relying on a small icon color change.
Takeaways
Impact:
"Chrissy, this is quite intuitive. Well done, I think. Wish I could offer some insightful criticism. But I have none.
Good work overall! I want this app.”
What I learned:
It is best not to assume you know what the user needs and wants out of a product. Doing the research and getting feedback is invaluable to avoid this.
