THE OBJECTIVE
We want more design, Atlanta.
MODA (Museum of Design Atlanta) is located in the heart of Atlanta. The museum advocates design in all varieties, from designing how to wear technology to designing how you eat!
This case study is about a two week project that was given to me during my immersive UX course at General Assembly. I had two other team members working with me as a team. We collaborated together to create a Mobile Application for MODA (Museum of Design Atlanta) to promote Design thinking and learning.
The Project
Mission
Our Client (MODA's) mission is to advance the understanding and appreciation of design as the convergence of creativity and functionality through exhibitions, education, and programming for visitors of all ages.
Vision
Our VisionWe pursue our mission because we envision a world that celebrates design as a creative force that inspires change, transforms lives, and makes the world a better place.Client Needs.Mobile application to inspire design thinking and learning. Presents information about the museum.
Clients Needs
Mobile application to inspire design thinking and learning. Presents information about the museum.
Pain Pionts
Small physical space.
Opportunity
Atlanta can serve as a canvas for design.
User Research
My team prepared the questionnaire for the target audience, we posted our survey online as well as through social media. We also visited the museum and interviewed visitors on spot. Our research showed that current Moda offers a variety of curated programs and workshops but lacks community outreach. The survey questionnaire reveals that many people are interested to come and visit the museums and be a part of the design community but they cannot access the information easily.
What do our survey results say?
Based on our survey responses, my team and I determined that most museum visitors do not prefer or do not use a museum's mobile application before and/or while attending a museum. For those who do utilize museum apps, users want an app that could help them understand the museum better, whether it be through an audio guide, a way to reach out to museum employees, or some way to access curated museum content so that visitors can get the most out of their museum trips..
Team concerns turned into unconventional thinking!
After doing research from every angle about the museum culture and talking to several people, my team and I began to determine some of our own pain points, which we would have to overcome while also fulfilling our client's needs for their mobile app.
Below are some of the concerns my team and I expressed as we wrapped up the research phase of our project:
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The MODA venue was very small, and it did not display as many exhibits as were expected, based on the MODA website.
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It seemed that not many users visited MODA regularly. The website itself advertises its potential to hold events more than it promotes its exhibits.
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Based on our survey results, most users find out about museums through peers and social media. They rarely download a museum's app to navigate through the venue and learn about the exhibits.
Discovery
What are other museums doing?
Along with getting to know our existent and potential users, it was very important to understand where the museum culture was when it came to mobile apps and how much of a part it played in the amount of visitors they received. For this reason, we conducted comparative and competitive business analyses.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Note: Grey boxes indicates areas of opportunities from our competitors
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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
As we determined the main focus of our project, we worked towards creating our personas.
Persona
USER 1
Our first persona is considered the learner persona because as we researched, we came to see that many museum goers or those who take an interest in the museum culture are mostly students who visit museums due to assignments or for independent learning.
USER 2
Our second persona is considered to be the educator/teacher persona because we saw that museums serve as a great resource to educators who are always looking for teaching material as well as seeking opportunities for their students to experience the topics taught in a more interactive manner.
...to the drawing board!
Ideation
My Contribution to Sketching:
Below are some of the sketches I created to visualize the aspects I thought would be great for MODA visitors to interact with.
In my sketches, the following aspects are present:
- A "My MODA" screen where users can share their own MODA experience with others by writing a caption and using a trending MODA hashtag.
- An audio tour capability to select which part of the museum the user would like to learn about
- A screen that displays programs and events that are being held at MODA, which can be of interest to visitors
- Featured exhibits and a way to plan your visit, and donate to the museum
We started our ideation by brainstorming our initial design and sketched out some of the main screens. We created different ideas and combined them all together.
Initial wireframes focused on the museum and its size, and
to figure out what our global navigation and happy path would be.
Originally our app was focused around a camera feature.
Presented ideas to users who fit the persona and found out that we could do more… not reinvent the wheel. More potential to explore.
THE MODA User's Happy Paths (User Flows)
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We selected global navigation based off of primary user needs:
Evolution of our global tab bar (which started as a hamburger)
The Wireframing
After our sketches were presented to each other, my team and I had the opportunity to discuss which aspects from our sketches would be best to include in our final MODA mobile application. My team and I did a very good job of discussing and understanding each other's ideas and thoughts by presenting our sketches to each other.
This activity of discussing and coming up with a consolidated solution together really helped us come together and create a great app that fulfilled MODA's requirement and served as a great presentation to our class. Below are the annotated wireframes for the mobile application as well as the Apple Watch interface. The annotated wireframes show the screens that would be seen based on which happy path the user decides to take in the MODA App.
MODA Home Screen
Discover MODA Screen
1- Profile Account is visible after logging into app from Social Media path (Assume: User is logged in)
2- User can call MODA or check museum hours for the day
3- Global Navigation:
MODA Feed- home
Discover MODA- museum details
Explore Design- MODA curated design locales
1- Learn about who is MODA and what museum does.
2- Read a summary of current, past, and upcoming exhibitions at MODA.
3- When at the museum, user can take an audio tour via their MODA app.
4- User can learn about exhibited designers and how they successfully showcased their work at MODA.
5- User can explore different programs and events that are held at MODA.
Happy Path 1: Taking an Audio Tour
1- Select which exhibit you are viewing at MODA
2- Enter exhibit item code to listen to an audio tour of a certain exhibit
3- Begin audio track for exhibit item
4- Standard functions when listening to audio on mobile (play, pause, forward, rewind). User can can also adjust the volume and also rate the audio tour so the curators can improve the experience
5- User can begin another tour at any time
Happy Path 2: View Exhibited Designers
1- Select preferred exhibit designers based on time of exhibit
2- Select name of exhibit to view preferred designers
3- User can read about the designer and their MODA journey and also navigate back to the Exhibited Designers main page to explore more designers
Happy Path 3: Explore Design in Atlanta
1.Select Venue of Design the user wants to learn about and possibly visit
2- User can favorite this design location to save in their profile preferences
3. User can also visit the venue's website, contact the venue, or even plan a visit to explore more design
Apple Watch: Audio Tour Capability
Since the Apple Watch requires for an even more lean design, my team and I decided that the Apple Watch would have only the capability of providing audio tours, since our user feedback showed that users do not like to constantly look down at their Apple Watches while exploring design within or outside MODA.
Mobile Prototypes
Usability Testing
Next we tested our design prototype with some users
The text is difficult to read.
-Danna
Discover MODA needs to be more visible.
-Jessica
I need more navigation
features. -Ken
The Teamwork
Skills:
- Project Management
- Presentation
- Content Strategy
- Competitive Research
- Persona Development
The Skills and Tools I learned and applied in the project:
Tools:
- Axure
- InVision
- Keynote
Our MODA team had three members, including myself, and it was a very good experience working with my teammates since we all came to the table with different but very strong skill sets. Being in the Project Manager and UX Designer role within the project, I got the opportunity to learn about the process it takes to manage the team, the project, and the overall timeline to complete the project.
The Next Steps
- Social sharing and developing design conversation within the app
- Exploring watch capabilities while also keeping in mind lean design
- Expand on accessibility and offer more languages in the audio tour capability
