Case Study:
Curated: The Art Identifier App
Curated was born from the frustration of users wanting to spend more time in the moment enjoying the artwork and less time searching for information on select artists and artwork.
The app also serves those who would like to reference select artworks at a later time while they are not physically in a museum or gallery. The goal was to create an app that allows users to immerse themselves further into the museum and galley experience in the moment, and allowing them to take access that experience at any time, again and again.
Designer Role
My role in this project was as both the UX Designer & UX Researcher, designing an app from conception to delivery.
The Problem
Museum and gallery goers are unable to easily identify artwork and/or locate any additional information on the work.
Project Goal
Design an app where users can save artwork and all of the information in a quick and efficient way.
Target Audience
The primary user group found was museum and gallery goers alike, typically 18+. It was found to be useful to frequent visitors as well as casual visitors.
An additional user group is people who have difficulty finding information in a exhibition setting. We found that many users want to easily find and save information for later so they can be more present with the artwork.
Key Challenges
Finding information about artwork online can be difficult. There is no direct route to the information.
Gallery goers spent too much time trying to find information about various artworks in the space.
Research Study Details
Key details throughout the research proved to all be related to finding and accessing information.
Users are also frustrated that there isn’t a way to keep the information found after exiting.
Initial Design Concepts
Prioritizing the homepage was key in the design process. That would be the beginning of the user journey to the rest of the app experience, so that needed to be focused on.
From there, the goal would be to take examples from the homepage and incorporate them into the rest of the design to make it feel like one cohesive user experience.
Homepage Before
In the initial design of the home page, there was a lot going on. Yes, the Find Your Artwork feature was present and located in the middle of the app, but there was too much clutter
Homepage After
Early designs left the home page too cluttered, which didn’t give users a clear direction of how to use the app. I chose to simplify the home page. I also added the collection tab at the bottom, which will house additional features that were previously present at the top.
Low-fidelity Wireframe
While it was a good idea at the start to have plenty of features and options on the homepage, it wasn't intuitive for our users.
User Testing
Users wanted a clear and clutter-free page and they wanted the Find Your Art feature of the app to be more prominent. That was the main idea, so it confirmed it was best to lean into that.
Final Mock Ups for Curated: The Art Identifier App
Takeaways
The app Curated made users realize that their museum and gallery experience could be drastically improved.
Designing this app made me learn that taking users into consideration improves design. In my usability studies, it molded the shape of my design in ways I would’ve never initially considered. Being open to feedback is essential to design improvement.
Next Steps
Design and implement the gallery and collection features to add to the Curated app experience.
Once the collection and the gallery features are in place, conduct another round of usability studies in order to make necessary improvements that fit with the overall feel of the app.
Experiment with colors, potentially adding a pop that doesn’t distract too much from the main content of the app.