Context
This case study examines a five day Google Ventures Design Sprint that was modified from the intended team model to a solo project.
The Problem
Museums and Galleries are trying to increase customer satisfaction when viewing art. Many people that visit museums and galleries feel like they do not fully engage with the items on show. Many people feel like there is a lack of information available to them while at galleries or museums to fully explain the history or significance of the piece in front of them. GalleryPal wants to design a way to achieve the desired customer satisfaction.
The Solution
Using user insights, a persona and an expert interview I have designed a solution to the problem facing museums and galleries.
With my product, customers need only open the GalleryPal application on their mobile device and take a picture of the artwork in front of them. The image will be analysed by GalleryPal and background information about the artwork and artist will be given to the user.
GalleryPal users can also build their own collection of saved artwork and view museums and galleries that they have visited in the past.
My Role
User Experience Designer
User Interface Designer
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Tools Used
Figma
Why choose a Design Sprint over the traditional Design Process?
The idea behind the Design Sprint is innovation but more importantly rapidly developing a viable product.
Spending a week working through the phases in a Design Sprint lets you see if the product you are developing is going to meet your users needs, will it potentially full fill those needs. You can test an idea before dedicating months of time and money developing a product that will flop on the market.
Working within the parameters of the Sprint you research, sketch, decide, prototype and test a basic product with users. You get immediate feedback and can see if the idea and features that you are developing are going to work for them. A little bit like dipping your toe in the bath water before hoping right in!
But more than that, the Sprint allows you and your team a chance to think in a more innovate about what features should be included in the product. The condensed research methods allow for time to compare competitors but also products that designers find useful themselves and incorporate those elements into their own work.
I think that this in particular is something that I will keep in mind in every project I work on, the most innovative part of this design process. Do not be boxed in by your perceived parameters of the type of project you are working on, always allow yourself to take inspiration from features and products that you find useful because at the end of the day you are a User too!
The usual UX Design Process
The Design Sprint Process
Day 1-Map
Monday was all about user insights and understanding my user problems and needs.
As I looked through the user research I was given I began to see a common theme of users wanting more information or background about a piece of artwork while they were in a gallery.
This theme was supported by my persona, Angela and the expert interview conducted with Lena Carroll, a tour guide at the Museum of History in New York.
Lena has 10+ years of experience guiding people through museums and galleries and when asked;
“ People like to know about the artist's background… what inspired them to be an artist… Information and context, that is what people want to know the most about”
— Lena Carroll
As part of the brief I was given a user persona to help me empathise with my users.
Reflecting on my user research and expert interviews I put together a map of my users possible end to end flow.
Day 2- Sketch
I really enjoyed the lightning rounds of research. I sometimes find that I can get distracted or pulled off topic when conducting research but the lightning research really helped me to stay on topic and remain efficient and decisive while conducting research.
Reflecting on my user research from day one I decided that my critical screen should solve the problem of users wanting more information about a piece.
The Crazy 8 sketches were a really great way to get ideas onto paper quickly. I was able to rapidly see eight possible critical screen options and see which worked best to solve my user needs.
Once I had conducted the crazy 8 sketches and pulled aspects from different drawings for my critical screen I designed a three-panel board showing the screen before my critical screen, my critical screen and the screen after my critical screen.
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Before Critical Screen
The user will use their camera phone to take a picture of a piece of art to look it up in the GalleyPal database. It is how they search.
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Critical Screen
I choose this as my critical screen as this is where the user will engage with the educational content. This is the screen that solves the needs of my user so must be well thought out.
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After Critical Screen
This screen is an example of a next step for the user, they could perhaps view similar artwork or view information about other artwork in the room.
Day 3 - Decide
Being decisive and clinical about your designs can be hard but doing it through the focus of a design sprint really helps you make a decision.
Using the research and sketches from Day 1 and 2, I began to make decisions about what was critical to my designs and what was superfluous.
Using my sketches from previous days I designed a storyboard that illustrated the screens that were critical to my user experience.
This storyboard shows the flow the user would experience after they have opened a gallery or museum profile in the app. They begin at the gallery/museums home screen and then can choose to take a picture of a specific piece to get more information or search by floor or room.
The storyboard then shows the different screen options the user has after they have views the educational content of a piece.
Day 4 - Prototype
Designing when all of your research is so fresh is really refreshing. Sometimes over a longer project it can be hard to remember all aspects of your research but during the design sprint, going from research to prototyping in just days it really helps to keep all of the information key to the user experience crisp in your mind.
Day 5 - Test
Being a part of the Vancouver Arts scene and having many friends who frequently attend art galleries I had ample supply of usability testers who I could ask to test my application.
I wanted users that were familiar with visiting art galleries because they are the people who would most likely be using my app. If they could navigate the features and find they fulfilled the need outlined in my brief I felt the solution would be viable.
I conducted five in person usability tests and some usability flaws were identified.
Challenge 1
Users were not comfortable without a bottom navigation bar. They could not figure out how to go back to a previous screen or view new content.
Solution 1
I added a bottom navigation bar with the tasks that users were most likely to want to complete.
This changed worked in the second round of testing that I preformed. Users seemed much more comfortable with navigating the application.
Challenge 2
Two testers were not clear on how to preform the main objective of the app, how to take a picture of a piece right in front of you to find out more information.
Solution 2
I changed the language on the Camera button to be a little more explicit.
I also increased the prominence of the button on the screen.
This seemed to have solved the issue for round 2 of testing.
Finding from User Testings
Users overall enjoyed the flow of the app. All testers really enjoyed how the information about a piece of artwork was presented and thought the type of information was exactly what they would like to know.
With my adjustments made to my designs I retested it on two new participants, just for fun and they encountered no usability issues. They both enjoyed the flow and the content.
Reflections
I really enjoyed this design sprint, not only because I feel that this is an application I would value for my personal use but the design process being condensed and accelerated really made me feel a sense of excitement and innovation.
This is definitely a process I look forward to doing many times in the future!
