MUSE

Muse is a personal digital audio guide app I designed for use at art galleries and museums.

Using common design patterns and information architecture structures of modern music streaming services, I created an innovative and recognizable application to boost visitor experiences at museums.

View Prototype

BACKGROUND

Problems

Plaques next to displays are pull away focus from displays, cause choke points, and are immobile.

Present audio listening solutions are typically buttons on walls and outdated devices, putting experiences on rails and requiring sharing devices.

Solution

Allow users to use their own personal device to freely navigate through audio information as easily as they move through exhibits.

There were a lot of ideas and principles at play that I simply didn't get to explore and expand upon in the few weeks spent on this project

One of the key principles behind this idea related to experience and learning. Having a tactile device in hand in addition to audio stimulation allows users to engage multiple senses.

Objective

I set out to improve immersive and educational experience of users at museums.

WELCOME

Muse partners with museums, galleries, and events around the world to allow guests the freedom to browse how they feel comfortable from their personal device.

Users begin by selecting their location and are then greeted with custom details from the location they are visiting.

Visitors looking to quickly begin their listening experience can easily scan QR codes next to displays or exhibit entrances.

For those less familiar with their surroundings they can either open up the map or tap start exploring to be guided step by step.

NAVIGATION

Some of today's museums are campus-like with multiple multi-story buildings, so I designed the app to be flexible to account for extra buildings and floors to match different locations.

Beyond just listing building names and floor numbers, the app provides enough detail to also allow visitors to plan a route. Visitors can see what's on a floor or the type of exhibit before you get to them.

Since museums are laid out in various ways, this screen’s nomenclature and hierachy corresponds to each location.

At our current location at the High, a gallery represents a single room.

Selecting a gallery from this list is like selecting a music album on today’s modern music apps. The next screen contains all the tracks for that room.

PLAYLIST

Each track corresponds to a piece of art or display. Pressing the play button starts visitors listening and learning experience.

The breadcrumb/dropdown menu at the top of the screen allows you to quickly change rooms if you need to.

The now playing bar at the bottom means guests can finish listening to their current track while looking for the next track to listen to.

TRACKS

Visitors should be settled into a rhythm now, listening to Muse tell them about each piece of art as they walk from piece to piece.

Swiping the cover art to select the next track as they move along the gallery wall or letting the auto play guide them from piece to piece.

Tap on the caret, track name, or cover art to learn more.

Save a track to listen to again later or remember a detail about the piece.

NOW PLAYING

Details about each piece includes relevant information directly in the app so visitors won't need to open up Google if they want to learn more about what contemporary art is or more about the artist, etc.

DETAILS

1. RESEARCH

My main source of research was primary research in the form of user interviews. I conducted three user interviews among people who enjoy visiting museums at varying frequencies and began defining users through use of an empathy map.

In addition to my primary research, I conducted secondary research consisting of market research and an indirect competitor analysis on the music player industry.

EMPATHY MAP

After drawing conclusions from my research I started working on defining features and flows starting with my wireflow before moving forward with branding, styles, and the UI.

Following a brainstorm session and some mood boarding I settled on the name Muse and ran with that theme, drawing further inspiration from the Muses of Greek mythology and artwork from that time period, choosing the Lyre for a logo and "Muse Orange" for my primary color.

I went with a neumorphic inspired design with some extra fine lines included around the borders of buttons to make them look a more interactive as well as resemble frames. I couldn't settle between with or without marbling in the background of the app, so I did some A\B testing and settled on without and finalized my UI styling.

2. DEFINE

WIREFLOW

Utilizing wireflows early on in the process allowed me to visualize how users would move through the app.

With a tight project timeline using wireflows also helped me save time by combining user flows, sitemaps, and wireframes into one organizable layout.

UI STYLE GUIDE

I created a prototype to perform some usability testing on Maze. I tested clicks and moving through the app objectively and then asked testers for their subjective opinions.

Testers had little issue completing most of the tasks. Setting the location caused the most challenge due to there being multiple ways to complete that task. I originally designed it this way to bring more visibility to nearby or local museums but out of context it could be an inconvenience for users. I removed the browsing/filtering options as a solution for now.

I would like for users to be able to explore and discover locations besides where they currently are in the future, so I will need to explore other patterns for this.

It's also possible this was only an issue due to testing on the prototype and would not be an issue in a live test.

3. TEST & ITERATE

HEAT MAP

Wide and multiple touch-points led to tasks performed on these screens to have very high success rates during testing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This project was fun and challenging for me due to a couple of firsts.

Namely, this was my first time working on an experiential product and a product that's meant to supplement an experience. Thinking about how audio and even tactile stimulation enhances the highly visual experience of museums was a welcome challenge. People navigate museums in a myriad of ways so designing the app to be both as fluid and intuitive as possible was a top priority for me. I wanted finding the next informational track to be as easy as it is for a person to shift to the other side of the room.

Additionally, this was my first mobile app. I've designed websites for mobile use, but a mobile only experience brought both new opportunities and challenges to think about.

I look forward to the opportunity to work on more projects like this one.