UX Case Study

Tools Used:

Product Overview

Muse Gallery is a mobile application for an art museum that allows you to find out what events are on and book and schedule them. Specifically designed for art and culture enthusiasts with busy lifestyles. Recognising that these individuals often have limited time but still crave enriching cultural experiences, the app provides a seamless platform to discover and engage with art through a streamlined booking process and intuitive tools for effortlessly exploring exhibitions and events.
Project Duration: 8 Weeks (September – October).

The Problem

Traditional museum websites can be cumbersome, making it difficult to find available time slots and complete reservations quickly. Busy schedules make it challenging to keep track of fleeting exhibitions and events. When finding an event to book users can feel confused or unsupported at various points of the process.

The Goal

To create a mobile app which is easy to use and has no complications during the booking process. Making it as easy as possible to find out what is on and filter events to users preferences. With a user-friendly interface with intuitive calendar views and a simplified booking process, allowing users to secure their visit in just a few taps.

Role & Responsibilities

Design Process

Empathize

User Research, User Interviews, Data Collection, Empathy Maps

Define

User Personas, User Stories, User Journey Map, Problem Statement

Ideate

Rapid Sketching, User Flow, Competitive Audits, Information-Architecture

Design

Wireframing, Design Kit, Hi-Fidelity, Prototyping, Visual Design, Interactive Design

Test

Usability Studies, User Feedback, Consistency

User Research Summary

After conducting a few interviews I found that many people who enjoy experiencing art and culture find it hard to have enough time to fit in museum events or visits to their everyday work and family schedules. Valuing their passions in the arts greatly and wanting to accommodate them with the help of better tools to organise time, easier accessibility to information and events and more availability.

My assumption was that the most common problem that users faced would be the cost of these events but if it’s their passion then they strive to get it to fit in with their lives to even include their families.

User Research Pain Points

Time management is important to many, which could mean including featured button prompts, adding booked events and dates into a users calendar saving time.

Accessibility on websites, on location and at events need to be fully covered for a range of disabilities. Supplying the knowledge of the availability of these tools will build confidence.

Availability of art events and bookings need to extend hours to cover users who have busy work and family lives, so they don’t miss out on future art culture they are interested in.

Educational content being more readily available for families and schools, spreading the art culture to a broader audience helping users share their passion.

User Persona: Sofia

“Art isn’t just a hobby – it’s how I connect with my family and find inspiration for everything I do.”

Age
Education
Location
Family
Occupation

34
Master’s Degree
Totnes, UK
Married with 1 child
Teacher

User Persona: Sofia

Sofia, an art enthusiast with a passion for contemporary and impressionist works, frequents museums and galleries, often with her family, to explore and share her love of art and culture. She even finds culinary inspiration in art, connecting visual artistry with her own creative cooking.

Goals

Balance her responsibilities as a teacher and be with her family life.
Find continued artistic inspiration.
Stay organised and manage time effectively, particularly when it comes to grading, lesson planning, and preparing meals.

Frustrations

Balancing teaching, cooking, and family leaves her overwhelmed, limiting time for artistic hobbies.
Lack of efficient organisational tools hinders her work-life balance.
Limited access to engaging, family-friendly art experiences hinders shar ing her passion.

User Story

As a busy full time teacher, Mother and art enthusiast I want to easily find and book family-friendly art events without it being too complicated so that I can spend more time with my family enjoying artistic culture.

Problem Statement

Sofia is an art enthusiast and teacher who needs an efficient way to keep track of local art events to attend with her family because her busy life limits the time she can spend keeping up to date.

User Journey Map: Sofia

Goal: Find preferred activity at an art museum, book, schedule into calendar and receive confirmation and reminders.

Choose a local art museum to visit
Browse the art museum website
Find preferred family-friendly event
Confirm booking and make payment
Schedule event into personal calendars

Task List
1. Discuss available free time and distance to travel.
2. Search museums within a certain distance from home.

Feeling Adjective
Frustrated about limited time in our schedule. Relieved once I settle on an art museum that fits our criteria.

Improvement Opportunities
Intuitive search that easily filters options and provides info. Maintain web SEO with keywords.

Task List
1 – Search info on travel and parking.
2 – Search for family-friendly events.
3 – Check prices and if any free events.

Feeling Adjective
Focused and frustrated at how long it takes to navigate. Reassured once I find the correct info.

Improvement Opportunities
Search filter on all web pages. Parking and event info featured on homepage.

Task List
1 – Select preferred event.
2 – Review available dates.
3 – Enter tickets required.

Feeling Adjective
Excited browsing events but anxious as dates are limited. Satisfied when I find the perfect event for my family.

Improvement Opportunities
Simple event selection process. Email preference option for up to date and similar events.

Task List
1 – Go to shopping cart and review booking.
2 – Checkout to make a payment.
3 – Secure the booking.

Feeling Adjective
Cautious checking selected event is correct. Annoyed with signing up to check out.

Improvement Opportunities
Guest checkout.
State the wait time for confirmation. Calendar options to add booked events.

Task List
1 – Check email for booking confirmation.
2 – Add event details to calendar with custom reminders.

Feeling Adjective
Worried waiting for confirmation and relieved when it arrives. Excited to go to the event with my family.

Improvement Opportunities
Smooth and secure payment gateway. Confirmation steps along the process. Live chat to support.

Choose a local art museum to visit

Browse the art museum website

Task List
1 – Search info on travel and parking.
2 – Search for family-friendly events.
3 – Check prices and if any free events.

Feeling Adjective
Focused and frustrated at how long it takes to navigate. Reassured once I find the correct info.

Improvement Opportunities
Search filter on all web pages. Parking and event info featured on homepage.

Find preferred family-friendly event

Task List
1 – Select preferred event.
2 – Review available dates.
3 – Enter tickets required.

Feeling Adjective
Excited browsing events but anxious as dates are limited. Satisfied when I find the perfect event for my family.

Improvement Opportunities
Simple event selection process. Email preference option for up to date and similar events.

Confirm booking and make payment

Task List
1 – Go to shopping cart and review booking.
2 – Checkout to make a payment.
3 – Secure the booking.

Feeling Adjective
Cautious checking selected event is correct. Annoyed with signing up to check out.

Improvement Opportunities
Guest checkout.
State the wait time for confirmation. Calendar options to add booked events.

Schedule event into personal calendars

Task List
1 – Check email for booking confirmation.
2 – Add event details to calendar with custom reminders.

Feeling Adjective
Worried waiting for confirmation and relieved when it arrives. Excited to go to the event with my family.

Improvement Opportunities
Smooth and secure payment gateway. Confirmation steps along the process. Live chat to support.

User Journey Map: Summary

Mapping out the flow of Sofia’s user journey revealed the benefit of building a better app with intuitive navigation, seamless booking, one-click calendar integration, personalized event notifications, live chat support, secure payments, and post-event feedback to keep her engaged and satisfied.

Paper Wireframes

Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address the user pain points. For the “What’s On” screen, I prioritized an intuitive navigation and filter to easily find the users preferred events.

Digital Wireframes

As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from user research and particularly the User Journey Map findings.

Easy navigation was a key user need to address in the designs, also making sure they have any additional support they might need to move them through the booking process with ease.

Lo-Fi Prototype

In this low-fidelity prototype, the user can search for and filter down available events that best suits their interests, and they can then review, book and pay the Muse Gallery online from anywhere, at any time.

To interact with the low-fidelity prototype for the Muse Gallery app, follow the link here.

Usability Study

I conducted a study with 5 participants, testing the user flow process of finding, filtering and booking an event. Followed by signing up and creating an account.

Round 1 Findings

Users want accessible language when labelling features and services.

Users want a consistent link back to the homepage.

Users want a clickable button visual to access the filters.

Round 2 Findings

Users want to choose a password on initial sign up to create an account.

Users want a clickable dropdown field to show the options available.

Users want additional engaging imagery to attract their attention.

Mockups

Providing a password field for the sign up on the homepage was important to address, so there would be no confusion on how the user logs in and accesses their account in the future. Adding more engaging imagery was also key to keeping the users attention.

Research found that ”category” was a better fit than “genre” making the language throughout the app more accessible.

30+ Screens

Hi-Fi Prototype

To interact with the high-fidelity prototype for the Muse Gallery app, follow the link here.

Accessibility Considerations

Using the most accessible language throughout the app is very important so I researched many terms to see which would be best. ”Genre” was changed to “Categories” and descriptive text was added to input fields.

Custom accessibility features are available via the main menu, allowing you to personalise the app’s visual appearance. The app supports both light and dark mode, and all components have been designed with accessibility in mind.

Font sizes applied to key components like buttons and titles are kept to a large and clear size and if any additional support is needed there is a “Live Chat” feature available on the consistent footer throughout the app.

Design Kit

The Impact

My designs were received very well after my first usability study and the designs provided a streamlined and easy to use booking process, meeting the goal I originally intended. The design increased efficiency and user engagement, keeping users on task.“Easy, just easy. It feels like it did it for me, so very simple”

My Insights

While designing this app, I learnt that the first ideas for the app are only the beginning of the process. The usability studies provided me with some valuable insights and I learned they are well worth performing throughout the UX design process. I also learned that designing for accessibility is so important and should be considered at every step.

Next Steps

Obtain UX/UI feedback from designers with more experience in the field to improve the overall design and functionality.

I will be keeping myself informed on similar apps for art galleries and museums to see if there are new updated processes available to learn from and possibly apply.

Create a cross-platform responsive design. The goal is to build the same experience for all users, no matter what type of device they are using.

Let’s Connect

Thank you for taking the time to look at my case study. I would appreciate your thoughts and insights on this topic, as your feedback is so valuable to further enhancing the findings of this study.

linkedin.com/in/designbyrachelL

rlcreatif@gmail.com