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Client:
Case Study
Role:
UX Designer
Project Duration:
1 Day
Tools:
Zoom, Zapp Works, Zappar
Project Summary
The Louvre, one of the most famous art museums in the world, wants to create a better experience for their guests. They have received positive feedback about visitors who have joined group or private tours, but are looking for ways to improve the experience for individuals who are visiting by themselves or with friends.
The Current Solution
Museum Experiences
Many museums offer guided tours to visitors through QR codes that attendees can scan to pull up detailed articles about the works of art.
However…
Visitors have complained that the articles are too lengthy, detailed, or difficult to follow while observing the artwork.
How might we create a better, more exciting experience for museum visitors?
Exploring Augmented Reality
AR (Augmented Reality) gives users the ability to overlay information in the real world, providing context for virtual objects. AR can be useful for entertainment, training, design, and in this case, education!
Several museums started to develop AR apps to increase engagement by bringing displays alive and crafting stories that can make the learning realm of museums much more fun.
Who are we designing for?
For this project, I was given a user interview of Lena Carroll, a tour guide at The Museum of Natural History in New York City. I listened closely to Lena’s answers in the interview to derive some perspective on museum attendees and their needs.
Museum Guide Interview
Next, I studied an interview with Lena Carroll, a tour guide at
The Museum of Natural History in New York City. She talked about some of the key topics she generally includes in her tours.
Lena had these insights to share:
Museum attendees come with a mixed knowledge level regarding art.
Lena likes to pin point the time of the painting, talk about the history of the artist, and then leave the guest to derive their own feelings.
“I like to suggest (to guests) taking a walk and coming back to the artwork”
Our User
There are many personas that you might find that visit museums, but for this project, I wanted to narrow in on a general user that I could be designing for.
Content Mining & Analysis
After reviewing the user interview and insights, it was time to deep-dive into popular works of art and insights I might be able to craft a fun design with. I decided to go with Leonardo di Vinci’s Mona Lisa that hangs in the Louvre Collection in Paris.
Using facts and information about the ‘Mona Lisa’, I decided to focus on these 3 callouts in my solution:
‘Mona Lisa’ has received plenty of love letters and flowers from admirers since 1815
Some art historians believe that the Mona Lisa was not an image of an actual woman but was Da Vinci himself.
The painting has survived several attacks including a rock and acid. It had even been stolen back in 1911.
The Design Process
Rapid Sketching
I sketched out different versions of what these features and callouts might look like in Augmented reality. In a timed sprint, I sketched several versions of each callout.
I sketched all 3 callouts that I thought users might enjoy. I decided that I wanted to focus on the specific experience of art historians believing that the Mona Lisa was not an image of an actual woman but was Da Vinci himself.
Prototyping in AR
Using Zappworks, I created a 3-scene prototype solution.
A Large CTA to Grab Attention
Museum goers can use the Louvre app to access the information they want to see about the art.
Our screen shows a fun fact about the Mona Lisa.
A Computer-Generated Overlay
The memorable moment of this interaction is when the computer-generated photo of the combined painting together.
Most people will remember the artist’s face and the fact when seeing the painting from now on!
Hit Users With A Fun Interaction
As soon as the CTA is clicked, the user gets a prompt about the interactive activity.
Here, you see both the woman in the painting and a painting of the artist to compare.
Try it out it! 🤳🏻
Download the Zappar application on your mobile device. Activate your camera, then point it at the image below, and let it load.
Next Steps
Find More Juicy Facts
There are many great facts out there about Leonardo di Vinci and the Mona Lisa on the internet, but I think I would try interviewing more experts to find more hidden gems.
Ambitious Animations
I, personally, would like to try to craft a custom animation that would delight and surprise the museum visitors even more. Augmented Reality leaves so many possibilities.
Get User Feedback
I’d love to experience the Lourve and solicit feedback from museum goers. For now, I will show my friends and test my application online with museum enthusiast.
