Augmented Reality for Art Museums
Case Study by Eve Hocheng
UX Workshop: Design an Augmented Reality App for Art Museums
Organized by: Joe Formica, BitesizeUX
Mobile
Tablet
Project Overview
The Louvre, one of the world's most famous art museums, is continuing to commit in enriching guest experiences, for both groups and individuals. While group and private tours have garnered favorable feedback, the museum is actively exploring ways to enhance visits for individuals and friends exploring independently. This dedication underscores the Louvre's ongoing efforts to ensure that all visitors, whether alone or with companions, can enjoy an exceptional and fulfilling visit.
Current Solution
Numerous artworks now incorporate QR codes, allowing visitors to access in-depth articles about the pieces. However, there's been feedback from visitors who find these articles lengthy, intricate, and challenging to engage with while admiring the art. They express a desire for more concise and accessible information that complements, rather than overwhelms, their art-viewing experience.
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Balancing informative content with brevity and clarity is essential to ensure that QR code-enabled interactive information enhance and facilitate the overall appreciation of the artwork.
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Which is why it's not working...
The Challenge:
Prototype an Augmented Reality App to help create a better experience for visitors.
Understanding our Users
Angela
Angela actively immerses herself in the city's world-renowned art and museums since she relocated to New York a year ago. She makes solo trips to the city's most popular museums every few months, without a specific preference for exhibitions or artists, opting instead for spontaneous exploration.
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"I enjoy going to the museum, but I often leave feeling like I didn't appreciate the art as much as I could have. I don't need to be an expert, I just don't want to feel like I missed out on anything."
"I would really like to obtain concise, interesting information while exploring art, in order to enhance my enjoyment of the museum."
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-Angela
Frustration
Angela really enjoys her museum visits but senses an untapped potential for a deeper connection with the art. Her attempts to engage with art through lengthy and complex books and articles often lead to waning interest, and it doesn’t feel connected to the art works on-site.
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Expert Interview
Next, we watched 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.
Joe
Lena
Key Takway 1
Lena explained that she normally starts with the time and location the artwork is created, along with information about who the artist is, and why they created the artwork. Giving some background information for contextual understanding of the artwork.
Key Takway 2
The tour usually follows with the type of medium the artwork is created with, their characteristics and how the tools affected the outcome. Such as an oil painting and watercolor painting could have very different ways of expression.
Key Takway 3
Lena likes to end the tour by asking everyone to walk around the room and think about the painting, without preconceptions of right or wrong. She also often asks the audience to come back and spend time with the artwork alone, for she thinks this is one of the best ways to feel and understand art.
Lengthy Descriptions
Important Historical Facts
Based on our User Insights and Interview Key Takeaways
I decided to focus on the part where the user is not able to absorb long and complex text information while visiting art work, combining with the first key takeaway point, where the expert explained that understanding the historical and geographical context is important in viewing the artwork. My solution will be focused on the combination of the two points.
Focused Topic: Mona Lisa and Famous People in History​
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Jackie Kennedy invited her to visit
Throughout the centuries, French officials have seldom allowed the painting to leave their watchful care. Yet, when First Lady Jackie Kennedy requested the "Mona Lisa" for a U.S. visit, French President de Gaulle consented. The painting graced the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and later the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
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Pablo Picasso
Suspicion fell upon Picasso in the theft case, leading the gendarmes to even question well-known art critics like Pablo Picasso. Poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had previously expressed controversial views about the painting, was briefly detained. However, their suspicions ultimately proved to be baseless.
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Napoléon Bonaparte and King Francois I
​While da Vinci initiated his masterpiece in Italy, its completion occurred after his relocation to France at the behest of King Francois I. The French monarch showcased the painting at the Fontainebleau palace, where it stayed for a century. Later, Louis XIV relocated it to the opulent Palace of Versailles. In the early 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte housed the artwork in his private chambers.
Sketching Solutions
I sketched out different versions of what these features and callouts might look like in my Augmented Reality app. In a time sprint, I sketched several versions of each callout.
Selected sketches for developing the prototype
Process highlights and learnings on Zapworks Designer
Zapworks Designer has a a drag and drop interface, that makes it really easy to navigate and work with. Through working on this project on Zapworks, I learned to make a usable prototype that reacts by aiming the prototype window to a target image.
Protytpe and Testing
After the prototype was completed, I asked friends to test it out for me and give me feedback. In the span of a week, I have tested with multiple users and understood the pain points, improved the app several times to reach this state today.
Next Steps
The prototype has been tested by a few people, and from the gathered comments, I have concluded some of the next steps for further improving the prototype.
