Reimagining the Museum experience
Case study The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were presented the opportunity to reimagine the in-gallery experience for museum visitors.
I led the design for a mobile Exhibition experience providing Museum visitors safe and personal access to exhibition content.
Product Designer
2020
Overview
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Met Museum reopened its galleries under new safety measures. With physical distancing now required and printed materials unavailable, in-gallery visitors needed a way to access things like wall text, object labels, and exhibition maps.
We needed to ensure that in-gallery visitors had easy and personal access to all exhibition content and didactics from their phones.
My role
My role was to implement the best user experience using existing exhibition content and branding. I was responsible for the vision and interaction design, keeping in mind how this experience could evolve.
We considered this an opportunity to think about the future of the gallery experience: will visitors prefer personal access to exhibition content from their phones?
With the Museum reopening under these new conditions, we were presented the opportunity to explore that question.
How we got here
Our team interviewed users to better understand
what visitors are looking for in a digital exhibition experience. We learned
they expect a hybrid of an informational and immersive experience.
Our team interviewed users to better understand what visitors are looking for in a digital exhibition experience. We learned they expect a hybrid of an informational and immersive experience.
1.
Users want a mix of an information
and media-rich experience.
2.
Users prefer an uncluttered,
focused experience.
3.
Most users are not interested in
many of the Museum’s current offerings such as comprehensive object packages, critic
quotes and reviews, and academic essays.
Design direction
Based on our research, we pulled together five areas of exhibition content that we learned users rely on most:
The Overview
We learned our users preferred an uncluttered, focused experience. We needed a space for the basics.
We learned our users preferred an uncluttered, focused experience. We needed a space for the basics.
The immersive
We knew users expect a mix of informational and media-rich experiences. This digital tour guide provides visitors with a mental model of the exhibition, with the ability to dive deeper and explore specific artworks by gallery.
The digital map also functions as a navigational tool, providing direct access to content of interest on tap.
Listen while you look
We knew our visitors considered Audio Guides valuable, but with the reopening safety measures, the Museum is no longer able to distribute them physically.
We needed a way to allow visitors to stream our Audio Guides right from their device.
We knew our visitors considered Audio Guides valuable, but with the reopening safety measures, the Museum is no longer able to distribute them physically.
We needed a way to allow visitors to stream our Audio Guides right from their device.
Deep dive
Deep dive
The video experience offers all of the rich content and featured media for visitors who want to take a deeper dive.
Next steps
After getting the green light from internal stakeholders, we were able to move forward into development phase.
Our team was able to build out a slimmed down MVP experience, which was repurposed for future exhibitions.