User Experience Researcher & Service Designer
Vermont Gallery
August 2021 - November 2021
The Goal
Create a virtual art gallery application for a fictional company on the east coast.
My Role
I chose to complete this project for the Google UX Certificate because I love art galleries and wanted to challenge myself to create something that a lot of art galleries are not offering at this time.
Research
I conducted User interviews with five friends and family and and conducted a competitive audit. I discovered the current barriers with virtual gallery applications available.
1. Financial - Users want to visit galleries without having to travel out of state to see an exhibit they want to see that is not going to be available anywhere else. They also do not want to pay an entrance fee.
2. Process - The users want to be able to use the tour quickly from the comfort of their own home to make time to see galleries.
3. Product - Users find it hard to connect with the artist for more information and to purchase their art.
Possibilities
1. Offer free access to the exhibits.
2. To determine what process would provide a quick viewing experience to for user, I created three different gallery options to test:
A manual room tour to click around
A manual scroll option for more control
An auto tour where the experience could be more immersive like you are going through a real gallery.
2. Create a way to contact the artist up front.
Usability Test Round 1 Results
I conducted a usability study with 5 participants to test if I solved their issues financially, with the process, and the product.
Insight & Changes to the Process
Users want exhibits displayed better to quickly switch between them.
"Maybe instead of a carousel for the other exhibits, a list may be easier?"
.jpg)
Usability Test Round 1 Results
Insight & Changes to the Cost of Visiting
Users want to know more about the incentives of creating an account upfront but liked that the exhibits were free.
“I wonder what the incentives would be in creating an account.”
.jpg)
More Wireframes!
I engaged in another round of Crazy Eights to come up with some ideas for the exhibit. I chose the first wireframe shown above to keep the lay out simple and not cause cognitive overload for users by displaying too many images at once.
Design Systems for User Accessibility
I created a sticker sheet in Figma with the colors, typography headings, buttons and components I planned to use in the design. I made the following design decisions considering Gestalt Principles and accessibility.
Emphasis: I placed a drop shadow on each action button and chose a bright orange color to contrast above 4.5:1 to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Hierarchy: Large font sizes make the information easy to scan and direct attention to important elements. The smaller font size I used for the body text also helps define content hierarchy.
Similarity: I grouped similar items in a box (exhibits, artists).
Common Region: Important items related to one another are placed together (information about the artists).
Usability Test Round 2
Results
It was important to test again to see which possibilities identified would meet the user needs. I conducted another usability study 5 participants.
I noticed in the videos sent back to me from the participants that the navigation buttons were a little small and made it hard to navigate between pages. I decided to make the buttons bigger and added padding for a better user experience and accessibility purposes.
.jpg)
Usability Test Round 2
Results Cont.
I was told the manual room and auto guided tour were confusing and hard to use. All of the participants liked the scrolling option best, so I removed the other options.
.jpg)
Usability Test Round 2
Results Cont.
Before the usability study, there were three taps before being able to enter the exhibit.
After the usability study:
1. The mock up was changed to have just one click to enter the exhibit.
2. The link to contact the artist is now part of the gallery experience rather than on a separate page.
_edited_edited.jpg)
Impact
The Vermont Gallery app provides an affordable and accessible way for users to access high end art that they may otherwise not have the time or money to visit.
Prototype:
“It is easy to use and I would use an app like this if it existed”
What I Learned
I learned that it is really important to keep going back to the main pain points of the user to keep on track. I also learned to not get too attached to design decisions. Providing options for the user test helped identify which solution would be best for the user. The simpler the user flow, the better user experience.
.jpg)