ARTIFY - Immersive pop-up museum
Bringing galleries out of the building.
In light of the pandemic and the growing trend of virtual lifestyle, we envisioned and created an immersive AR art gallery that allows people to enjoy stunning artworks from anywhere and at any time.
Timeline
June 2022 - Dec 2022
Client
Role
Product Designer
Team
3 x Product Designers
2 x Software Engineers
Design Question
When T-Mobile first came to us, we were given a big and abstract task.
How can we use 5G and AR headsets to design a customer-facing solution for T-Mobile to showcase 5G capability?
Identified capabilities and advantages of 5G and AR headset.
Breaking Down the Prompt
Discover Opportunities
Discovered 5 potential directions and evaluated them against design goal, feasibility, and uniqueness.
After we had a clear understanding of the prompt, we started brainstorming and evaluating ideas. Finally, we landed on the idea that met all criteria, which was an AR pop-up museum to bring art closer to the public in a novel and immersive way using 5G and AR headset.
Explored current trends within the art world and the museum industry.
Secondary Research
To gain a comprehensive understanding of AR art, museums, and current trends in art, we initially conducted secondary research by collecting and analyzing existing information.
Key Findings
74% of art enthusiasts consume art using electronic or digital media.
The art world is seeking more interactive exhibition methods.
Traditional museums have suffered a decline in visitors due to the pandemic.
72% of people feel they lack sufficient access to art.
Field studies at 6 traditional and digital art museums in Seattle.
Field Studies & Curator Interviews
We visited various museums and interviewed curators to learn about their exhibition flow, curating process, and interaction methods.
Our findings revealed that effective curation relies on the connection of artworks through themes, which creates a cohesive story. Additionally, a well-curated exhibition should prioritize flow by incorporating spacing, guidance, and layout to guide viewers through the experience and prevent confusion.
Artists Interviews
AR artists and traditional artists have different values and goals.
We interviewed 6 AR artists and 3 traditional artists. We observed distinct differences in their values and goals, and decided to focus on AR artists, as their priorities aligned better with our project direction. Furthermore, given that AR art is an emerging field that requires more exposure, we felt that we could contribute meaningfully in this area.
Subsequently, we reached out to several local AR artists and were delighted to receive keen interest in collaborating with us. Ultimately, we included 5 artworks from Nathen DiPietro and Jeff Brice, AR artists based in Seattle, in both our prototypes and the final product.
Traditional artists value preserving the original form of their artwork and minimizing distractions.
AR artists value creating immersive experiences that increase viewer engagement.
Collaborated with Bellevue City Council to bring art to the community.
Interview with the City
We reached out to the City Council of Bellevue to gain insight into the city's vision and explore potential opportunities for collaboration. We discovered that the council's recently formulated vision strongly aligned with the objectives of our project.
As our communication with the council progressed, we were cordially invited to participate in board meetings to deliberate and exchange ideas about the BelRed Art District, which is an exciting new project in the city.
“Our mission is to help the community to contemplate, appreciate, and discuss visual culture. Now technology has been playing an unprecedented role.”
- Lorie Hoffman, City Council of Bellevue
How can we leverage 5G and AR technology to extend the reach of galleries beyond physical spaces, making art more accessible to viewers and providing a platform for AR artists to promote their work?
Redefined Design Question
We conducted a user survey to learn more about people’s attitudes toward appreciating art, current museum experience, and expectations of AR exhibition.
User Survey
We found that 76% of the participants are open to trying AR exhibitions, and we identified 3 common needs of the viewers.
🤔 Hard to understand artworks
68% find it hard to understand artwork due to a lack of context and background knowledge.
🙌 Want more interactive experience
82% of viewers want the current museum experience to be more exciting and interactive.
🥰 Want to know how others felt
63% of participants go to museums
to hang out with friends
“I want to know what others think of an artwork.”
Design Decisions
Translated the research insights into design decisions.
Based on the findings from the research, we came up with three main directions and two features for each that would help create a meaningful AR museum experience.
Immersive & Interactive
Hands-free, multi-sensory experience of interacting with artwork
Hands-on onboarding
Gesture interactions
Guided Tour
Guide viewers through the exhibition that tells the story behind each artwork
Connect artwork through themes
Listen to artists' story
Connect people through art
Enables to express what you think about the artwork and see others’ reactions
Leave reactions
Capture & share
User Flow
With the design decisions, I created a user flow, divided into 5 stages.
This diagram visually aided in my planning of the design, allowing me to better understand what the interface needed to provide the viewer with an intuitive and engaging exhibition experience.
Visualized viewer interactions at every stage.
Storyboarding
We then used the storyboards to guide stakeholders and viewers through the scenarios, ensuring it effectively met their needs and expectations.
Created a video prototype to demonstrate the AR look and feel that may be difficult to convey through static wireframes.
Video Prototype
Video prototyping let us include sound, voiceover, and music to realistically portray the gallery experience.
Conducted user evaluations using a clickable Figma prototype.
User Evaluation — Design Prototype
Using a projector, we tried to imitate the experience in the AR headset. We used both the video and Figma prototypes to gain more accurate insights. We screened participants who have interests in art so we recruited 12 participants who have been to an art gallery at least once in the past year.
Evaluated the results against 9 themes and performed a dot voting exercise to identify the key insights.
Affinity Mapping
Defined new design requirements based on the findings.
Navigation
Some viewers prefer to move on their own and discover freely rather than having a guided path.
“I don’t want to move around the same way with other people”
“...more like a scavenger hunt”
Design Requirements
Add an option to exit the narrative guide and start their own discovery
HoloLens Interface
Viewers want less UI (buttons/prompts) so that they can better focus on the artwork.
“I expect more interactions like gestures, things that can be done through AR headset”
Tap on the wrist to show and hide UI (HoloLens Hand Menu)
Reaction Feature
Viewers want to leave comments but don’t want to spend too much time and effort.
“I will comment. I like the ability to say something about the artwork.”
“One sentence alone takes 5 mins. I’m not gonna do that in Hololens.”
Leave emojis on artwork instead of typing
View full design evaluation here.
Prioritization for MVP development
Following our design iterations, we came up with lots of features and functionalities. Before proceeding into development, we employed an impact-effort matrix to scope down for MVP. This strategic tool allowed us to rank our ideas, giving priority to those with the higher impact and lower effort.
Design Overview
Final design prototype based on the prioritized features
This time, we fully utilized Figma animations to vividly demonstrate the ideas so that we could gain more relevant insights from the users. We used this final prototype to move forward to the development stage. I actively communicated with the developers in our team and delivered design assets for effective collaboration.
Immersive & Interactive
Hands-On Onboarding
Start the AR experience with a hand coach video and get familiar by practicing with a visual object.
Interactive Experience
Viewers are empowered to manipulate the artwork directly using their hands - allowing them to scale and move pieces as desired. This offers opportunities to delve into intricate details.
Guided tour
Listen to Artists' Story
By selecting the information button from Hand Menu, viewers can engage with the artist's personal narrative, unveiling the unique story behind each piece of art.
Share Feelings
Viewers can express their responses to the artwork through emojis, fostering a sense of connection as they discover and resonate with the reactions of fellow art enthusiasts.
Connect people through art
Storytelling Guide
Visual prompts and voiceover to guide users through the exhibition, enriching their understanding and appreciation of the artwork.
Capture & Share
Capture screenshots of favorite artwork and share experiences with friends, spreading the joy of art.
Validated functionality, usability, and user satisfaction.
User Evaluation — Final Prototype
After we have built the working prototype, we evaluated the overall experience with 10 participants. We had two parts to this evaluation, functionality and usability.
For functional testing, our primary focus lay on navigation and interaction, involving four tasks in each section. The usability testing incorporated four major tasks to evaluate the intuitiveness and effectiveness of the design.
We achieved an average success rate of 89%, an System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 74, and a user satisfaction rate of 76%.
Evaluation details can be viewed here.
Final Solution
Our project is at T-Mobile 5G Hub to showcase the future potential of 5G and AR headsets.
“It was awesome seeing the journey of the project coming to fruition. The final design is a great demonstration of 5G technology.”
— T-Mobile Senior Manager
“The way you explore the possibility of a fresh new technology and the outcome is impressive. Your success is a testament to the way we built the program.”
— MSTI Program Director
Project Wrap-Up
Reflection
Technical challenges
Our team faced several technical hurdles while creating the AR experience, as all of us were new to AR design and development, especially using an AR headset. We had to devote additional time to learning and incorporating this new knowledge into our project.
In response to this challenge, we prioritized and scoped down based on user value and technical risks to ensure that we could deliver a high-quality product within the given timeframe.
Demonstrating AR ideas
Presenting our ideas to stakeholders and sponsors prior to development posed a challenge due to the inherent difficulty in conveying the immersive AR experience through static 2D screens.
We overcame this by using Figma animations and video prototypes to make interactions clearer. During user testing, we used a projector instead of a laptop screen to create an immersive feel, allowing participants to experience the prototype as if using an AR headset.
Platform compatibility issues
Many of the artworks we received from the AR artist were made for phone apps, which are not always supported by Hololen 2. This presented platform compatibility issues, and we had to investigate the format, size, and device compatibility to implement them into our app successfully.
We overcame this challenge by working closely with the artists and testing the artworks thoroughly, sometimes requiring us to convert the format, before finalizing them for use in the AR experience.
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