GalleryPal
2 day design sprint designing a mobile app that improves the experience users have in art galleries. I researched, sketched and created a prototype using Figma that was tested with users.
🛠 Tools
Figma - Prototype
Proctreate - Sketching
Zoom, Facetime - Conducting tests and interviews.
💻 The Design Sprint Process
📊 Step 1: Research, personas
📝 Step 2: Sketch
📱 Step 3: Prototype
👥 Step 4: Testing the prototype
Brief
While in a gallery, users need an quickly accessible way to view more information about the art on display. A mobile application which catalogues gallery shows and offers context on the art and artists is necessary.
📊 Step 1: Researching, Personas
I began the sprint by understanding the pain points and needs of my users.
“I often wonder - what would the artist tell me about this piece if they had a minute to talk to me?” Liza
“So many times I find myself wondering how the artist made that.” Dan
“I Like looking at art, but sometimes I feel like i’m missing the full experience not knowing any background info.” Anna
“I try to research what I’m looking at while i’m there, but the long articles are too overwhelming.” Nick
⭐️ Insights
There were 3 key insights from the research
Users wanted information about art quickly.
Users wanted to know more about the artist and the process, to connect with the work.
Users want background info, technique/material info about the artists they see.
📝 Step 2: Sketches
To begin, I sketched a storyboard of an interaction I foresaw involving Gallerypal.
We see the user enter a gallery, see a piece of art they dont understand, and then they look it up on Gallerypal.
The user is satisfied and now has insight to the piece. They use Gallerypal again to look up an unfamiliar term in the app’s glossary. In both cases the new information Gallerypal has provided has improved their experience in the gallery.
Going to gallery with gallery pal
User sees an art piece they don’t understand
The user opens Gallerypal and learns about the piece.
The user continues on until they see a sculpture made of a medium they don’t recognize.
They easily look it up in Gallerypal.
After sketching a storyboard I did quick sketches in procreate of a few of the screens I knew would be included in the MVP.
I sketched the landing page, a group of images, and the individual image description page.
These sketches were done quickly and helped tremendously to realize the structure of Gallerypal.
An early wireframe made in figma to flush out and move features around after sketching.
📱Step 3: Prototype
I created a 3 screen prototype in figma showing the landing screen, the screen that lists all artwork in a show, and individual screens for each art piece’s description.
The main screen of the prototype shows the most recent shows at the gallery, as well as a map, and FAQ/Glossary page. From here users can click on a show and see al the pieces that are a part of it. From there they can see the description of each individual piece quickly.
👥 Prototype Usability Testing
I interviewed 5 people to test my Gallerypal solution. 3 of the interviewees are graduated art students and 2 are graduated design student. I wanted to speak to people who had a lot of experience visiting museums and galleries, as well as people who were familiar with art but didn’t spend much time in gallery like spaces.
Before speaking with them, I wrote down 5 tasks and a few questions to ask them before we started. I asked my interviewees what their experience with art was, if they currently go to museums and galleries. I interviewed users through zoom and facetime, I sent them the prototype before hand and asked them to walk me through their thought process during the interview.
💡Insights after interviews
Users liked how simple the app was, it gave the necessary information and didn’t overwhelm. All 5 users noticed and enjoyed immediately, the FAQ/Glossary section and thought that was a good idea. Users liked the quote from the artist about the context as well as the description. 2 Users mentioned they would like a section that recommends similar works by different artists so users can discover others. All 5 users liked that the app was designed to be used and updated by many different galleries so you didn’t have to redownload a different app for each gallery or museum.
🛠Improvements to make
Consider a different font for Gallerypal, something professional yet friendly. The current font is a bit too casual.
Work on the layout of the description of the art pieces.
🥳 Learnings
Doing a design sprint from research to prototyping made it so only the most valuable features were included in the prototype. The time constraint made it easier to make decisions.
Developed my quick sketching and wire framing skills.