Peranakan Museum Companion App
Goal
The goal was to create a mobile app that enhances the Peranakan Museum's visitor experience with a focus on guided tours and learning about artefacts.
Role & contributions
We worked as a team in conducting user research, crafting personas & problem statements, as well as conducting usability tests. Additionally, I played a primary role in wireframing and created the low and high fidelity prototypes.
Team
Joanne Sursas (Project Manager)
Huda Aziz (UX Designer)
Yong Kai Bin (UX Designer)
Duration
12 days
Process
1. Discover
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Design
5. Test
6. Iterate
1. Discover
User Research
We interviewed 9 participants about their museum going experience to better understand their:
Reasons for visiting a museum
Goals and frustrations
Behaviours and habits
Key Insights
I enjoy learning about history & culture through stories of the past
I learn more than I normally would through guided tours
I struggle to recall museum details after my visits
Museum Visit
A field trip to the museum gave us the opportunity to conduct contextual inquiry and to observe the museum's visitors. It provided us with insights into the context that our users would be in and gave us an idea of what the museum offered.
Visit #1: Self-guided
For our first visit, we went through the museum to get a sense of the physical space, how visitors might encounter or interact with exhibits.
Visit #2: Guided tour
For our second visit, we took the guided tour to see the difference in how the information was presented, as well how the visitors responded.
Observations
Participants said they enjoyed the tour and reaffirmed the data from our initial user interviews that people learn more than they would through a guided tour
The museum had a few QR codes in the exhibits, but scanning them only led to a PDF link
The tour guide was very knowledgeable and relayed information that couldn’t be found within the exhibits
The tour lasted 1h 30 mins, instead of the expected 45-60 mins
Some people joined late and some left before the tour ended
What we found most interesting:
The tour guide related her own experience as a Peranakan and stories of her grandfather who was an immigrant working as a coolie before being scoped by his employer to marry into the family.
Understanding the customer journey
With our user interviews and field trip in the bag, we plotted a customer journey map to further understand the pain points and opportunities where our app could improve the visitor experience.
Pain points
No way to join a guided tour once you missed it
No audio guides available
Insufficient information regarding certain artefacts
Opportunities
To provide an audio tour that is not dependable on timings
To provide detailed information regarding museum artefacts
2. Define
So how might we…?
After synthesising our research findings and identifying the opportunities where we could improve the experience, we formed some How Might We (HMW) statements to help us in the next steps and ideation.
How might we enrich the user’s learning experience while they are at the museum?
How might we continue to engage our users post-visit?
Personas & problem statements
We identified 2 main personas: a primary persona who is eager to learn more through an expert, and a secondary persona who prefers to explore museums by themselves. This led us to our 2 problem statements.
Problem Statement #1
Erik needs a way to access additional informative resources so as to enrich his learning experience at a museum.
Explorer Erik
32, Working traveller
Belgian
Extremely tech-savvy
Eric frequently travels for work and leisure, and he enjoys exploring museums as part of his travel experiences.
Goals
- Wants to learn about local culture & history of places he travels to
- Wants enriching, educational experiences and interactions with locals during his travels
Frustrations
- Missing the timings for the guided tours
- Lack of in-depth historical context within exhibits
- Has limited time during his work trips which sometimes restricts his museum visits
Problem Statement #2
Tricia needs an easier way to access what she has seen at the museum so she can use that content after her visit.
Teacher Tricia
50, Teacher
Singaporean
Somewhat tech-savvy
Tricia visits the local museum to learn more about the history, culture, and art of her community. She enjoys discovering new information and sharing it with her students.
Goals
- Wants to access all of the information she has acquired from her visit to the museum
- Wants to create classroom activities based on what she has learnt from her visit
Frustrations
- Has difficulty remembering all the content she’s seen
- Having to access different platforms for the information
Proposed solution
With our personas and problem statements, we were able to conclude that the app should allow the user to:
access additional informative resources such as audio guides to enrich their learning experience
access these resources post-visit for deeper learning
User flows
Next up was creating user flows for our 2 personas, each with a different scenario and goal. For user #1, the goal is to use the audio guide. For user #2, the goal is learn more about artefacts through either scanning or browsing the artefact list and having the option to bookmark them.
User Flow #1:
Playing an audio guide
User Flow #2:
Getting more information about an artefact
3. Ideate
Brainstorming
We did some brainstorming to see what the solution could include based on the insight that users felt more of a connection from immersive experiences that provided historical context. So we decided that we could incorporate that into the audio tour and the app and make use storytelling techniques, ambient sounds and soundscapes can make the visitor feel immersed, like they’re part of the story.
Sketches
As part of the ideation process, we ran a design studio session and set ourselves a time limit to quickly generate some ideas on how the app could function and look like
4. Design
Wireframes
With the results from our design studio session, we set to work on creating our wireframes to translate our ideas into a structured visual representation.
Wireframes for Flow #1:
A user selecting the audio tour would go through this flow
Wireframes for Flow #2:
A user wanting to get more information about a museum item could scan a QR code located near the item and have the option to save it to bookmarks for future reference
Usability Testing
With a mid fidelity prototype, we tested with 5 representative users to see how they were able to navigate the application and complete given tasks. The participants were given the following tasks:
Reach the audio guide listings page and select a track to play
Reach an artefact detail page through scanning a QR code
Reach an artefact detail page through artefact list page
Bookmark an artefact
Locate where bookmarked items were saved
Overall, all participants were able to navigate to complete the tasks with minimal errors.
Wait, was that it?
Well, not exactly. Even though our users were able to complete the tasks we set, our usability tests revealed insights on the following issues.
Confusion over terminology
Issue: Major
Users said they were unsure about “Levels”, whether they were locations/floors or chapters in a book or difficulty levels
Analysis:
The term “Level” can be misinterpreted by users
Recommendation:
Update the term ‘level’ to ‘floor’ so users can better relate it to the physical structure of the museum
A need for map feature
Issue: Major
Users mentioned wanting to look at a map to use while at the museum
Analysis:
Users wanted an idea of where they are at the museum to check if they are in the correct exhibit by checking the map
Recommendation:
Add a map feature for users to navigate the museum while using app
Unclear text for onboarding screen
Issue: Minor
A user mentioned not understanding what scanning QR codes would do from the onboarding screens
Analysis:
The copy for onboarding screens is not very clear
Recommendation:
Make the copy clearer so users know what to expect when they scan for museum items
Unclear text for search bar
Issue: Minor
A user mentioned not knowing what the search bar was for on the Bookmarks page
Analysis:
The text for search bar is vague and doesn’t provide much information to the user about what they can search for
Recommendation:
Update the text to “Search within your bookmarks” to be clearer about what the users can search for
Users ignoring onboarding screens
Issue: Minor
2 out of 5 users did not read the onboarding text and had no idea what the app did
Analysis:
Some users might ignore onboarding screens
Recommendation:
Ensure that the app is easy for the user to figure out without relying on onboarding screens
6. Iterate
Iterated Designs
After reviewing the results from the usability tests, we implemented changes into our designs to address the usability issues our users faced.
Implemented changes:
Updated the term “level” to “floor”
A link to the map was added on the artefacts & audio listings page
Copy for the search bar was updated to give the user a clearer idea of what they can search for
Implemented change:
Added a feature for users to view map while they are on the museum app and navigating the museum
Implemented change:
Updated the text to “Search within your bookmarks” to be clearer about what the users can search for
Implemented changes:
Made the copy clearer so users know what to expect when they scan for museum items
Changed the term ‘artefacts’ to ‘museum items’ to make it more accessible to the general public
Learnings
Time management is crucial
This was our first group project in the General Assembly UX Design Immersive Course and we had a lot to get done in addition to coordinating our different working styles. Through the course lessons on project management, having a project plan and using tools such as Trello, we were able to complete the project in under two weeks.
What you plan for the user may be ignored all together
We opted for onboarding screens that first-time users of the app will see, but we realised that some people ignore them all together. While the app was still simple enough for the user to understand without the reliance on onboarding screens, for the future, it would be worth exploring other ways for onboarding.
Design studio is a great tool for rapid iteration
Utilising the design studio process for ideation was a challenge but a great way to generate and refine ideas in a short amount of time. It was surprising to me how much we were able to achieve in a session.
You have to be adaptable and recover from setbacks
We encountered some unexpected challenges and setbacks during our project, but being adaptable ensured that we were still able to deliver a project that we were proud of.