Overview
When starting this project with the following question: Are museums inviting? At first, the answer seemed like an obvious yes. But as we explored what museums provide—or fail to provide—it became far less clear.
Please follow along as I showcase the changes we made to make museums more accessible for everyone.
Data Gathering and Research
Observational Research
As part of our research process, we examined observational data. We visited museums and observed how people interacted with the exhibits to understand how people of different age demographics interact with museum pieces, as we believed different museums might cater to various age groups.
From six observational trips taken, three to the Harvard Art Museum and three to the Boston Museum of Science, we found differences in target demographics, shown through environment choices, decor, and staff availability. Below are our findings:
Harvard Art Museum:
Mostly youth and students
Students showed more interest in modern pieces
Not enough staff to help guests
Quiet, tranquil, diverse environment
Boston Museum of Science:
Diverse age groups
More interaction with the age group of 30-50 than with students
Number of staff available
Energizing, busy environment
Secondary Research
To corroborate our findings, we looked at The Journal of Museum Education (2017), which found that a museum should offer programs for increased diversity, mainly focusing on the museum's design and how "the responsibility to fit in does not reside in the guest." This means the way many traditionally think of museums, where there is a status quo on how to act, is not necessarily correct. Instead, museums must employ more museum-driven initiatives to make the guests feel welcome.
Research on inclusivity in science and natural history museums highlighted the importance of designing visitor-centered experiences to foster a sense of belonging among diverse audiences. A key finding from the Science Museum of Minnesota study 'Museums and Inclusion (2020)' emphasizes the concept of "moments that matter," identifying impactful interactions that create meaningful connections between visitors and exhibits. These insights suggest incorporating interactive, relevant content tailored to specific demographics can significantly enhance engagement and inclusivity in museum spaces.
Interviews
During the ideation phase of the project, we conducted user interviews to build new personas and inform the design. The team created an interview script focusing on our target audience’s values, motivations, and daily routines. Each project member interviewed five people using these questions as guidelines, where we would use interviewing best practices if the interviewee started expressing focus from one line of questioning. We referenced the user interview findings throughout the entire design process.
Interview Questions
Do you enjoy visiting museums?
How does visiting a museum make you feel?
Is there any aspect of a museum that makes you feel unwelcome?
Have you ever experienced a significant positive or negative experience in a museum?
Do you feel museums are targeted toward your age group?
What do you think museums can do to be more inclusive?
Empathy Mapping
From our interviews, we derived data, which we put into three different maps.
The first was empathy mapping, which categorizes a person's actions during a museum visit. Actions are split into different senses to better understand how the person interacts with their environment and to see where we can improve their experience.
Journey Mapping
Our second mapping was Journey Mapping, which followed the interviewee's day as they prepared to visit a museum. It lets us locate pain points throughout the day to improve the museum experience.
Ecosystem Mapping
The last mapping was Ecosystem Mapping. This mapping shows the potential influences on an interviewee's decision to go to a museum or not. The influences can be people, services, or larger institutions.
Conclusion
From our research we found that there was a disparity between how younger (ages 12-38) and older (ages 38+) generations reacted to museums and their layouts.
Prototyping
How might we?
Before beginning our prototype phase, we had to combine all the research into clear objectives we could complete. This was done with How Might We (HMW) statements, which highlighted questions we wanted to be answered with our design. My team decided to focus on 2 HMW statements that aligned most with our research findings.
HMW makes the museum experience more casual?
Interactive design to make the museum less stagnant/formal
Less formal employee uniform
Use music to make a casual & create an immersive experience
HMW stimulate engagement in younger people?
Interactive design of animation/ movement/sound to stimulate young
App with game/audio
App with directions to art pieces
Reason to look at art needs to be given
Wireframing
Using all the data we gathered, we created a prototype product that answered the needs of our target demographic. This was done by:
Adding activities to the museum experience, leading to more interactivity
Audio tour with visualization, allowing for selective visits to museum pieces
Accessible information outside of the museum for planning outings
Modern UI layout aimed at a younger, more tech-savvy demographic
Lastly, when creating the high-fidelity prototype, I aimed to incorporate a cohesive color scheme of red and grey, designed to unify the app's visual identity while evoking a sense of interactivity and engagement.
