Project: Immerse
Role: Lead Designer, Researcher, Writer
Duration: August-October 2021
Responsibilities: User research, wireframing, prototyping, usability study.
Project Overview
Description: The Immerse app allows new-media and digital art enthusiasts access a list of experiential exhibitions, book, and schedule tours.
Problem: New media exhibitions were either accessed on individual gallery pages or through various newsletter outlets. For working professionals or first-timers, this created a difficulty with not being able to efficiently explore a variety of happenings and save time while doing that.
Goal: Immerse aggregates new-media exhibitions to make them accessible to users. The app provides the option to book, schedule and receive reminders on ongoing and upcoming exhibits and site-specific installation in the city.
User Research(Summary)
Immerse started out with the goal of building an app that helps digital art enthusiast stay connected to new-media exhibitions in and around their location. The app includes features that allow users preview, book, schedule and set reminders for exhibition tours. The primary problem was to save time and increase convience when looking for new experiences.
I conducted a series of design research involving a competitive audit of several museum’s ticketing and scheduling process. This intially revealed the lack of an app providing this functionality. Studying current scheduling systems also provided insights for added functions for an app that could potentially fill in the gap.
User Persona
The user, Suni, is a fine arts enthusiast that lives in a major city. Suni goes to museums several times a month. They want an easy way to secure timed museum tickets. The product Suni uses to secure tickets requires advance purchase, so they get frustrated when they try to spontaneously book tickets to popular exhibits. Suni wants to be able to easily book tickets in the app, in real time on weekend afternoons, without advance planning.
The user, Bathsheba, is a fine arts enthusiast that lives in a major city. Bathsheba goes to museums several times a month. They want an easy way to secure timed museum tickets. The product Bathsheba uses to secure tickets requires advance purchase, so she gets frustrated when they try to spontaneously book tickets to popular exhibits. Bathsheba wants to be able to easily book tickets in the app, in real time on weekend afternoons, without advance planning.
User Research: Pain Points
User Journey Map
Mapping Suni’s user journey anticipating possible challenges they might encounter while using the app.
Competitor’s Audit
Competitive analysis on five direct and indirect competition to Immerse.
Optional: Competitive Audit Report.
Starting the Design
Paper Wireframes
[Brainstorm session.]
Digital Wireframes
[Considering: Easy navigation and access to information in a straightforward but engaging way was key to designing for a prospective user.]
[I also thought about ways to reduce time spent on booking an exhibition.]
Usability study: findings
After the first low-fidelity prototype, I conducted an unmoderated usability study by survey and interview with five participants of varing age ranges.
Here are some questions added to considerations in the Usability Studies:
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- How easy is it to browse through current exhibitions on the app ?
- How long did it take users to successfully book one exhibition?
- What frustrated the users most about finding an exhibition through the app?
- What will the user's flow before choosing an exhibition improve on the way information is presented?
The user group confirmed the need for an aggregation of these exhibitions, but insight also revealed
more additional functions that some users preferred:
- 2 of 5 of the participants want to be able to filter exhibitions other than the categories provided.
- 3 of 5 participants similarly want to see review from other visitors.
(These did not stop the user from completing the task but could be a nice-to-have.)
Initial High-Fidelity Prototype:
Before usability study II
Round 1 findings
Users want to be able to filter exhibitions other than the categories provided.
Users think additional text to the schedule(add) button will be helpful.
Users consider a map feature in the app useful for their decision making process.
Users think additional text to the schedule(add) button will be helpful.
Users consider a map feature in the app useful for their decision making process.
Round 2 findings
The schedule button might require an option for customized notification.
Changing the colour theme will help users focus more on content.
Changing the colour theme will help users focus more on content.
Changing the colour theme will help users focus more on content.
Changing the colour theme will help users focus more on content.
Current Interactive Prototype
After usability study II
Takeways
Impact:
The Immerse app received positive feedback for being the first of its kind to focus on new-media and digital exhibitions. It met users needs by saving time to find, preview and book exhibitions in and around their area.
What I learned:
While I was designing the app, even though I focused on the users motivations and needs, I had an initial prototype that distracted too much from the content. As Immerse is an app that will be populated more with images, motion-images, one consideration was making sure the user’s attention is undivided with their current task; to still manage for good visual enagement, but subtle.