Creating A Virtual Art Gallery App
UX Case Study — Lead UX/Graphic Designer
by Tyler James Burke
Title | Virtual Art Gallery App.
Timeline | 12 weeks
My role | Lead UX designer and researcher
Responsibilities | user research, storyboards, user personas, user journey, competitive audit, wireframing, lo-hi fidelity mockups, testing, and prototyping.
Final Designs
Case Summary
Product vision
An application that unites artists and galleries to users remotely and offers a virtual journey through galleries from all over the globe. The app allows users to discover artists and keep them up to date on their current and future art exhibitions. The app enables users to tour an art gallery from the comfort of their home and purchase the art in live auctions. It also enables users to connect to other like-minded individuals in the comments to spark an open dialogue about an artist and their work.
Problem
Travel limitations and busy life schedules prevent gallery-goers from attending and discovering the latest artists and galleries.
Daily life always finds a way of preventing most from locating and viewing art from galleries near and far. Whether it be a busy work schedule or difficulty traveling far distances. Life is chaotic and unpredictable making it challenging for most occupied individuals to invest their time in traveling. Especially amidst the unknown of the coronavirus pandemic, in-person experiences are limited and travel restrictions prevent access to a large number of galleries.
“How do I blend virtual technologies with in-person experiences ”
Solution
Virtual Experiences Are The Key
- Increases the accessibility to various diverse users groups.
- Allows busy individuals the ease and convenience of viewing an artist’s exhibit from wherever they are.
- Cuts out the middle man, reducing time commitments and travel restrictions.
Understanding The User
User Research — Discovery and Ideation
Project background: creating a virtual art gallery app to help showcase galleries and artists remotely. I want to create a product that can compete in the market, improve sales, and increase customer satisfaction.
Research goals: I would like to figure out what specific difficulties users encounter when they try to complete the core tasks of the virtual art gallery app: search, viewing, and placing an offer on artwork.
I started by researching the existing market of applications that are tailored to showcasing artists and art galleries. Using interviews and questionnaires I gathered qualitative data from individuals with varying art-related motivations. This data allowed me to paint a clearer picture of the issues users would face and pinpoint the application's target audience.
Key quotes from Interviews
“I would love to attend a gallery but I never have the time to actually plan ahead and attend a show”
“My busy schedule prevents me from exploring new places and events”
“I would like to view exhibits but I don't really want to deal with crowds and outside distractions”
Competitive Audit
While composing the competitive audit, I found that the main competitors center their applications around discovery and purchasing. They create straightforward experiences but fall short in some key areas.
The focus of the competitive audit is to see how other related applications deal with displaying artwork and offer the option to purchase from the gallery.
Artland is an online social platform that allows users to discover galleries, artwork, and artists. They offer advanced search features, 3D virtual gallery tours, and news updates.
Strengths:
+ Advanced search and filter options.
+ Virtual reality tours of art galleries.
+ Straightforward purchasing
Weaknesses:
- Lots of swiping and scrolling involved — greater chance of user error
- There is no indication for interaction
- No auto walkthrough in virtual tours
Artsy is another online platform that offers a large marketplace that allows users to discover, buy, and sell artwork from artists in galleries worldwide.
strengths:
+ Follow artists to get live updates
+ Discover artists related to those you follow.
+ View artwork in your home with augmented reality feature
weaknesses:
- Needs more brand identity, looks similar to other apps — doesn't stand out from others
- No real color is used just black and white
- No translation or audio options for accessibility
Opportunities To Expand
User Personas And Journey Map
Based on the data gathered from research, I created personas and user journey maps to highlight the major pain point areas for opportunity development.
These personas embody the audience that would be using the application. It became clear from the user research that many individuals would indeed enjoy going to galleries, however busy work schedules and travel limitations prevent them from actually attending.
The Journey maps outline the actions and tasks a user would face and what feelings they might face while performing them. Mapping out a user's journey through the application helps find improvement opportunities and issues before starting the design process.
Starting The Design
“I need to improve upon the sleek and simplistic designs but also produce powerful tools that benefit the user and not just decorate the screen.”
Before the start of the design process I first had to envision the who, why, what, where, when, and how of the project. The storyboards provide the foundation of what is needed for the product and user.
The big picture focuses more on the where and why a user would use the application and the close-up deals with how specific interactions take place to complete a task.
Wireframing
These low-fidelity wireframes embody the key screens of the application. My focus was on the discovery, viewing, and purchasing
Refining The Design — High-Fidelity Mockups
After testing the low fidelity prototypes of the wireframes, it became clear that some of the screens needed more iteration and thought. Through revisions and testing, it became clear that the focus of the application is geared towards exploration and discovery.
The homepage is the main screen the user will first see when they open the application. This screen is designed solely for a user to have the freedom to discover art, artists, and galleries quickly and however they please. The filter search will give users further search options to customize the search results. The explore artists and galleries page will display the trending artists and galleries but also give an option to view specialized results based on art mediums.
The location search screen will allow users to simply browse galleries in any location. With an interactive map that lets users quickly look at how far and where galleries are located geologically. The gallery screen will give users a generous amount of information to learn and view art from a gallery. Once a user virtually steps inside a gallery they will have further opportunities to learn and view art. A guided tour of a gallery where the user has total control over what they see, hear, playback speed, and text language. When planning these screens I wanted accessibility to be at the forefront which makes it easy to navigate and understand.
After viewing a gallery in the virtual tours, the user has the option to click on specific art pieces and learn more about them and the artist. Along with information about the art and artist, a user can join in on a live chat with other users viewing the work. If the user decides they want to purchase the artwork from the gallery they can choose to place a bid.
Takeaways
This project was special to execute because I happen to be an artist myself and enjoy painting and drawing. With that in mind, I love exploring new artists and galleries. The premise of creating an app that transports the user into a gallery from the comfort of their home was very appealing to me.
Given the climate of the world, more and more products are accessible remotely. I aimed to utilize the push for virtual technology to ease issues users encounter when daily life becomes exceedingly hectic.
While designing the screens for the application I thought simplicity was key but after conducting the competitive audit and user research I realized the design will have to be more sophisticated than envisioned. I had to focus less on making the screens pretty and instead make sure every button, icon, image, and text made sense and had a purpose.
I acted not to decorate but communicate
I established a cohesive color palette and typeface that is consistent throughout all the screens and believe the information arrangement works well.
Struggles I Faced Along The Way
Throughout the design process, I found positioning text and sizing was a challenge. There was a lot of information I wanted each screen to contain but given the size of mobile screens, I was limited with space. This made me have to think outside the box and test out different layout iterations before coming to the final designs. I wanted to make sure the key information was communicated straightforwardly but also kept an engaging design.
I also wanted to remove the social media aspect the other competitors had and rather have a community based on inspiration, growth, and sharing. I have a chat room screen and that allows users to connect with others and chat about the artwork and a gallery. However, I am unsure if profiles are even necessary and perhaps change users to anonymous avatars instead. This change would hopefully allow for more engagement and open dialogue and avoid privacy concerns.
I also struggled with finding a place to incorporate the dates for upcoming exhibits, perhaps it could be implemented as a calendar icon the user would click and see the dates for an artist and gallery.
Moving Forward And What I Would Do Differently
Three out of the four navigation tabs are used to search and browse galleries and artists. Going forward I would consider removing the homepage altogether and merge it into the search page. I faced sunk cost fallacy — the deeper I got into the project the harder it was to change. Now looking back at the final designs I believe it would make more sense to merge the homepage and search tabs which basically do the same thing. I would remove the specializations section on the search screen and replace it with the filter search from the homepage.
After testing the prototype, the homepage was nearly unnecessary and adding redundant interactions for the user. Initially, the homepage was the way a user would navigate to the other screens and make quick actions however it was proved to actually do the opposite. Although the filter search portion at the top was revealed to be useful when looking for specific search results. So merging that into the search makes the most sense.
