Task Descriptions
View past galleries
New - moderate
Funoda is a frequent museum visitor who likes to share his experiences with friends and family. On a number of occasions, he has visited the same galleries more than once, taking friends on subsequent visits, so that he can share his experience. However, there are times when the installations he intends to take his friends to have been changed and are no longer on available. Funoda resorts to using pictures he took, but wishes there was a way for his friends to experience the gallery as it was, when he first visited it.
Interact with past galleries
New - moderate
Katie is not a frequent museum visitor, but she enjoys learning about art pieces when she visits museums. Upon entering a gallery, Katie wonders what past exhibits have been shown in this space. She takes out her phone and looks up the past exhibitions of WCMA. She checks out the archives of their website, but she is only able to find a couple of selected works from that exhibit. She wishes there were a way to see the gallery as a whole and learn more about each indiviudal piece.
Learn more information on installations
Existing - easy
Kantaro enjoys visiting the museum by himself. Although he does not identify himself as someone who is interested in the background details of an installation, there have been a number of occasions in which pieces of art really caught his attention, and the descriptions on the plaques did not satisfy his curiosity. At such times, Kantaro uses the internet to find more information on these installations. Kantaro understands that all this information can not be displayed on the plaque, but wishes there was a way to make it more accessible without having to search for it by himself.
Learn about WCMA’s history
Existing - easy
Katherine is an art history student who is a frequent visitor. Oftentimes, when she visits museums, she is familiar with the history behind art pieces and similar art pieces produced around specific time periods. On one visit, she saw a photograph of the museum dated a century ago and was amazed at how different it looked. This sparked her interest to learn more about the history of the museum building itself. She did some research online and read through the museum’s history webpage. However, she wishes that information were already in the museum for her to access and to spark her interest earlier.
Explore WCMA spaces
Existing - easy
Jane is a student who likes to visit museums. She finds them to be peaceful places where she can look at art and study. On one of her recent visits, she learned that there are spaces beyond the museum itself, one of which was a table near the museum. Upon this finding, she immediately went to the quad area to check it out. She was immediately inquisitive about the markings on the table and used the internet to read more about it. After that, she sat at the table and read a book. She wish she had known about this space earlier and wish she had easier access to information about the space. She wonders if there are other museum spaces that she hadn’t known about.
Come across past history of WCMA
New - hard
Chris doesn’t usually go to museums, but is a curious person. When he visits museums, he usually looks at the art pieces and reads about them in the plaques on the wall. Looking at art pieces usually already fills up his time. Chris is a person who may not realize that he is interested in exploring more about something until he comes across the idea in the first place. He usually finds that one small spark is enough to get him to dig deeper and learn about something even if he wasn’t aware that it was a subject of interest initially.
Interact with other museum visitors (old)
New - moderate
Jack is a friendly museum visitor and likes to communicate to others. Being an avid learner, when Jack learns new information, especially if it’s related to history, he likes to talk to other people about it and learn about their perspectives. When he visits museums, however, he finds that it is a quiet space and feels he cannot talk to others verbally. He currently likes to go on guided museum tours to learn more about exhibitions and also as an opportunity to talk to others. He wishes there were some other form of interaction with other visitors beyond that.
Sketches
Design 1: VR/AR Glasses
Main Idea:
Museum visitors will have the choice to either bring their own AR/VR glasses or use ones that will be provided at the entrance of the museum. The main idea of this design is to be able to support tasks that require the use of additional space, without actually using additional space.
Task 1: Revisit past galleries.
When visitors put on the glasses, they will interact with an interface that will guide them through finding the particular piece that they are looking for. This can be done by searching using dates, name of installation, where the piece was in the museum etc. Once found, users will be able to look around and see a gallery, for example, that is the way it was during the dates specified.
Task 2: Learn more information on installations
The glasses will also allow users to use them in a “more information mode” setting. The glasses will then automatically display more information about installations (as users look at them), as an extension of what is written on the plaque. Users will also have an option to save the information they see by uploading it to external storage spaces, if they are interested.
Task 3: Explore WCMA spaces
Based on what the users search for, they will receive recommendations on which galleries to visit, that contain a similar style of art. Users will also have an option to use the glasses in “Explore” mode, and the glasses will guide them through the museum in the same way a member of staff would.
Task 4: Interact with other museum visitors
Statistical data on the usage of these glasses will be recorded and made publicly available to other visitors of the museum who use the glasses. This will promote indirect interaction with other visitors by providing users with the option of choosing to visit galleries (both present and past) that have been visited most by other users.
Design 2:
Main Idea:
The main idea of this design is to enhance a visitor’s experience by allowing them access to more information than is physically present without requiring them to carry any additional pieces of technology.
Task 1: Learn more information on installations
Have access to a more detailed narrative provided by the curator, artist, or museum staff. “Scan” a piece of art to learn more about it.
Task 2: Revisit past galleries
Uncover notes from past visitors and photos of exhibitions or specific pieces that they engaged with. Then respond or leave your own memory.
Task 3: Explore WCMA spaces
Visitors can see various locations with which they can engage and further explore the various spaces.
Task 4: Learn about WCMA’s history
Compare the present with a historical photo. Standing from the vantage point of a past photographer and be able to compare side-by-side the present with the photograph.
Design 3: Smart Watch
Main Idea:
The smart watch design aims to provide users with a more in-depth visiting experience, especially the space itself. It will make use of smart watch capabilities, such as the ability to scan QR codes and location sensors. The user will be able to learn more about specific exhibitions are they walk around the museum and learn about past galleries by scanning QR codes. The design with also make use of the location sensor where it is able to detect where the user is in the museum and provide more information about that location to the user. In addition, the smart watch will utilize the location sensor to guide users on how to get to spaces outside of the WCMA building.
Task 1: Learn more information on installations
To fulfill this task, it requires a pre-requisite of all art installations having QR codes near them. When a user walks around the museum wearing their smart watch and come across an art piece of interest, they can use their smart watch to scan the corresponding QR code of the art piece. After scanning it, our design will display more information to the user about that current art piece onto the smart watch. We want to design it in such a way that there will be hyperlinks within this information.
Task 2: Explore WCMA spaces
Using the location sensor on smart watches, we can fulfill the task of exploring WCMA spaces beyond the museum. We plan on doing this by having an initial menu where one of the options labeled “Other WCMA Spaces.” It would then ask the user which location to go to. After the user confirms, the smart watch acts as a map guide, telling the user where to go given their location. They will ultimately reach their new destination.
Task 3: Learn about WCMA’s history
We would use the location sensor to achieve this task. When a user is walking around in a museum, if they are standing in a place of interest, which takes into account both the floor they are on on their geographic location, their smart watch will notify the user with a vibration or sound. It would prompt the user informing them that their current location used to be something different, and gives the user the option to learn more about it. The smart watch will then display information about it onto the screen.
Task 4: Revisit past galleries
Outside of each gallery space, there will be a QR code that the user can scan. After scanning it, the smartwatch will display a list of all the past galleries in this space. The user will be able to click on any one of them and to read more about them. Perhaps we could even expand and provide information about which other museums have had these exhibitions as well.