Presentation

Team

Julia Kawano, Designer

Steve Omondi, Designer

Linda Zeng, Designer

Problem

You walk into an art museum and enjoy the exhibitions currently on display, but then you begin to wonder about previous shows. You wonder what they looked like, what pieces they had, and you wish there was a way to see, not only the museum space in its current state, but also galleries of the past. We have chosen to focus on the problems associated with the limitations of physical space and allowing museum visitors to learn more about where they are. Our proposed solution is an augmented reality mobile application that would allow visitors to view and interact with past exhibitions and their art.

Goals

For our design research, we conducted a contextual inquiry. We met our participants at WCMA and asked them to learn more about their current location (WCMA) by conducting research, predominantly using online resources, and constructing a timeline of events they considered significant in the museum’s history. Our first participant, Jim, is a Williams student in his fourth year. He has visited WCMA on numerous occasions and engages frequently with their programming. Our second participant, Tanaka, is a local high school student who had never been to WCMA before, but was familiar with many of their outdoor pieces and their programs. Our final participant, Karl, is a Williams student who has never been to WCMA before. Our research focused on how people relatively unfamiliar with a space learn more about it, what they find most interesting or helpful, and what frustrations they face.

Results and Themes

Through our contextual inquiry, we found that when people learn something new or see a name they recognize, it sparks a desire to learn even more. We hope that our design will cultivate and encourage that feeling in our users. We also found that people like to visualize information, especially through pictures as they provide a physical connection between the past and the present. One of the biggest challenges we faced designing and executing our contextual inquiry was that it is hard to judge what information people want to know, especially when it is not available or difficult to find.

Task Analysis Questions

1. Who is going to use the design?

   Visitors of WCMA

2. What tasks do they now perform? (what do people do?)

   Currently, people look for information about the museum’s history online (using Google, Wikipedia, or directly checking the WCMA website), they find historic photos and make connections between the museum’s past and their own present.

3. What tasks are desired? (what do people want to do?)

   People want a more accessible, more engaging means of knowing a place’s history. They want to be able to discover new information about the museum and be able to explore the space.

4. How are the tasks learned?

   Individuals have their own preferred methods and tools. For example, some automatically open up Google and start to type any keywords that come to mind, while others go straight to the WCMA site. People like to use tools with which they are familiar because they know how to use them.

5. Where are the tasks performed?

   Both in the location and not. A desire to learn more about a place can be especially sparked when someone is in that actual place, but it has the potential to extend far past the time when they are physically there. Because of the changes to the building itself, people find interest in the museum’s history both while inside where they can see the shapes of the inner galleries, and also outside where they can see the overall building.

6. What is the relationship between the person and data?

   People want relevant data and they want it in language and a form they can understand. People respond very strongly and very well to pictures, largely because they convey a large amount of data (what something looked like, what took place) in a very quickly digestible format.

7. What other tools does the person have?

   They have the museum staff—security guards, the greeter, staff in the galleries—whom they can ask for both information and personal anecdotes.

8. How do people communicate with each other?

   People really enjoy sharing new information they have learned with their friends and those around them. This communication could be both verbal or electronic.

9. How often are the tasks performed?

   The outcome of performing a task affects if it performed again or more frequently. When people look up information, if they like what they found, they may be inspired to look up something more specific or something that arose from that initial search.

10. What are the time constraints on the tasks?

    The largest time constraint is the person’s attention span to remain interested in finding the information they are looking for. If information is not quickly or easily accessible, people lose interest and stop pursuing it.

11. What happens when things go wrong?

    People get confused and frustrated. They give up, stop their search, and do not learn anything new. They are also less likely to trust that the next time they want to know something that they will be able to find it.

Proposed Design Sketches

Design 1: VR/AR glasses

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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: Interactive map (mobile app)

The design for this mobile application would provide and show users a variety of location-specific activities through which they can engage with the museum. For example, going near the entrance to a gallery might activate a special note from the curator on their show that visitors could view.

• 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.

• 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.

• Explore WCMA spaces:

Visitors can see various locations with which they can engage and further explore the various spaces.

• 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

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Final Design

We decided to combine our ideas into a design for an AR app that will allow visitors to explore and engage with past exhibitions. After reevaluating our tasks, we chose to break down the task of revisiting past galleries into two tasks: 1) viewing past shows and 2) interacting with artwork previously on display. This allows the history of WCMA to be incorporated into the visitor’s museum experience as they can see previous exhibitions and a explore a greater part of WCMA’s collection.

Written Scenarios

1) View past galleries

This scenario will showcase how an AR application offers a solution, in terms of providing a way to visit past galleries that are no longer on display. The setting is at the Williams College Museum of Art, a place where Funoda, an art enthusiast, frequently visits. Funoda has brought along friends to show them around a special collections gallery he visited a while back. They walk to the gallery but discover that the collection is no longer on display. Funoda and his friends decide to use the WhereYouArt AR application, that is available on either smartphones or tablets. When they first open the application, they are prompted to confirm their location within the museum. They are then presented with an option to either view random art that was present in that gallery, or search for something specific. They choose the second option and enter the details (Name, Date, Time period) to the best of their knowledge. The application then displays the name of an installation with a short description and prompts them to confirm if this is what they are looking for. Once they confirm the selection, they walk around the gallery and are able to see the special collections art work as it was, when it was still on display.

2) Interact with past galleries

Katie is not a frequent museum visitor, but she enjoys learning about art pieces when she visits museums. Upon entering WCMA, she learns about a new application that allows visitors to view past galleries. She picks up one of the tablets provided by WCMA and opens the app. She chooses to view a randomized past gallery through the app. As she looks through this gallery, an art piece catches her eye and wants to learn more about it. She clicks on that art piece and several thought bubbles pop up informing her of the title, artist, and the option to learn more. She chooses to learn more and reads about the art piece.

Storyboards