Ackland Art Museum App
2024, App Team Carolina
An app connecting Chapel Hill to the collection and events at the Ackland Art Museum
The Brief
Museums, while treasure troves of learning and fun, can often be daunting and imposing spaces that are hard to navigate and decipher. Inspired by this problem, I ask
What if we could make the museum experience more accessible through an app that emphasizes personalization of visits?
The Context
For this project, within the UX/UI Apprenticeship cohort at App Team Carolina, we were asked to design a new app based on a real-world problem and I chose the Ackland Art Museum as a student guide who works there myself and sees, time and time again, the many issues visitors experience while navigating the museum.
timeframe: August-December 2024
The Objective
The Ackland Museum App will provide a fully accessible way to know about the museum, its vast collection while having a variety of personalized features that enhance and complement the physical visit. The app includes a camera feature which can identify works of art, a way to save and write notes about every piece, as well as an interactive tour which would (ideally) have an audio component as well. The museum app would help college students, seasoned museum members, and tourists in Chapel Hill to better interact with the Ackland’s collection.
Research
Questions
How do different visitor segments (e.g., art enthusiasts, casual visitors, students, tourists) currently discover and engage with museum information?
What barriers prevent potential museum visitors from planning their visit or feeling comfortable exploring art collections?
How do visitors prefer to interact with art content digitally - through contextual information, multimedia guides, interactive elements, or personalized recommendations?
Methods
Findings
The app should facilitate deeper engagement by integrating social sharing capabilities, interactive educational elements, and personalized content that allows users to curate their museum experience.
For casual visitors and frequent museum-goers alike, the digital platform should feel like an extension of the physical museum space, providing seamless access to rich, contextual information about exhibitions, artists, and cultural significance.
The app should offer robust pre-visit planning tools that help users explore current exhibits and understand the cultural context of artworks, while ensuring the interface is intuitive and requires minimal navigation steps. Critical design considerations include implementing inclusive features that address diverse user needs, such as accessibility options, clear wayfinding tools, and representation of varied artistic perspectives that resonate with different visitor demographics.
Wireframes
High Fidelity Prototype
