Curato | Spring 2024
Overview:
Florence, Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance and home to many art museums that attract visitors from across the world. Curato creates an interactive museum-going experience and provides users with a collection of artworks based on their trips.
Research Methods:
Competitive Research, Field Research, User Testing
Timeline:
Three months
Role:
Designer/ Research Team
The Challenge:
Create a more intentional museum itinerary. Trips to the museum can be overwhelming for busy tourists. And in a city like Florence with so many options, it can be difficult to decide which famous exhibits are “must-see”. Often times, it’s hard to feel engaged with the artwork after hours of walking around the seemingly endless museum halls. Museum-goers should be encouraged to gain a deeper appreciation for the history of artworks. After many museum visits in Italy (often times without any guide), we began to question the factors that go into planning a museum day, what kind of research is done beforehand, and the time spent in the exhibits.
Competitive Research:
Uffizi, Bargello, and Accademia are home to some of Italy’s most famous artworks. The museums’ websites allowed us to assess the UI choices and user flow of a museum-goer’s pre-visit research. A common design choice was simple layout with an accent color in order to make the art itself stand out. Where they differed was functionality and information. The main goal of users on these sites is to find information about visit planning and purchasing tickets, but further information about the works on display was harder to find on some sites.
For itinerary planning sites, we looked at Firenze Card and Get Your Guide. These are meant to make the process buying tickets, or organizing a tour easier. SWOT maps were made to compare findings.
Field Research:
Through field research in the lines of some of Florence’s most popular tourist spots, we found that most people find out information about exhibits through the internet or recommendations from others. Famous artworks are the biggest drawing factor, and most people do a bit of research before purchasing tickets (which they prefer to do online rather than in-person).
From this, we could decide which functions would be necessary to include in the app to create a seamless user-flow and address the issues faced in the itinerary planning stage.
What is the service about?
The app creates an interactive museum-going experience for people in Florence and provides users with a collection of artworks based on their trips.
Who is my target?
The target includes people with an interest in art history who are planning a trip to Florence, but are unsure about which pieces and museums are “must-see”. Most people who use the app will be younger and people familiar with services like Pinterest and AR.
What is my goal?
The goal is to make museum itinerary planning and learning about artworks they are interested in easier for visitors. This will make the museum experience more personalized, and unify the museums under one service.
How do I distinguish my service from the competitors?
Our service will combine finding which museums to visit based on a variety of factors with making visits more interactive by letting users learn about and collect works. It is different from Google Maps or the Museum sites because it will track which pieces the user has seen through QR codes.
What is my vision?
The vision of the service is to facilitate a more engaging and specific museum experience for visitors by tailoring the itinerary to their interests. With the app, people will be more likely to appreciate the history of certain artworks. They will be guided through the museums of Florence with more intention, rather than wandering around unsure of what to look for. Additionally, museums can partner with the app to increase number of visitors.
Design Process:
Initial architecture detailing how the user should flow through the app, and how they can get to certain pages.
Based on card sorting tests, we found people grouping the app’s features based on a timeline: what the user would do before, during, and after the museum visit. Both groups wanted the tickets to be more accessible directly from the app using a feature similar to a wallet. One additional feature we added after the study was a museum map within the app that is personalized to the user and their interests. Visual language was developed through type studies, color palette testing, and logo / icon tests. As the prototype was constructed, the architecture went through a few changes to accommodate a better user flow.UI for the final design of the app was inspired by many factors. The burnt orange color palette was pulled from the iconic architecture of Florence. Other features, like the card and gallery layouts were inspired by other products, such as Pinterest or TripAdvisor.
Designer/ Research Team
The Challenge:
Create a more intentional museum itinerary. Trips to the museum can be overwhelming for busy tourists. And in a city like Florence with so many options, it can be difficult to decide which famous exhibits are “must-see”. Often times, it’s hard to feel engaged with the artwork after hours of walking around the seemingly endless museum halls. Museum-goers should be encouraged to gain a deeper appreciation for the history of artworks. After many museum visits in Italy (often times without any guide), we began to question the factors that go into planning a museum day, what kind of research is done beforehand, and the time spent in the exhibits.
Competitive Research:
Uffizi, Bargello, and Accademia are home to some of Italy’s most famous artworks. The museums’ websites allowed us to assess the UI choices and user flow of a museum-goer’s pre-visit research. A common design choice was simple layout with an accent color in order to make the art itself stand out. Where they differed was functionality and information. The main goal of users on these sites is to find information about visit planning and purchasing tickets, but further information about the works on display was harder to find on some sites.
For itinerary planning sites, we looked at Firenze Card and Get Your Guide. These are meant to make the process buying tickets, or organizing a tour easier. SWOT maps were made to compare findings.
Field Research:
Through field research in the lines of some of Florence’s most popular tourist spots, we found that most people find out information about exhibits through the internet or recommendations from others. Famous artworks are the biggest drawing factor, and most people do a bit of research before purchasing tickets (which they prefer to do online rather than in-person).
From this, we could decide which functions would be necessary to include in the app to create a seamless user-flow and address the issues faced in the itinerary planning stage.
What is the service about?
The app creates an interactive museum-going experience for people in Florence and provides users with a collection of artworks based on their trips.
Who is my target?
The target includes people with an interest in art history who are planning a trip to Florence, but are unsure about which pieces and museums are “must-see”. Most people who use the app will be younger and people familiar with services like Pinterest and AR.
What is my goal?
The goal is to make museum itinerary planning and learning about artworks they are interested in easier for visitors. This will make the museum experience more personalized, and unify the museums under one service.
How do I distinguish my service from the competitors?
Our service will combine finding which museums to visit based on a variety of factors with making visits more interactive by letting users learn about and collect works. It is different from Google Maps or the Museum sites because it will track which pieces the user has seen through QR codes.
What is my vision?
The vision of the service is to facilitate a more engaging and specific museum experience for visitors by tailoring the itinerary to their interests. With the app, people will be more likely to appreciate the history of certain artworks. They will be guided through the museums of Florence with more intention, rather than wandering around unsure of what to look for. Additionally, museums can partner with the app to increase number of visitors.
Design Process:
Initial architecture detailing how the user should flow through the app, and how they can get to certain pages.
Based on card sorting tests, we found people grouping the app’s features based on a timeline: what the user would do before, during, and after the museum visit. Both groups wanted the tickets to be more accessible directly from the app using a feature similar to a wallet. One additional feature we added after the study was a museum map within the app that is personalized to the user and their interests. Visual language was developed through type studies, color palette testing, and logo / icon tests. As the prototype was constructed, the architecture went through a few changes to accommodate a better user flow.UI for the final design of the app was inspired by many factors. The burnt orange color palette was pulled from the iconic architecture of Florence. Other features, like the card and gallery layouts were inspired by other products, such as Pinterest or TripAdvisor.
View Full Prototype: