Survey

We conducted a survey to identify museums of interest for visitors residing in the New York Metropolitan Area.
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We received 37 responses, from respondents living in the New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut area. When asked how frequently do you visit museums, sixty percent (60%) of respondents reported that they visited a museum more than once a month.
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Museum of Modern Art(MoMA) was the most visited museum (100% of the respondents visited it in the last year). MoMA was also the museum most respondents visited more than once in the past year.

‍Based on the volume of visitors and the frequency of their visits, we identified MoMA as the site of intervention for our project.‍

Market Research

In-Depth User Interviews

We conducted four in-depth user interviews, where we asked participants to reflect on their previous visits. We inquired about how participants planned for their visit, how they move through the exhibits, their interaction patterns with on-site information, MoMA’s digital interfaces and the exhibits.

Participants in our interviews were residents of the New York Metropolitan Area, aged between 21 and 50. They were tech-literate individuals who frequently used web and app interfaces to plan their daily life. They were also individuals with a keen interest in modern art and frequently visited the museum.

Key Findings:

‍Inefficient way-finding hinders museum experience. Most participants felt that when they move around the space with the intention of finding a specific exhibit, they are often lost. They felt a lack of functional mapping inside the space often created friction in an otherwise pleasant experience.
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Exhibit-adjacent information and media - beneficial but often inaccessible. Participants reported that they consumed the additional information often posted next to the exhibit - they felt the audio guide was sometimes unsuitable as they preferred to not be taken away from the museum experience. A few participants reported that the text descriptions on the wall were inaccessible at times, especially when the museum is crowded.
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Participants were torn about device usage inside the museum. While a few felt that using their mobiles to look up information or take photos elevated the experience, others felt that screens distracted them from the physical experience of the museum.

On-Site Think Aloud Testing

To further understand user experience while in the museum, we conducted an on-site test, where participants were given a set of tasks inside the museum and were asked to complete them with the available resources (MoMA website, Map, Google, etc).

We conducted this test with two participants who were regular visitors to MoMA (2-3 times a year). The tasks included finding permanent exhibits, temporary exhibits, information about the art and services (washroom, exits, etc). The participants were encouraged to think-aloud while performing the task to gain further insights into their thought process. A video recording was taken of the participants, and their reactions.

Key Findings:

Cumbersome navigation process. Participants often found a disconnect in information and a challenge in connecting the digital markers to the physical signifiers.

One participant spent over 25 minutes looking for a very popular painting as there was a disconnect in identifying the gallery it was located in. The participant was only able to find the painting after asking a crew member on site about it.

Another participant was frustrated by the gallery numbers as they was trying to find their way out. They spent over five minutes walking around in circles trying to look for an exit. They stumbled upon the exit by chance, in the end.

‍External sources of information over museum interfaces. Participants preferred to use Google to look up information about the art. While they occasionally used the MoMA website as a starting point, they found it as a result on the Google search instead of using the QR codes shown next to the art.

After reading the information card under one of the exhibits, a participant said “…See, I don’t want to download a stupid app and I also don't want to listen to audio right now - not really in the mood. So I will Google this myself.”

The information cards were often unclear, and not very helpful in gaining more insight into the artist.