ArtLibs:
Enhancing Museum Engagement and Research Facilitation
A mobile application enhancing museum visits by guiding visitors through selected artworks, prompting interpretations, and supporting Dartmouth psychology research on how people perceive art differently.
FINN Lab
Hood Museum of Art
10 weeks
Mar 2024 - Jun 2024
Academic Research
Museum
User Research
Figma
Product Designer
Four designers
Four developers
One project manager
Challenge
Researchers from the FINN Lab at Dartmouth College are studying how individuals interpret the same visual stimuli in vastly different ways. Their studies have relied on traditional lab-based surveys, limiting scalability and real-world applications.
Collecting large-scale research data autonomously outside a controlled lab setting is challenging.
How might we bridge the gap between neuroscience research and real-world experience?
The average museum visitor spends less than 8 seconds looking at a work of art. That's really not a lot of time.
How might we work on improving visitor engagement with artworks in a museum setting?
Results
To bridge academia neuroscience research and real-world application, we worked to design a mutually beneficial mobile application for our clients to transform the museum experience into an interactive study of ambiguity.
Design Goals
Digitized Research Study: Translated the original academic study into an interactive digital experience, enabling real-world application of findings.
Seamless Museum Integration: Ensured the app complemented in-person visits, preserving the authenticity of the museum experience while enhancing it through intuitive interactions.
Open-Ended Engagement: Encouraged personal reflection and dialogue by designing features to support interpretive exploration of oneself and others.
Key Challenge
Balance research goals with an engaging user experience that augments art engagement.
How it works
ArtLibs uses art’s natural ambiguity to explore how we interpret the world around us. Through a Mad Libs-style activity, visitors engage with artwork in a way that’s personal, interactive, and reflective.
1
Make Meaning
Visitors fill in the blanks to describe key ambiguous aspects of an artwork, forming their own interpretation.
2
See Another Perspective
They’re shown a response from another visitor and asked to reflect—do they agree, and are they still confident in their own interpretation?
3
Find Patterns
At the end of their visit, they get a personalized Spotify Wrapped-esque summary comparing their interpretations with others, revealing how perception shifts across different backgrounds, personalities, and experiences.
Using natural language processing, the app analyzes responses in real time, pulling thought-provoking comparisons that challenge visitors to see differently. It’s both an interactive museum experience and a real-world study on how people make sense of ambiguity.
We paid special attention to minimizing friction and optimizing flow for in-gallery use.
Process
Background
Understanding the problem
To begin, we looked at the current phase of the research study, experiencing what the lab was asking for in a controlled monitor setting. We then went and did a mock field study, where we completed the study questions on paper in the museum. From these experiences, we as the designers had a better grasp of what we needed to design for, and what our partners wanted to achieve.
Industry Research
Understanding the problem
We then conducted user and market research. With data provided from the Hood Museum, we were able to gather information about the common visitor demographics. We then looked at a variety of different museum interaction apps currently available in the market, as this helped us determine successes and pitfalls from similar applications.
Upon collecting some preliminary research information, we went back out to the field to conduct user interviews. During these interviews, we were able to gather insights about the common visitor experience and how typical visitors engage with the museum. We wanted to find a way to effortlessly introduce our app experience as to not take away from the original experience, but rather to enhance it. As such, we needed to find ways to gamify and entice users, as they had to voluntarily participate in the study.
User Research
Understanding the problem
One key demographic from the Hood Museum data was college students, so we analyzed social media engagement trends to inspire features like a visit summary, similar to Spotify Wrapped, that users could share.
Our key design decisions revolved around keeping the app engaging. As we considered the typical user, which was a college student, we considered the various parts of social media platforms that particularly appealed to users. This is how we landed on creating a visit summary that users could share to their social media platforms, similar to how they share their year long spotify trends.
Our target users were college students, so we analyzed social media engagement trends to inspire features like a visit summary, similar to Spotify Wrapped, that users could share.
Ideation
Understanding the problem
Using brainstorming methods like "Crazy 8s". we generated many different sketch ideas around storytelling, social interaction, and reflective interpretation.
Wireframing
Starting to design
We had many iterations from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity mockups in Figma
Some key layout decisions:
Use of bold, legible text for accessibility in dim museum lighting
Single-screen interactions to reduce navigation complexity
Sticky progress bar for user orientation and highlight expectations
Conclusion
The ArtLibs app is currently available for download on the app store, and local visitors to Hanover are highly encouraged to utilize the app to supplement their experience at the museum.