ARTOUR
Artour is an app designed to allow the users to enjoy audio tours in any art galleries or museum, anywhere around the world. The goal for artour is to be the most accessible method for both virtual and physical art gallery tourists to enhance their experience.

Features include searching for artworks through image searching, accessibility features for those with visual/hearing impairment, and virtual tours.
skills
Mobile UI&UX design, Design thinking, UX Research, Prototyping, Usability testing, Accessible design,
date
July 2023 - August 2023
Research Findings
During the research phase, I conducted competitive analysis with three other art gallery & museum mobile app experience and held 5 interviews with potential or existing users of such services.
Competitive Analysis
The three competitors researched in the audit was Walt Disney Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, and St. Louis Public Library. They all had the similarity of having a digital (or virtual) experience of an art gallery or a museum. However Walt Disney Museum's app provided me with many insights since it was a large corporation and their app was meant to be used when the user is experiencing the displays & installments both virtually and physically.
Walt Disney Family Museum
+ Simple & easy to use
+ Multiple languages available
+ Search installments' serial number on the app
+ Information and audio tours are organized by chapters
- No closed caption available for audio tours
- Serial code formats are series of number which can be a hassle to find & type.
St. Louis Public Library
+ Straightforward user flow
+ Audio tracks include subtitles (Text-to-speech)
- Requires library card or account to use
- No other language available other than English
- Poor image quality
Art Institute of Chicago
+ List of features and arts the user can expect
+ Search art work's serial code for more information
+ Multiple languages available
- Cannot listen to the audio book and view the subtitles spontaneously
- No option to further explore about the art
- Limited number of language available
Interviews
Through online communities, I was able gather 5 interviewees with different background and experiences with art galleries and their apps. The interviews were held virtually through Zoom or Discord, which lasted around 30 minutes each session. The interviewees were asked questions of past experiences with similar applications, frequency of using the any art gallery apps, frequency of visiting galleries physically, and any pain points or enjoyable moments of physical & virtual art gallery visits.
What did they say?
Non-native English speakers mentioned that they often had trouble fully comprehending the meaning of the installment even with a tour guide or audio tour.
Those who often visit the galleries use the virtual experience as a substitution of the physical experience. It helps them decide if the current exhibition is interesting for them to go see it in-person.
Pain Points
After reviewing the research results, I've placed my focus on these main pain points the users are having in the existing solutions.
Pain point #1
Lack of subtitles and translation. Poor accessiblity.
Only few of the competitors provided multi-language support and closed captions. To add, no competitor that was analyzed provided audio translation.
Pain point #2
Apps are not universal. Serial codes are a hassle.
Being able to search the desired information is great, but typing and searching a series of non-intuitive serial code can't the best experience the users go through.
Pain point #3
Information given are limiting or overwhelming.
Either the information is very short and does not allow users to explore more about the work, or there are too much information in one single section that it becomes overwhelming.
Solutions
Solution #1
Translations of audio and subtitles
Provide translation of both audio and text based tours so that non-English speaking users can fully enjoy the experience. Text resizing feature also helps those with visual impairments.
Solution #2
Image scanning of the artworks
By simply scanning the image to search, it simplifies the step of searching for information desired. With enough data base, users will be able to utilize this feature no matter where they are without downloading any other application.
Solution #3
Categorize information & provided only desired information
By categorizing information into different chapters, users are able to pick and choose the topic of their interest and quickly browse.
Prototype
Reflection
What did I learn?
More users than I realized were being unconsidered in everyday designs whether they were temporarily, situationally, or permanently impaired. While studying about accessibility features, I learned multiple ways of inclusive design by considering their experiences while designing.
Measuring impact
When this project goes live, we could measure the effectiveness of the design in multiple areas.
Usability
Surveys and feedback from users and measure error rate in user flows.
Translation
Measure the number of users using the app in different languages.
Closed Caption
Measure number of users who uses closed captions (average time spent on CC screen), and measure data on font sizes used by users