Case Study: UX Service Design
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Centralis painted a picture of the holistic museum experience for the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Challenge
The Art Institute of Chicago, one of the most highly regarded museums in the world, was looking to enhance their experience by developing digital tours within their mobile app.
They envisioned users listening to informational audio clips about art and history as they moved about the physical galleries, and planned on offering tours with a variety of different themes to replace the rentable handheld devices they currently offered.
After developing beta versions of these tours, the Art Institute asked Centralis to gauge the extent to which their content and features aligned with visitors’ needs and desires.
The Process
Centralis conducted onsite usability testing sessions over two days at the Art Institute. We began each session with a brief interview to understand why our participants love art, and what they are looking for when they visit the museum.
We then followed along as they departed on one of the beta tours and asked them to complete a handful of tasks, such as physically locating key pieces in the collection and uncovering certain pieces of information about those pieces.
Overall, we were able to see users in action as they moved about the galleries and interacted with the app, gathering their feedback and desires for the experience.
The Impact
Through our research we learned that users wanted more explicit direction about where to look as they embarked on their tours, which would ensure they were finding the right pieces throughout the process. They also wanted to break the audio content into smaller chunks on specific topics like artist biography, historical context, and technique.
The Art Institute rolled out our recommendations to provide more structure to the tours, better maps, and shorter accompanying audio clips.
What began as an informational app about the Art Institute is now a more interactive and accessible tool that all visitors to the museum can enjoy from their own device.
Our Value
The Art Institute’s vision went beyond the phone screen, literally taking users to different places in their physical space.
We tailored our evaluation process to meet that requirement, using body cameras and working around other museum visitors during busy hours. We tested on lively Saturdays when the galleries were packed with tourists and kept the vision of a holistic, positive museum visit front-of-mind in our analysis.
We did all of this within the Art Institute’s limited budget, making sure to get them the information they needed without breaking the bank.
It was a pleasure working with you."
- Centralis Client, The Art Institute of Chicago