To design and develop several digital elements as part of an entire gallery overhaul (designed and built in 1980),

- Eight content screens with the capacity to display four to six pages and different types of media

- Volcano interactive illustrating the fundamental factors influencing how and why eruptions occur

- Quiz interactive

 

The interactives will display on screens varying in size from 55" to 21".

Primary target audience is 13 - 14 year olds.

 

- Distilling complex information into an easy to understand and digestible format

- Balancing the needs of users and primary stakeholders e.g how much content the organisation wants to display, and the amount that users want to read

 

I am solely responsible for planning and leading on delivery of UX/IA elements of the project - designing and testing all of the digital products that will be housed within the gallery:

 

- Concept sketching, storyboards (freehand sketch)

- Sequence flows and interaction design (freehand sketch, paper prototypes, Axure)

- Annotated wireframes (Omnigraffle)

 

1. My recommendation for primary user research is deemed out of scope by the project board, my designs must thus be based on heuristics and secondary research e.g. audience insights collated by the learning and interpretation team

 

2. I carry out a heuristic review of similar interactives found on reputable online sources (Discovery, National geographic). I also refer to an evaluation report I wrote looking at the use of digital labels within a different gallery.

3. I conduct 20 think aloud and observational activities with visitors to the gallery space using existing online games, quizzes, and content. This enables me to assess problem areas relating to comprehension and expectation of interactions.
 

4. I generate ideas and sketch concepts and storyboards based on research findings and content provided by the learning and interpretation team. I work closely with the digital designer, boucing ideas and sketching together.

5. I create lo-fidelity prototypes out of cardboard boxes to test physical components and visibility of screens. I also prototype interaction sequences in Axure and test them (approach visitors in the gallery and ask them to participate there and then).
Result: For the volcano interactive, analysis reveals the wording is at times too complicated and users do not understand they have the potential to create one of four volcanoes. Including static images in the final screen descreases the sense of immersion and the 'wow' factor.

 

6. I feedback to the project team and negotiate with the stakeholders from learning and interpretation to remove static images, and changes to wording. This is in line with the findings from my testing.

7. I design fully annotated wireframes (Omnigraffle) for all the interactives listed in the brief.

8. Interfaces go into visual design and build (created by the digital designer and developer).

9. I test these with the target audience in the gallery space.
Result: Users indicate clear understanding that their actions influence the speed and number of particles moving on the screen. Also indiciate expectations are in line with the design i.e. 'Create volcano' will produce an animation. One critical issue I prove through testing, is that the inconsistant use of colour causes users to touch inactive areas.

10. I review the final designs and make recommendations e.g. Reduce button width to make it appear more 'button-like' whilst maintaining the design grid, increase contrast on certain areas, increase pulse from once every 60 minutes (this is not a typo!) to once every 10 seconds on the live earthquake feed, insure constistant colour-action relationships across the designs.

 

11. The gallery is stripped and installation begins.

13. The gallery opens in February 2014 with all interactives in place.