Design for a space mission
How might we engage citizens in public art programs available in the community.
CubeRover
Team
Megan Parisi, Jesse Song, Ben Stone
Duration
2 months
Challenge
Public art is meant to build connections and spark conversations among people. However, those who aren’t avid museum-goers or art lovers may feel like they are under-qualified to evaluate a piece of art and therefore tend to avoid participating in public art programs. How might we encourage more people to engage in the arts and build connections through attending public art programs?
Solution
We created a mobile app (prototype) that allows users to have online interactions and share music or comments about public art. We believe that by providing this social platform for more casual and multimodal conversations, users will feel encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions on artwork.
Understanding users
Observe and intercept
To better understand how people interact with arts and how they socialize at an outdoor art exhibit or event, we conducted four observations and intercepts with viewers of public art at three different locations in downtown Pittsburgh.
After collecting interview data, we conducted an interpretation session and created an affinity diagram with our interpretation session notes.
Data analysis
Insights
Public art enhances the livability of a city even for those who are generally not interested in art. Art actually benefits people’s life in ways often unnoticed and under-appreciated. For instance, residents often use public art locations for multiple purposes - to relax or to hang out with friends - and connect to art in many facets of their lives without realizing it.
While all of our intercept participants expressed a desire to connect socially around public art, they admitted that they were not always sure how to do so. That is to say, people do crave social connections around or through art but they are not given the tools or resources to make these connections a reality.
Learning from others
Think aloud usability test
To discover users’ thoughts, feelings, and actions toward the sharing and the connection features on the application, we studied the usability of the Google Arts & Culture mobile app with think aloud protocol.
We conducted four think aloud usability studies with Pittsburgh residents who may or may have interest in public art.
Data analysis
We used the Usability Findings Template for organizing our findings which were then analyzed and synthesized through a mini affinity diagram.
Reflection
The usability test and the mini affinity diagram have helped us realize that a huge amount of information, confusing navigation and language choices would hinder the app’s social functionality.
Validating user needs
Storyboarding and speed dating
We identified four major user needs for relating to public art: social connection, personal connection, sensory engagement and accessibility. To validate the above user needs, we created 12 storyboards about increasingly risky scenarios based on these needs and then conducted speed dating sessions with four participants.
Summary of feedback
Through speed dating, we learned that participants would be interested in stories about art rather than art itself. A possible solution could be to involve different users in storytelling or sharing their feelings around the art.
Testing Prototypes
Experience prototyping
Based on the results of speed dating, we wanted to test the following ideas with a prototyping:
Validating whether or not people connect more to the art if it’s multi-sensory.
Seeing if people are interested in how other people connect to art, and whether or not they are open to socializing around public art.
Understanding whether or not people tend to share their thoughts and opinions about public art with others.
We’ve created an auditory experience app that helps users understand the perspective of others around an art piece. It is meant to tie in social aspects as well as leverage multi-sensory channels to increase art’s accessibility and community engagement with the arts.
About the prototype
Research conduction
After creating low fidelity prototype based on our research goals, we then went to the Carnegie Museum of Art to intercept four interviewees viewing the public art piece outside of the museum.
Reflection
Our research goals were reinforced. Many users found themselves connecting with others but the social connections where not as strong as they could have been due to lack of demographic information about previous users.
Prototyping iteration
Based on issues we found from our research, we iterated our prototype as follows:
1. Not a hands free experience: more automation was added in the app flow. For instance, a new song would automatically start once the previous one has finished.
2. Comment source was unclear: Formatted the comment as a quotation, as well as added the name and age of the commenter.
3. Comments were not prominent enough: Comments were increased in size, and moved to the center of the screen to increase visual attention draw
