MUZO
Elevating audio tours to the next level
Project overview
📱 The product
MUZO is an audio-tour guide app for art exhibitions.
It works with the contactless technology NFC, telling visitors interesting facts about the artworks and guiding their attention while experiencing a piece of art. The experience is almost like an art meditation.
🤔 The problem
Audio-tour apps are perceived as boring, annoying, and with outdated designs.
🤩 The solution
An app that is pleasant and interesting to use, able to provide a new kind of experience for visitors.
🌍 Sustainability consideration
Several art galleries and similar institutions provide users with audio guides to be used on devices and disposable earphones. Downloading an app on your own device is much more sustainable for the environment, as there is no need to produce nor waste more materials.
👨🏻💻 My role
UX Designer, creating an app from conception to delivery.
💪🏻 Responsibilities
Conducting foundational UX Research
Paper and digital wireframing
Low and high-fidelity prototyping
Conducting usability studies
Accounting for accessibility
Iterating on designs
⏳ Project duration
August 2021 to November 2021.
UX Research
Summary
I interviewed and created empathy maps of 7 people, all with different demographics and backgrounds. This allowed me to uncover two user groups:
Art enthusiasts (artists, art students, art collectors, art lovers, directors of art institutions, etc);
Casual visitors (friends or partners of the previous group, tourists, etc).
Within these two major user groups, there is a subcategory of users that really dislikes audio-tours (which is what I generally assumed) and another that, surprisingly for me, enjoys them greatly .
Additionally, for senior users, is important to have a product that’s easily accessible, considering their overall difficulties with technology and their potential visual or audio impairments.
Persona: Giordano Gallo
“Art enriches my life! It makes me feel connected and inspired.”
Giordano is a 34 years old Graphic Designer working in London. He lives with his girlfriend and their dog. He has a bachelor degree in Graphic Design. He loves art, because it makes him feel connected to a community of cool people, it inspires him, making his life richer.
He wants to discover interesting and uncommon information related to the works present at the exhibition, notice unexpected things in them, have a 360 experience (audio and visual), while cultivating his aesthetic sense. He wants his girlfriend to enjoy the exhibition as much as he does, even though she’s not as into art as he is.
He dislikes the average audio-tours because they are generally boring or pointless for him, too highbrow and not included in the price of the ticket. He wants to get from them information that is not present elsewhere in the area of the exhibition.
Main pain points
Audio-tour apps are generally perceived to be boring;
Their design is usually outdated and clunky;
They lack customisation in the kind of information they provide.
Problem statement
Giordano is an art enthusiast who needs an interesting and personalised audio-tour app experience when visiting exhibitions, because he wants to develop his artist’s eye and be up-to-date about interesting art facts and trends.
User Journey map
Mapping Giordano’s journey made clear how many tasks and emotional charge there is in visiting an exhibition. Offering interesting audio-tour guides can help make the experience more worthwhile and special.
Starting the design
Paper wireframes of the homepage
I iterated through paper wireframes to test out some ideas.
Based on UX Research, users have a common pain point: the average audio-tour is boring. They want to develop their artist’s eye and keep up-to-date with art trends and facts in a fun manner.
To satisfy these needs, users can now choose the kind of audio they want to listen using the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Digital wireframes
Using as a basis the paper wireframes and what I’ve discovered during the research phase, I created digital wireframes in Figma.
Low-fidelity prototype
I created in Figma the main flow that allows the user to start an audio guide. This made the prototype ready to use in a usability study. Here you can try the low-fidelity prototype yourself.
Usability study: findings
I conducted two rounds of usability studies (both recorded and moderated). Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed a refining touch.
Round 1 findings
Users find the swipeable bottom menu not intuitive
Users find the icons in the bottom menu difficult to interpret
Round 2 findings
Users don’t understand how the app works using NFC technology, making it hard to use core audio features
The buttons “Artist’s Eye” and “Facts & Trends” are not easy to interpret for the majority of users
Refining the design
In early designs, users could not understand how to start listening to audio tours because the guide section was not clear enough. I redesigned it, so that now it displays an easy 3 steps process on how to use the app.
The second usability study revealed it would be useful for users to get help right from the beginning.
I added an onboarding flow and the option to go to the guide section right away.
High-fidelity prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype helps users understand how to use the app gradually and at each step, while allowing more experienced users to jump straight into using it.
Accessibility considerations
The design respects contrast ratios to help users with visual difficulties.
Even though the core use of the app is audio-based, written text allows users with audio difficulties to navigate and understand how to use the app.
Buttons are positioned in the lower part of the screen, easily reachable with the thumb of the hand holding the device.
Takeaways
💪🏻 Impact
The app delights users with its innovative and fun way to listen to audio-guided tours with contactless technology. One quote from a user: “The design is very intuitive and slick! I really like it!”.
🤓 What I learned
That usability studies are a UX Designer’s best friend! The best way to create a good product for users is really to listen to and care for them.
Next steps
Conduct more usability studies to determine if pain points have been addressed.
Conduct more user research to uncover any new unaddressed need.