SFMOMA AS AGENT OF CHANGE

TL; DR

Since its foundation in 1935, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) as a cultural institution has pioneered breakthroughs in art connoisseurship.

With trends showing a rapid decline in patronage and membership, it is necessary more than ever to bring Art to the masses. SFMOMA must maintain its position as the tour de force not only within elite circles but to a much wider audience globally as diversity and inclusion become the primary factors that are shaping today's society.

The SFMOMA app is a vital part of this endeavor. As the institution enters the digital space, it attempts to demonstrate how modernism, experimentation and innovation can be experienced on a handheld device. 

The app shows promise of enhancing the museumgoer experience but could do better with a few design modifications addressing usability issues. 

Note: This is a self-initiated exercise motivated by a personal passion for the Arts and my strong belief that technology can enhance the experience of it.

USER FOCUS

Provisional Personas

My usability exploration of the SFMOMA app started by imagining the regular museum guest and addressing initial assumptions of their behavior patterns. I can then develop job stories to help formulate hypotheses to guide this self-initiated research.

PERSONA 1 : SAM, ART STUDENT

DEMO: 
Female in 16-22yo range who always goes for the extra credit in her classes. Earns minimum wage income from her part time job in the bookstore.

BEHAVIOR: 
Very creative, artistic, auto-didact. Engages in cultural activities at least once a week. 

NEEDS & GOAL: 
Personal artistic growth as primary driving force. Needs to learn new things and figure out ways to break the rules after learning them.

PERSONA 2 : HUGH, TECHY TOURIST

DEMO: 
Male in early 30s who earns middle class income.

BEHAVIOR: 
Techie, consumes the latest technological device. Drives a hybrid car to tech job and travels to different countries while telecommuting. Craft beer enthusiast, goes to hackathons and social events regularly. 

NEEDS & GOAL: 
Social and professional validation. Be the first to know of the latest tech and design trends.

The insight show that the museum and the art it houses frantically sell themselves. The museum guests are already willing supporters. Hence, the SFMOMA app features would be appreciated but only if the users are aware of them and if the app itself is easy to use.

MORE OBSERVATIONS:

• Most SFMOMA visitors are tourists and have no immediate intention on installing an app to navigate their way around.

• The 18-25yo segment were not particularly interested in the generated TIMELINE, even if it could be shared via Social Media after their visit. As this is automatically emailed (if logged in), we will not further explore this feature in this case study.

• The SYNC WITH FRIENDS feature with its QR code technology appears dated.

• While a museum visit could be a group activity, a user's direct engagement with the art work is at most a solitary activity. This to say, the SYNC WITH FRIENDS feature is undesirable and thus useless.

FUNCTIONALITY

MISSING THE LANDING (PAGE). A fundamental element of any app or website is the navigation. It is the road map that directs the the user to all other features. For a GPS-based app, it is an absolute must that the navigation be intuitive. During guerrilla testing, all five participants were unable to recognize the main page (!) on the app. Moreover, they did not know to get back to it nor did the icons clearly symbolize their purpose.

All in all, no one had a clear idea initially what the SFMOMA app offered.

EDUCATION AS MISSION

ALL GLAM YET NOBODY IS LISTENING. The cultural institutions that make up the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums segment all share the same mission: access to knowledge. 

The SFMOMA app features curatorial details and anecdotal narratives about the art works using digital media but falls short of enticing the audience to take advantage of them. All five of the participants tested left the application because of the two-minute vocal introduction that one has to hear. An intuitive device need not have such a long intro.

SUSTAINABILITY

As museums internationally are digitizing their collections and coming up with Instagram-worthy events for social engagement, there is clearly a need for sustainable relationships with the audience. With declining memberships and patronage, the SFMOMA app does not help ignite enough excitement —the users tested were not willing to log in even to get their tickets. Not one was interested in signing up for the newsletter.

My proposed design decisions use this hypothesis as a guide. A functional SFMOMA app could potentially increase the value of the museum visit and with it catalyze future engagement with the user either through repeated visits (retention), newsletter sign up or even membership.

After synthesizing the collected insight and sketches, I have devised together a shorter task flow to trim the excess fat. 

From this I have narrowed down the problems addressing THREE PAIN POINTS:

1. Make the AUDIO TOUR feature easier to use since this is the main function of the app. I've renamed it ENHANCED TOUR, added an option to skip the irksome audio explanation and appended a short text blurb. I have also edited the sub-headlines to better explain what the different audio tours offer.

2. Include PLAN VISIT tab to show information pertinent to user visit.

3. Streamline the PURCHASE TICKETS task into a simpler process. I have eliminated the need to log in and added an option to get an Educator discount. Transactions are automatically done via in-app purchase, unless one opts to "purchase as a guest." The billing form only shows when this option is selected and I have removed the unnecessary input fields. The user email gets automatically added to the SFMOMA newsletter upon purchase. (The confirmation email will include an option to create an account at a later date).