Collider
Exploring the digital art gallery experience
Summary
In May 2021, Humber College and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery hosted the AFFECT Design Challenge. I came in second place with my submission designed to address their problem statement,
How might we expand the community of contemporary art visitors and engage a more diverse and representative community for contemporary art museums and galleries?
Design Process
Research [2 days]
Survey
Secondary Research
Synthesis [1 day]
User Journey Mapping
Affinity Diagram
Research Insights
Ideate [1 day]
Sketching
Design [1 day]
Wireframe
Research
My process began with competitive research and sending out a short survey to my network to understand people’s motivations and interest in visiting galleries.
Market Research + Trends
- VR/AR art galleries
- Art from home challenges (ex. Getty Challenge)
Survey
- 3 questions
- 18 participants
Synthesis
With the survey results collected, I created a user journey map and affinity diagram to gather my research insights.
Research Insights
Barrier to Entry
Distance, admission, commuting, and making time to arrive at the gallery are barriers to access.
Imposter Syndrome
People feel like they are too uneducated or out of place to enjoy art gallery work.
Uncertainty
Confusion and feeling overwhelmed in a gallery space.
Peace and Calm
The feeling of calm and ease while viewing exhibitions at home.
Positive Experience
Feeling happy, excited, free, introspective, and inspired while visiting galleries.
Low Priority
Work life balance makes it difficult to make the time to go.
Takeaways
Site-Specific Feelings
People enjoy and appreciate going to galleries because it conjures up positive and calming feelings.
Once-a-Year Affair
The low visit rate (0-2 times per year) indicates people see galleries as a special outing rather than a space they regularly attend.
Goals
- Engage the general public in understanding art and motivate them to understand the importance of the subject.
- Encourage people to go to galleries more regularly (target 3 times a year)
How do you feel in an art gallery?
Sort of like I’ve entered another world! It’s a quiet pocket of expression and ideas that invites me to absorb and reflect on what I’m seeing instead of being preoccupied by my usual thoughts and priorities.
– Survey Participant
Ideation
Inspired by the Power Plant’s name, Collider captures the idea of information coming together in the same way nuclear energy is produced.
Collider is a community hub for people to share contextual information about art featured at the Power Plant.
It lets people explore ideas and questions about, and beyond, the art piece. This could be about politics, technical questions, and more. It’s an opportunity for people to pick up information that can pertain to their everyday lives or help resolve questions they may have had.
Call to action → Encourage people to enter the gallery space with their new found confidence and interest in the topic.
Design
- The “Meet ups” feature shows events where Collider users can meet together for a gallery crawl or visit.
- Users or gallery staff can add prompts or topics related to the art piece.
- Users can add a question or comment using the side toolbar.
- Links in green catch users’ eyes and invite them to visit this gallery in person.
- Users can customize the background colour to evoke the feelings they have when looking at art to assist with readability and visual comfort.
- Text colour will change with the background to provide an optimal amount of contrast.
- Users are invited to add their own comments or information to spark more conversation.
Branches are created automatically but users can manipulate the boxes around the screen.
Conclusion
Engaging people to learn more about the context of art making, or to feel more purposeful about learning about it, can motivate higher interest in attending art galleries.
