Muse glasses displayed in neutral background

Muse AR

How might we create an AR experience for museums that increases access, education, and fun for users?
Project Overview
Have you ever felt lost in a museum? Or that perhaps you needed more information to make the most of your experience there? Muse is an interactive AR tool that enhances museum users’ experiences by increasing accessibility, and therefore improving educational outcomes and enjoyment for all.

Museums are fun and educational centers that aim to be accessible to all, but often still present barriers to hosting the best experience possible. Augmented Reality is at the cutting edge of design and technology, and the field has barely scratched the educational possibilities that AR presents. We asked ourselves: how might we create an AR experience for museums that increases access, education, and fun for users?

My contributions

This was a highly collaborative project, where Tristan, Jess, and I constantly worked together on plans, methodology, and iterations. Tristan led the footage creation and editing on Blender.  Jess created the accessibility guidelines and AI.My roles and responsibilities included:

  • Analyzing survey results, which provided insights into demographics, user perceptions of AR, pain points, and user goals and desires.
  • Carried out an informational interview with an education specialist at the Seattle Art Museum.
  • Research various aspects of AR technology, including accessibility, seamless ar, gestures
  • Designed gesture library for user onboarding and AR interface using AE.
  • Created storyboard based on user journey.
Muse experience walkthrough (has sound, but it is not necessary)
Audience

We built Personas and Mindsets based on our user interviews and survey results. The personas represent three different mindsets, experiences with technology, and feelings about education and AR. This helped us anchor the pain points and goals we needed to design for. The Mindsets shed light on motivations, which helped guide our work to create a solution that will serve not only the largest portion of the population possible, and also focuses on those users that are often not centered in these types of interfaces. 
Demographic information

  • Wide age range, though anticipate most success for ages 24-50
  • Equal preference is going to museums alone or with friends
  • Mostly familiar with audio tours (>70%)
  • Most people prefer to go directly to what interests them (to the point)
Key Value Proposition

“Our unique AR experience increases learning and enjoyment for users. It is cohesive, concise, and accessible - and it encourages exploration and experimentation. By utilizing our wayfinding and other incredible features, you can experience museums like you haven’t before. Navigate with ease and learn smoothly, all in a comfortable environment. Our ergonomic glasses are light and comfortable and adjust to your sensory needs - and they will feel like an extension of yourself.”

Personas
What do you find confusing when navigating through a museum?

We asked this question to obtain more information about users' pain points.

  • Unclear signage (which makes it hard to find the bathroom, exit, specific exhibits; Galleries organized by numbers but numbers not displayed on walls, etc)
  • The museum feels like a maze (unclear how exhibits connect, poorly labeled rooms)
  • Unclear maps (figuring out where you are on the map, and scarcity of maps, ie “you are 10% of the way in this exhibit”)
  • Sensory overload (sounds, lights, lots of people, overwhelming)
  • Easy to miss parts (users worry about not making the most of the museum, “correct” path is unclear)
  • Wall text (very dense, skipped often, not always easy to read, users miss important information)

Pain points we identified from interviews and other research:

  • Users might feel intimidated or unwelcome by institutional educational spaces (ivory towers)
  • Users might not be able to participate in an art exhibit as is due to disabilities (visual, auditory, learning, processing). While museums theoretically aim to meet these needs, they are not always addressed. 
  • Users might not be able to fully engage due to language barriers. This includes not only ESOL speakers, but also users whose education was interrupted.
What does AR mean to you?

We designed this question to understand user's preconceived notions about AR.

Positive:
‍Discovery, joy in something new, being transported, interactive and fun, educational, lots of potential, magic, a new way of interacting
‍Neutral:
‍Digital overlay/enhancement, seeing something that is not there, altered reality. “Designing reality”
‍Negative:
‍Gimmick, distraction, unnecessary, makes people dizzy, hard to operate, more screens people don’t want to look at, clunky

A moodboard that includes colors, screen captures, and sample modalities for UI
Moodboard

Results from user survey

Process
Research:
‍The first step was to gain a deep understanding of our users, their needs, and desires. We ran a public survey that got 62 responses. We also carried out in-depth continuous research about AR best practices and accessibility in the virtual context. I also interviewed an education expert at the Seattle Art Museum, to understand his perspective not only on user’s needs, but also on the feasibility of implementing a project like this in the SAM. 
Identifying the pain points and opportunities:
 After analyzing and reflecting on the results, we created the personas and mindsets, and we defined the problem and KVP. We ran a sprint to help us decide which technology to use for the AR interface. 
‍Defining features:
‍Then we created a list of what possible features the AR experience could have, and carried out a MSCW analysis of the features to narrow down on what would best solve the problem. We created a customer journey based on the personas, motivations, and defined features, to shed light on what parts of our process needed improvement and attention. 
Overview
  • Research & Survey
  • ID pain points and opportunities
  • Define Features
  • dEsign System
  • Gestures
  • Filming and Editing
  • Reflection
A screenshot of a zoom meeting where we carried out user testing
Gesture testing in class
An animated GIF of hand gestures for interaction
Gesture Library
Process, continued
Design system and gestures:
‍We created a mood board based on accessibility guidelines and best AR practices, and a UI design system. Based on these, I created a gesture library that was used for our onboarding process. 
‍Filming and editing:
‍We developed our onboarding experience, which served as a road map for the storyboard.  We also created a script and shot list for the sample video, and shot the footage at school. Tristan created 3D assets in Blender, which were then incorporated into the footage along with gestures, and other UI elements to create the final version of the video. 
Accessibility
Since the start we knew that accessibility would be key to the success of our solution. That is why we checked color contrast, text size, line height, touch target size, iconography according to the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
An animated GIF detailing the characteristics of the glasses

Diagram of Muse glasses

Outcomes
Throughout designing our experience we learned quite a bit about accessibility in AR environments. We learned how to cater to a mass group of users with varied familiarity with technology, as well as how to create something that will not overstimulate their senses. Getting different points of view was key to our success because it allowed us to gain insights into what mattered most to users. For example, we knew it was important that users could navigate the experience with ease, but it was also a good reminder that the focus should remain on the art exhibitions - not the AR elements themselves. 

We stretched our information design muscles when creating our menu systems for the experience, understanding that we need something that users can understand without even thinking about it. 
Why Glasses?
We carried out a pro-and-con analysis of 3 different AR technologies: Glasses, Tablets, and Phones. Based on our results and the user information we had acquired, we decided to move forward with AR glasses. These are the best option since they provide a hands-free experience, and do not place the burden of providing the technology on the users.
A screenshot of notes for the project

Customer Journey

Lessons Learned & Next Steps
AR is exciting to work with, and it can be easy to get carried away and lose track of what matters most. That is why for every step of the process I asked myself “how is this improving the user experience? Is this effectively addressing the pain points and needs, and making the experience better?”. I found that taking charge of a project that focuses on empathy, and on how to serve our communities better is incredibly motivating and beautiful. 

The ideal next step in the evolution of Muse would be to user test our current interface, get direct user feedback and test our concepts, to then iterate on the feedback. However, due to limitations in access to the existing technology, that was not possible during the project’s timeline. 

After that, I would develop the finer points of the brand, and design an advertising campaign designed to address the 3 core perspectives of our audience. Given the interactive components of Muse, TV and online advertisements would be one of the media best suited for this purpose. 
Teamwork
Collaboration was an essential part of this project. It allowed us to carry out more interviews and user tests, tackle different areas of research, and divide the flows to be able to test and iterate quickly.
The storyboard for Muse: a person walks into the museum and interacts with our project. Made in the form of a comic.

Storyboard

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