British Museum App Redesign
The British Museum London is a popular tourist destination in London that is known for its history as the world’s oldest national public museum and the world’s third most popular art museum. Founded in 1753, the museum has around 6.5 million annual visitors and is the United Kingdom’s most visited attraction.
Sector: Arts and Entertainment
My Role: Product Designer
Tools: Figma, Pen, and Paper
Problem
The British Museum houses diverse collections from all over the world. While the British Museum offers an app, it only allows for audio, which gives users commentary highlighting exhibits from the institution’s collection as well as visitor information to help them plan their visit and navigate the museum. However, while the British Museum houses objects and collections from several different countries, many people from different continents are unable to see and explore artifacts and collections, from their countries without visiting the UK.
Solution
This prompted me to create an app that allows users to take virtual and audio tours from their mobile device without ever having to visit the United Kingdom, and from a single platform, rather than utilizing Google Street View for a virtual tour of some of the floors in the museum and the British Museum App for audio listening.
Design Process
I conducted desk research before starting this project to better understand the British Museum, its business model, its collections, how the app worked, and the behavior of its users.
I also performed a product audit on The British Museum App to make sure I understood the problem I was attempting to fix and to see whether it was working properly or not.
This offered me the chance to understand more about the functions of the app, how users would use it, and how to achieve the objective of ensuring that visitors learn more about the museum’s collections engagingly.
What noticed during my audit
Users’ experiences were limited because they could only listen to audio and couldn’t experience what it would be like inside the museum.
How I planned to solve this: To exactly replicate the experience that a user would have when visiting the museum. Using virtual reality (VR), users could use the app to explore the museum grounds like they would be able to in person and listen to audio commentary as they observed any artifact, simulating the feeling of having a tour guide.
User persona
A user persona was created to understand the user and be able to relate to them.
User Profile: Adora is a 21-year-old Psychology student from Edo state, Nigeria. She currently resides in Lagos, however, she and her family were raised in Benin City. She enjoys history and frequently views historical videos online. She learned about the Bini Kingdom before the British destroyed it in 1897 via her research, and she would dearly desire to see items created by her people during that era. Adora is a student, who cannot afford to travel to the UK to view and experience the artifacts.
I created a low-fidelity wireframe was created of the App, and a user flow that displays the paths users travel as they browse the Application was made.
Style Guide
Using color psychology, I chose black and white for their symbolism of elegance and sophistication, and integrity, as well as their coherence with the British Museum’s website.
Typography
A Sans-Serif typeface, SF Pro Text was used in the app creation due to its legibility on small screens.
Onboarding Screens
The onboarding screen featured images from the museum with a dark gradient overlaying visual texts detailing the importance of the museum and the collections the audience should expect to see.
Homepage
The user is given a search box to search for collections, as well as a card displaying all the continents, which they may scroll horizontally and click on to see all the artifacts from that continent.
Search
The museum has almost four million pieces, and the search screen allows visitors to browse through the many sections of the collection.
Shop
The British Museum sells replicas of objects from their collections, as well as museum-made merchandise. The museum’s store screen was also designed to allow visitors to purchase products they like.
Testing
The app’s prototype was created to test usability, validate the app’s early concept, and allow for the exploration of new concepts.
