ArtSpace
Virtual Exhibition Platform
Product/UX Design | 02 2021 - 05 2021
ArtSpace is a virtual exhibition platform for people to easily access and enjoy immersive art experiences without the limitations of space and time. It utilizes Virtual Reality to create engaging atmospheres for a better presentation of artworks.
Improved from most current online exhibitions, ArtSpace designed to focus more on the audience's end-to-end journey and the learning aspect from exhibitions, through a seamless onboarding experience, smooth exhibition guidance, and in-depth background knowledge. Besides that, it also proposes a set of hand menu designs that can facilitate people's exhibition experience and help capture their favorite moments.
Scope
Problem framing
Design concept
VR prototype
My Role
User studies
UX & UI design
VR prototyping
Duration
2021 Feb-May
(Side project)
Tools
Sketch - UX/UI Design
Unity - VR Prototyping
Maya - 3D Modeling
Substance Painter - Texture
System Preview
Interface design
Flow design
Interface design
Design Approach
Problems & Needs
∎ Public audience: enjoy exhibitions remotely
When the pandemic forced the museums and galleries to shut down, people's interest in online exhibitions soars like never before. Even after the pandemic, being able to enjoy an exhibition remotely can free audiences from the limit of time and space. With online exhibitions, people from all over the world can join the experience at any time.
∎ Museums: engaging presentation of their digital archives
Traditional online exhibitions utilize static web pages, on which there are videos, images, and text about the exhibition. This provides an easy way to join and share but had a very limited embodiment and immersion, and it is also not suitable for artworks like large-scale sculptures and environmental installations.
∎ Communities: a better form of distance learning
During learning, active observation and exploration are more effective than passively watching videos or listening to lectures. Field trips used to be a good way of letting students see, listen, touch, and feel about what they are learning to get a better understanding. A virtual museum tour is a great way for active learning in distance.
Screen captures from the website of the Design Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, and Artland
∎ Current virtual exhibitions have a limited focus on audiences' experience
In recent years, museums started utilizing 3D exhibition models. For example, the Design Museum in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, the online art platform Artland are using 3D scanning tools (Matterport) to capture a physical copy of the real exhibition space. This is an efficient way of building a virtual experience. However, the actual experience is sometimes impaired by the little guidance, hard-to-read background knowledge, and ordinary scenes. To provide a more engaging and enlightening virtual exhibition, we need to focus more on the audience's experience and the needs of all stakeholders.
User Studies
∎ Audience: End-user interview
I had phone interviews with five people from different backgrounds who have regular visits to museums and art exhibitions.
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Learned about the habit and past experiences of exhibitions
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Found out different criteria of a good exhibition
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Understood attitudes toward online virtual exhibitions
How artworks are organized and presented is critical for audiences
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Background introductions, concepts of the artists, different perspectives
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Storytelling and narratives
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Educational, thought-provoking, or emotionally resonated
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A journey that can provide different experiences from daily life
Medium and materiality of the works are also important
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A variety of mediums (installations, models, and videos)
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Show original artwork
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More interactive works
Intuitive, immersive, and smooth experience for virtual exhibitions
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Mobile screens are too small
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The at-home atmosphere is difficult for audiences to pay attention
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New media artworks are very suitable
Design Concepts
Journey Flow
∎ Less friction & End-to-end
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Before exhibition: Setup and join easily
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During exhibition: Get intuitive guidance, abundant background knowledge, and an engaging atmosphere.
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After exhibition: Collect artworks, Save & share photos and videos
User journey sketch
DESIGN RESULT
Prototype
Intuitive Exhibition Platform
Easily find exhibitions that you are interested in
Save your loved artworks
Store your highlighted moments
Smooth Experience Journey
Immersive atmosphere to enhance the presentation of artworks
Smooth guidance to help you go through the journey
Explorable knowledge to show the background of artist, history, and culture
Portable Hand Menu
Affords the functionality of an exhibition brochure and mobile device
Quickly access hands-on tools without breaking the experience
Project Reflection
ArtSpace is my side project at the beginning of the year 2021. During this time, most public museums and galleries were closed. However, through the digital transformation, global resources and international events have become more accessible to us. Exhibitions and conferences began held virtually. I believe that virtual exhibitions and events will eventually be a new alternative. Utilizing this project, I studied and improved the current approach of online exhibitions and proposed a more complete system design that focuses on the audience's end-to-end experience and the learning aspects from exhibitions. As a result, a set of interface design, experience flow, and hand menu tools were designed and prototyped.
∎ Future Consideration
Sociability
Due to the limit of scope, this project hasn't focused on the sociability of VR exhibitions. However, social can be an important part for example during an exhibition opening, etc. We can also invite our friends and go to virtual exhibitions together.
Real-world objects
Real-world objects with a physical presence always have a stronger connection with us. It's interesting to think of how virtual artworks can be presented in the real world. For example, the NFT artworks that you collected online.
Thank you for viewing
See next project 👉
