Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) sought to upgrade and redesign the user experience of their online collection. The project was designed to provide a scalable framework for the implementation of a fully functional, world-class, redeveloped online collection that engages users to explore their interests and curiosities related to art and QAGOMA’s Collection, while contributing to QAGOMA’s mission and objectives outlined in its strategic plan.
Project management, research, wireframe and prototype design. This was work completed as part of my Master's thesis.
The current online collection was lagging behind national and international competitors in design, presentation, and content. The site was not particularly engaging and often lacked content.
The homepage for the online collection.
An example of an artwork's description.
To gain a better and more complete understanding of what approach other art galleries were taking with their online collections and what makes these collections successful, 20 online collections were studied. This gave me a more complete view into the online collection field and what possibilities existed.
Four of the online collections I surveyed and my findings.
To compliment this benchmark study, I also conducted four different user surveys with various stakeholder groups of QAGOMA to gain further understanding of the needs and uses of the collection online and how it could be improved. Some of these surveys were conducted online, while others in person at the gallery.
Some responses from my surveys.
From the four different surveys I ran, some major themes started to develop. There were some people that needed more details on the artworks, more images, better searches as they were usually scholars, curators, teachers, or art history enthusiasts. They needed an online collection that would support them on their quest for knowledge. Then there were the people that had been to the gallery or were planning to go soon. They needed indications that an artwork was on display, to explore works of art related to something the liked, and more imagery to see something up close.
From these insights, I realized we needed something that supported a wide audience, where novice art explorers or gallery visitors could see something they liked, but experts could dig in deeper when they wanted.
Insights and quotes from user surveys
The synthesis of the benchmark review, user research, and existing audience demographics influenced the wireframe redesign for QAGOMA’s online collection. Eight template wireframes were created with accompanying annotations. These wireframes demonstrated the features, functions, and content necessary for the online collection.
Working with another designer, visual design was applied to my wireframe designs. This was done to help with stakeholder buy-in to the project, as presentations were given to the executive management team and board of trustees.
Final designs for collection search results and artwork description page.
This project was my first real dabble into the world of UX. My mind was quite literally blown. I quickly realized how important good survey design is, as my first responses coming in made me think "Well, what am I supposed to do with that?". I ran my first workshops, which, well, did not go very smoothly. Being prepared with a time-sheet, materials, and conversation starting questions was a very important skill I had yet to develop.
Presenting my work to the executive management team and board of trustees was probably one of the scariest moments of my life up to that time. My hands were shaking, my back was sweaty, not great. But, when I remembered that I was the expert here, not them, I was quickly able to find my voice. It was confidence and enthusiasm got me through that presentation, as well as a painting a vision for the future with clear step-by-step recommendations. Execs like bullet points and storytelling, wouldn't ya know.
Unfortunately, here we are six years later, and QAGOMA's online collection remains untouched. What I failed to do in the course of this project was to turn my stakeholders into online collection champions. Without someone else there to push this project forward, it has never seen the light of day. Bringing my own passion and drive to a project is important, but instilling that into others is the real key to success.