Gallery Go: Designing an Intuitive Art Discovery App

Role: Solo UI/UX Designer

Duration: 4 Weeks (In Progress - Currently at Mid-Fi Planning)

Tools: Figma

1. The Challenge: Simple & Engaging Art Exploration

The project, Gallery Go, aims to simplify the museum experience for young art lovers and tourists. The core challenge was to move away from overly academic, lengthy audio guides and create a solution that offers simple information, short audio clips, and easy navigation within a gallery setting.

Goal: Provide users with essential, engaging information about artwork quickly and comfortably on a mobile device, prioritizing both accessibility (for seniors) and quick engagement (for tourists).

Current Status: Low-fidelity wireframes completed for the core user flow, including Sign-Up/Login, Home, Gallery Detail, Artwork Detail, and Profile/Settings.

2. Research: Understanding Dual User Needs

My UX research focused on understanding the different ways people want to engage with art in a physical space. This involved creating two primary personas that guided the design choices:

3. Low-Fidelity Wireframes & Prototype

The low-fidelity wireframes map the complete flow, ensuring every user need identified in the research phase is addressed with a functional placeholder solution. Key screens and solutions include:

• Onboarding: Simple 'Get Started' screen focused on the core value proposition ("Explore Art Around You").

• Home Page: Features Featured Galleries (for quick access) and an Explore Page button (for search/browse), keeping the initial view clean.

• Artwork Detail Page: Contains a prominent 'Play Audio' button and dedicated sections for a 'Favorite' action and 'Share' action, addressing Aanya's need for quick engagement and sharing.

• Profile Page: Includes a clear 'Edit Theme' option, which will eventually contain accessibility features like text size adjustments, critical for Ramesh.

4. User Journey Mapping

The user journeys confirmed that both user types require simple, failure-proof tasks. The flows highlight key pain points (like confusing app navigation or unclear audio) which the current wireframes attempt to mitigate.

5. Next Steps

The immediate next step is to transition the low-fi screens to mid-fidelity prototypes. This will involve introducing basic visual elements (like color, typeface, and final iconography) and setting up a basic interactive prototype in Figma for initial usability testing.