Navigating the High Museum of Art
Developing a map redesign, kiosk and mobile system solution to assist visitors with their navigational needs at the High Museum for my master's thesis project.
Duration
Aug 2024 - April 2025
Role
Research and Design
Team
3 members
Tools
Figma
About the Project
The High Museum of Art, located in Atlanta, GA, is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. The original version of the High was designed by Richard Meier in 1983 featuring one building. In 2005, Renzo Piano designed three new buildings to add to the High.
While these were created to be a seamless addition to Meier’s architectural design, they had created issues for visitors ability to navigate the museum.
In a nine month timeline, our goal was to research and design a solution to help ease visitors' difficulties navigating the museum.
Role
In a team of 3, I was a co-lead designer and participated in research. As a designer, I hosted design workshops, ideated solutions, created wireframes, prototyped, and tested our design solution. As a researcher, I conducted multiple research methods.
The Problem
There is a big difference between the visitors' spatial perception of the museum compared to that of the High personnel. Because of this misalignment, giving and receiving directions is difficult and leads to unsuccessful wayfinding. The structure of the High is the main proponent for this confusion. With 3 buildings each with their own number of floors, and two connecting bridges, it can hard to fully understand how to traverse the space.
Problem Statement
How might we improve users’ experience with navigating between buildings and exhibits in the High Museum?
Research Questions
1
What is currently understood about the relationship between wayfinding and visitor engagement?
2
How do other museums go about guiding their visitors across exhibitions?
3
What does navigation look like for visitors at the High Museum?
4
What is the impact that current navigation tools have on visitor experience at the High Museum?
Our User Group
We identified a diverse user group that varies across age, familiarity with the museum, group size, and motivations/intentions.
Visitor of the High Museum
The Solution
Using existing High Museum web services, create a map redesign and kiosk and mobile website system that allows visitors to plan, save, and navigate to exhibits they want to see during their visit. This system allows for quick use in the museum and for prior planning before beginning their visit.
The Process
My teammates and I (known as The Muse Collective) approached this project in two phases: five months of research and four months of design.
September
Literature review
October
Literature Review
Comparative Analysis
November
Field Observation
Contextual Inquires
December
Contextual Inquiries
January
Inquiries cont.
Interviews
Ideation
February
Wireframing
Concept Testing
Design System
March
Iterative Prototyping
April
Testing
Presentation
Research Methods
Lit Review
Comparative Analysis
Contextual Inquiry
Field Studies
Stakeholder Interviews
Literature Review
Researcher and Analyst
Research Goal
Understand the impact navigation has on visitors and the relationship between way-finding and visitor engagement.
Focus
Museum and Visitor Studies
Wayfinding
Wayfinding in Museums
Key Findings
Explorer related motivations are a common type of identity visitors inherit
Effective wayfinding relies on a combination of clear environmental cues, cognitive strategies, and user-specific factors
Interactive navigation can be helpful, but visually demanding distracting from the art
The design of movement and paths can determine how visitors explore the museum and their levels of engagement
41 papers and articles analyzed
More coming soon...