2024

An art interpretation app to study the human mind

mobile

education

research

shipped

Role

Product Designer

timeline

March - May 2024

6 weeks

Team

3 product designers

4 software engineers

1 project manager

contributions

Product design

Animation design

Design systems

overview

The FINN Lab, a neuroscience research lab, is studying how differences in image perception can explain broader phenomena like mental health and politics. To collect data for this research, they partnered with my team at the DALI Lab to create a mobile “edutainment” app for the Hood Museum of Art, where visitors can complete Mad-Libs-style artwork activities.

my contributions

End-to-end design for activity and summary features within the app, from user research, visual design, and prototyping. I also contributed my own 2D graphic animations.

results

ArtLibs is available on the App Store and has received 500+ downloads from museum visitors. Users report in feedback surveys that the app enhanced their museum experience and encouraged deeper engagement with the artwork.

downloads since release

of engaged users explored multiple atworks

opportunity

Researchers from the FINN Lab want to understand how individuals perceive the same image in different ways.

To reach a broader audience beyond their traditional lab studies, they partnered with the Hood Museum at Dartmouth to gather hundreds of artwork interpretations from real museum visitors. They wanted a mobile experience that could both collect research data and keep users meaningfully engaged during their visit.

challenges

A research study poses a lot of design constraints.

Before beginning the design process, we sat down with our partners to discuss what exactly the app required in order to comply with their study. This was important to understand how we could translate their research goals into intuitive app features that visitors would enjoy using.

Consent

Users must onboard first to provide consent and demographic information in order to participate fully and compensation.

Objectivity

Designs should record quantitative data from users, but should avoid using numbers or percentages as to not bias or influence users.

Clarity

Activity instructions should appear often, and be clear and concise so users to produce accurate data for the researchers.

For the main app experience, we were presented with a complex scientific proposal used within their lab setting, which we distilled into a simplified user journey,

1.0 My map of the main user flow, detailing each step required by the study.

IMAGE

We also needed to ensure user engagement beyond interpreting just 1-2 paintings.

In the lab, participants were paid to analyze 45 paintings. At the Hood Museum, visitors joined voluntarily, earning $2 per interpretation if they shared demographic data.

The challenge was designing an experience engaging enough to motivate multiple responses, and help the lab reach their goal of 500 participants.

In the lab, participants were paid to analyze 45 paintings. At the Hood Museum, visitors joined voluntarily, earning $2 per interpretation if they shared demographic data.

The challenge was designing an experience engaging enough to motivate multiple responses, and help the lab reach their goal of 500 participants.

Guiding question

How might we effectively facilitate a neuroscience research study while making visitors' museum experiences enjoyable?

user research

In order to understand how to make it the best user experience, we turned to user interviews.

We sat down with 8 college students and 2 faculty members to understand a typical museum visitor's experience. They ranged from casual museum visitors to those with educational backgrounds in art history.

The researchers had a specific interpretation activity structure to follow, which meant that our interviews were centered around understanding what kept visitors engaged in museum experiences, what made their experiences memorable, and how we could digitize their activity and interpretation data.

8 / 10

interviewees enjoy seeing the the full story, artist, and context behind a piece of art

6 / 10

of interviewees commonly share interesting experiences both digitally and in person

9 / 10

interviewees expressed interest and ideas for summary statistics at the end of their digital experience

Because most interviewees expressed interest in seeing summaries of their activity that complements their app experience, my team and I introduced a post-visit “activity summary” feature inspired by familiar patterns like Spotify Wrapped, to reinforce engagement and encourage completion of multiple artworks.

competitive analysis

Museum apps were not something we used often. Few allowed you to locate specific artworks.

In order to understand existing user flows and features, we conducted research of 11 museum mobile apps, and 3 apps that had activity summary features. From our research, we gained a clearer understanding of existing design standards in place that we were able to translate to our iterations.

ideation

Exploring designs across three different feature buckets

Museum map navigation

Users needed to first navigate the museum map, which labeled artworks that were part of the study. We ideated on multiple version of map and artwork selections.

Through design critiques with 5 designer peers, and insights from early design walkthroughs with informal user tests, clickable navigation numbers with image previews felt the most intuitive and accessible.

Interpretations and artwork ratings

For each artwork, users were brought to interpretation rating activity that asked them to fill out their own interpretation, rate their own, and rate another user's interpretation.

Rating features are typically based on scales or percentages, but we couldn't use any numbers or percentages due to the risk of bias or influence. We also couldn't allow users to go to previous pages to change their ratings. It was here we realized that we needed to split up the screens and add more guardrails than we expected,

Activity summary

After users finished their visit, they'd be able to see their activity summary. Some interviewees noted they love seeing summaries of their app activities or statistics, and gave us examples such as Spotify, Duolingo, and Strava.

Building on those insights, we created a gallery screen showing all the artworks seen by the visitor, and artwork personalities inspired by Spotify Wrapped. We also extended the Spotify Wrapped idea with time-based statistics.

design decisions

Bringing life to the overall experience

My team and I tested between many iterations of colors and branding, and had weekly standups with engineers and our clients to discuss viability of features within our short timeline.

After initial handoff to development, I proactively iterated on the product by designing additional interactions to improve overall usability and clarity within the interpretation activities, and refining each screen using a design system to make screens more consistent.

instructions & guides

Instruction modals

Instructions had to be extra clear so that anyone (“even a grandma,” as the client put it) could understand the activities easily. I prototyped the initial instructions to appear right when entering the map.

Museum map & navigation

Floor toggle

Through user testing, we found a toggle switch was the most intuitive. I used Photoshop to produce cleaner diagrams of the museum floors that fit a vertical screen.

Museum map & navigation

Artwork selection

Tapping on a number showed a preview. Using actual names of artwork could bias user's interpretations, so we labeled them by number.

interpretation activity

Interpretation activity

Users first input their interpretation, rate their own interpretation, then read the interpretation of another museum visitor.

interpretation activity

Instructions button

If the user is confused at any point during the activity, the "?" button on the top left of the screen provides clear popup instructions for the specific page.

interpretation activity

Completing the activity

I added a confirmation popup in addition to the greyed out number to indicate completion. Afterwards, the user can move onto the next artwork.

instructions.& Guides

Callouts

I designed additional callouts for each stage if the user didn't complete certain parts of the activity.

Activity summary

Users can end their session at any point during the experience. Once they do so, they're brought to their activity summary.

Activity summary

Artwork personalities

The user is able to see their "artwork personality" and other statistics derived from their artwork interpretations during their session.

Welcome and consent screens

We also took the FINN Lab's existing consent form process and built it directly into the beginning of the app experience. We separated long paragraphs into separate screens, focusing on progressive disclosure.

animation graphics

Adding more delight

The research study's "artwork personalities" are based on the concept of "listening personalities" from Spotify Wrapped 2022. Quantitative data from the artwork interpretations was categorized into four different interpretation styles.

In order to make them more fun and memorable for the user, I personally designed the personality shapes in Adobe Illustrator and then animated them in Adobe After Effects & Photoshop.

The Flexible Appreciator

You approach art with an open mind, revising your views as you learn more. Your thoughtful flexibility shows that shifting perspectives can be just as powerful as certainty.

The Cautious Observer

You take your time with art, observing details and absorbing subtleties before forming an opinion. By playing devil’s advocate, you make interpretation more thoughtful—and fun!

The Adaptable Connoisseur

You're quick to form opinions—and just as quick to revise them when new insights arise. Your adaptability reflects a deep engagement with art. Flexibility is your superpower!

The Decisive Critic

First impressions really matter to you — you tend to know exactly how you feel about a piece of art the moment you see it. You don’t spend time constructing elaborate narratives — your reactions are quick and instinctive. That’s a strength!

impact

500+ downloads within 6 months

"ArtLibs has been a great success over the last year, and we are so thankful to you and the whole team for the amazing job you did on it!" — Professor Emily Finn, Principal Investigator @ The FINN Lab

A few months after being released on the iOS App Store in fall 2024, ArtLibs received over 500 downloads from visitors at the Hood Museum, which exceeded their initial research goals by 14%.

Around 60% of participants completed most or all pieces in the study, and the ages of users ranged from 18 to 88. The FINN Lab was thrilled with the results, mentioning that interpretation personality styles that we designed worked exactly as they had hypothesized, and that users really enjoyed them.

”We're seeing clear relationships between using the app (reinterpreting artwork) and people's enjoyment of art, with particularly strong effects when people were presented with interpretations from earlier visitors that were more semantically distinct from their own”

Testimonial 1

"I really liked the user interface of the app and the prompts. Sometimes it is hard to know where to start interpreting a piece of art, and the app helped guide that process"

— An ArtLibs user

A fast black sports car races down the highway.

An orange cube-shaped side table is shown.

final thoughts

My takeaways from the project

ArtLibs was my first large-scale product design project, and I am grateful to have learned so much from it and to have worked with such a wonderful team of designers and engineers. We presented our project at Technigala, Dartmouth's quarterly tech showcase, at the end of the academic term, receiving positive feedback from the Dartmouth community.

Working with real constraints

Our quick 6-week timeline and research study requirements introduced constraints that conflicted with the "ideal" UX process, but this pushed me to think much more critically about tradeoffs

Good design makes experiences memorable

The purpose of ArtLibs was to gather research data, but watching students talk excitedly about the app, even months later, made me realize that making a great user experience is long-lasting

thanks for being here.
let's connect!

Twitter

Resumé

thanks for being here.
let's connect!

Twitter

Resumé

thanks for being here.
let's connect!

Twitter

Resumé

Researchers from the FINN Lab want to understand how individuals perceive the same image in different ways.

Researchers from the FINN Lab want to understand how individuals perceive the same image in different ways.

A research study poses a lot of design constraints.

A research study poses a lot of design constraints.

Consent

Objectivity

Clarity

We also needed to ensure user engagement beyond interpreting just 1-2 paintings.

We also needed to ensure user engagement beyond interpreting just 1-2 paintings.

How might we effectively facilitate a neuroscience research study while making visitors' museum experiences enjoyable?

How might we effectively facilitate a neuroscience research study while making visitors' museum experiences enjoyable?

In order to understand how to make it the best user experience, we turned to user interviews.

In order to understand how to make it the best user experience, we turned to user interviews.

Museum apps were not something we used often. Few allowed you to locate specific artworks.

Museum apps were not something we used often. Few allowed you to locate specific artworks.

Exploring designs across three different feature buckets

Exploring designs across three different feature buckets

Bringing life to the overall experience

Bringing life to the overall experience

Instruction modals

Instruction modals

Floor toggle

Artwork selection

Interpretation activity

Interpretation activity

Instructions button

Completing the activity

Completing the activity

Callouts

Callouts

Activity summary

Activity summary

Artwork personalities

Artwork personalities

Welcome and consent screens

Welcome and consent screens

Adding more delight

"ArtLibs has been a great success over the last year, and we are so thankful to you and the whole team for the amazing job you did on it!" — Professor Emily Finn, Principal Investigator @ The FINN Lab

Testimonial 1

My takeaways from the project

thanks for being here.let's connect!

thanks for being here.let's connect!

thanks for being here.let's connect!

thanks for being here.
let's connect!

thanks for being here.
let's connect!

thanks for being here.
let's connect!