Task

Design a tool that will promote audience engagement with Clarke Reynolds’ exhibition Journey By Dots at Aspex.

Duration

May – June 2022 | Part-time

Team project

Two colleagues from the animation and visual effects (VFX)

Role

UX Research, supporting design

Needed Information

• Identify potential gaps within the offered materials
• Select a type of audience to benefit from it

Hurdle

Team with a preference for an artistic approach over research.

Exhibition Setup

A single large space, with the artist’s life story separated into three distinct parts.

Available Materials

• Braille handouts with colour-coded letters to aid the unfamiliar with Braille viewers.
• Audio recordings from scanning QR codes for the coloured parts of the exhibit boards.
• Printouts with information about the artist, Clarke Reynolds, and the inspiration behind the exhibition
• Gallery assistants are available upon request to guide the viewer through the exhibition

~90% of the surveyed audience did not have disabilities

Meaning that individuals would not know braille, hindering their engagement with the exhibition.

Age group 25 – 44 is the largest audience segment for Aspex

This demographic segment is important because:

• it is the main target of Aspex
• can support the gallery.

Experience Seekers and Trips and Treats are the main visitors

Their top priority is to have a great experience so Aspex has to make sure they engage with the exhibition.

Question: What it is like to experience the exhibition?

• There is a short initial steep learning curve to learning Braille, making it cognitively demanding.
• The Braille printouts lack a clear colour-coding system for the letters.
• Due to the lack of clear navigation, the exhibition feels confusing.
• Visitors can miss the full exhibition experience due to the technical barrier of not having mobile data.

These factors limit most visitors to experience only the face value of the exhibition, leading to a quick dropout rate.

What are the available materials offered by the gallery?

Aspex Gallery hosted Family Saturday events that featured interactive workshops designed around the theme of the exhibition, catering to children aged 4-10 years old.

• The workshop was engaging and succeeded in keeping the children entertained.
• Following the activities as designed, one can learn Braille in a day.
• Appeared that parents perceive the workshop only as a social activity.

What are the most effective ways to learn Braille?

There are more efficient ways of presenting the Braille alphabet than the one used. This finding confirmed the discovery I made before.

Changed the mind of a stubborn team, leading to the design of a tool that has real application. Concrete contributions:

• steered the team from predefined ideas towards ideas informed by our target group’s needs
• redirected the efforts towards a target audience with a greater potential impact
• established criteria for brainstorming, decreasing the time needed for this part of the design process.

The project would have benefited from conducting usability testing within the gallery environment. Insights from the activity would allow us to make it a better fit for the environment and its purpose. But, due to staff changes that was not possible.