metaverse museum
A hybrid metaverse museum model for the post-COVID era and beyond
problem definition
BACKGROUND & LITERATURE RESEARCH
The COVID-19 pandemic has disruptions all areas of life but also resulted in surprising and urgent transformations, especially in the arts and culture industry by speeding up the implementation of digital technologies and other interdisciplinary approaches in museums.
However, most industry professionals agree that these efforts were born out of necessity, and cannot take the place for in-person museum visits. While this remains true, it is unmistakable that the pandemic has helped to spotlight the potential these digital initiatives have to go beyond the short-term COVID-era to develop true “digital museums” for the future and for expanding their audience groups. Hence, it is crucial to explore how museums can make better use of digital initiatives, both now and in a post-COVID era, for understanding the potential next stage of museums that can bring together the offline and online world for an innovative and hybrid user experience.
Project goals are as the following:
How do museums currently make use of digital initiatives, both in their online and offline spaces?
What are the perceived advantages and challenges of these digital initiatives within the institutional settings?
How can the current initiative be better utilized and integrated, from a user experience standpoint?
research
LITERATURE RESEARCH
When COVID-19 forced many museums around the world to close their doors, many turned
to look inward at their own collections, programmes, and strategies, marking permanent
changes in the “perception of the digital world forever, highlighting existing issues and
accelerating changes that were already underway”. Digital services and content digitization
that previously took place behind the scenes now took center stage as the primary means of engagement museums had with their audiences, increasing significantly right before and after many countries went into lockdown, and continuing to grow even now. While many museums and visitors praised the accessibility and reach of such initiatives in providing a glimmer of light through the arts and culture in such a dark period, some too cast doubts on the long-term sustainability of such services.
However, existing discourse on hybrid museums seems to have only just started gaining momentum, a full year on from when they were ramped into place, and are still discussed in the context of the pandemic – understandably, since it appears that it will be more lasting than anyone would have expected. Yet, museums and other cultural institutions harness great potential if they can reimagine the current boundaries of digital initiatives, looking beyond past, present, or future timeframes to instead envision a new type of museum that is unlike any that has existed before.
Does the user feel a sense of community, connection, and belonging?
Is the user able to in/directly share their experiences?
Does the user obtain a more positive understanding of depression?
FIELD STUDIES
5 on-site physical museums were visited at the Jeju Island, the island
INSIGHTS
Based on user research, personas were created to target young adults in their 20s as undergraduate students and UX goals were defined to guide the overall project development.
Digital is here to stay
Digital can be gimmicky
Digital cannot remain as replicas of offline exhibitions
primary persona
secondary persona
ux research
SURVEY
Many ideas were mentioned including gamification and entertainment platform referencing to mobile games including "Dumb Ways to Die", " ", and " ", the latter two being related to mental health. Storytelling services and campaign ideas were also discussed and explored.
USER INTERVIEWS
Our final idea was to create an virtual exhibition space for users to share their experience of and related to depression as this platform best matches our UX goals. According to more literature research, “art exhibitions can have social and personal benefits for participating artists", and there are therapeutic potential of art in mental health including improved self-esteem, self-confidence, communication skills, personal relationships, and fostering greater social inclusion.
Primary colors were chosen for bubbly and cheerful atmosphere and were toned down for soothing effect. Sans serif is used for its simplicity and how it is comfortable to look at. Development visualizations such as wireframe sketches, use case scenarios, and flowcharts were created.
virtual art exhibition
#welcoming #heart-warming #soothing #group-hug #bubbly #commuinity #connection
development
IDEATION & REFERENCES
‘We’ is made of ‘me’s, ‘We’ is a place for ‘me’s. The service’s sole purpose is to give a message to depression patients that they are not alone and that there are people who will understand them. To fulfil our purpose, weme, a community based website provides various functions.
UNITY
8 participants conducted the UT and follow-up semi-structured interviews to collect direct and crucial feedback on the initial prototype. A variety of the participants was recruited to represent the target users, which range from those who have depression to those who are interested in the topic.
The usability tests involved the Wizard of Oz method and Think Aloud methods while participants were asked to conduct the following benchmark tasks of the prototype:
Locate your ‘Hug me’
Create a new exhibition
Share your exhibition
See the ‘Hug more’ page.
Commenting on someone else’s exhibition
Follow-up interviews were conducted right after the usability tests with the same participants. Several important interview questions are as the following:
What did you feel about the character, hugging design, and the general visual elements of the website?
What did you feel as you saw your files and comments being uploaded onto the website?
What did you feel as you saw the other user’s content?
What did you feel editing and curating your own works?
What did you feel about the specific format of the “museum” for sharing?
Would you utilize a service like this in real life?
What did you think about the pros and cons of this prototype?
RESEARCH DESIGN & FUTURE PLAN
The qualitative data from UT and interviews were analyzed and categorized to organize key insights and changes needed for developing the prototype.
safe space
Many participants felt a sense of community and described the website as a "safe space"
needs organization
Some participants were confused with website architecture, especially the terms used for the navigation bar
final website
DEVELOPED WIREFRAME
Reflecting the insights about confusion and distraction of the website, the original wireframe was adjusted.
weme.org
