I spent several months constructing this app for the fictional Dada Anti-Museum for my Coursera Google UX Design Professional Certificate.
This was my original prompt: "Design an app and a responsive website for a public art museum to advertise exhibitions and events, provide museum information to patrons, and enable patrons to schedule visits."
Looking back, I'm surprised I created a fictional museum. I could have picked an established museum that doesn't have an app. I have a creative background as a playwright, writer, theater practitioner, and artist. Creatively, I've always worked from the ground up. My initial impulse was to do the same here and create a fictional museum. This led to its own challenges.
It is one of the most challenging and enormous projects I've ever worked on. It was a valuable learning experience: the more I learned, the more I realized I knew nothing.
THE DADA ANTI-ART MUSEUM
The deeper I found myself in the project, the more I felt the need to flesh out the persona of the Dada Anti-Museum. I did so through graphic design, the creative help of Gemini and Chat GPT.
I studied Dada in college and in graduate programs. I had also written a chapter about Dada as a non-traditional plot structure in a recently published ebook. I finished the book right before beginning my Google course, so my mind was filled with Dada.
This created extra challenges. It felt as if the app exploded. I followed the parameters of the prompt, providing information and ticket purchasing.
Other museum apps I encountered seem to follow the same prompt I had, yet seemed limited.
Apps offer tours for museum visits, but little for those visitors who cannot physically attend the location. Apps allow opportunities for users to visit the museum from all over the world. I felt the best approach to do this was to consider the broad language of the prompt.
I didn't have a museum board to whom I could speak. I had no established graphic design or stakeholder guidelines. This gave me incredible freedom.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Basic graphic design elements
Logo
Logo for a fictional Dada performance art group
Header
Merchandise logo
Map of the museum.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES USING AI
I filled in the museum details using Gemini and Chat GPT. I created fictional artists, tour guides, a performance arts company, an Anti-Cafe, and art exhibits.
Outside view of the Dada Anti-Museum.
The Urinal of Benefactors, in the museum's grand hall.
The Dada Anti-Cafe with fictional disgruntled barista.
The "Chance" Poetry activity station for kids.
Fictional Ploop Avant's "Wall of Interruptions".
Fictional Sharkophone's "The Anchored Phonograph".
Spitbucket MetroGnome, a fictional performance art company currently artists-in-residence at the Dada Anti-Museum.
Fictional Tour guide, Baroness "Echo" Von Ooze.
Fictional children's tour guide, Dr. Arlo Glass-Eye.
I created an app that is an active museum. Users can create their own Dada art, have profiles, choose a Dada artist name, create a gallery, and write a manifesto. (In the website, there is a Reddit-like social space for users to discuss Dada and share their own art.
I also created an "Anti-App", a branch of the app that upends conventional UX design. It presents a full Dada experience. This experience does increase the cognitive load of the user; for that reason, it is entirely optional with warnings and obvious, built-in exits.
Challenge: Dada is the most egalitarian art form in modern times. Yet, it is mostly-unknown, misunderstood, and mocked. The Dada Anti-Museum wishes to change this.
Solution: Create a mobile app which will offer information about Dada, easy ticket and merchandise sales, spark users' creativity, and create the beginnings of an off- and online Dada community.
The Target Audience
Married/single/divorced
middle to upper middle class income
children
college educated
professionals/students
Research Conducted
CHALLENGES: Working on my own, finding potential users to interview proved difficult. I asked several friends who fit the demographics about art in general, Dada, and museums.
RESEARCH CONDUCTED: Research involved speaking to potential users who have little to no knowledge of Dada, and those who have had formal education in art. I also produced a competitive audit of other museum apps, or apps involved in ticket selling for museum exhibits.
RESULTS: I had assumed that even educated users would have working knowledge of Dada. In fact, no one did.
Design Process
PAPER WIREFRAMES: My first priority was to find the easiest and clearest way to begin the user’s journey. Having no experience at this point in UX design, I used apps I frequented as models, picking elements I felt might work.
I discovered quickly that certain elements, such as the hamburger menu and other icons, quickly assumed constant places in the design.
My final collection of elements was, I felt, the easiest to navigate. My initial plan was for the home screen to be no longer than the device's dimensions: no scrolling.
USER TASK: Our museum app will allow users to purchase tickets for special exhibits.
STORYBOARD (BIG PICTURE): User the Dada Anti-Museum app to purchase tickets to a special, popular exhibit and get a reminder widget---big picture.
STORYBOARD (CLOSE UP): User the Dada Anti-Museum app to purchase tickets to a special, popular exhibit and get a reminder widget.
DIGITAL WIREFRAMES: I was amazed by how quickly my design changed. Though digital wireframes use lines instead of actual text, I couldn't work without the actual language. I became instantly confused by the lines. This is something that happened in each phase of my design process: I would add more detailed elements than needed to aid my vision of the design.
Home screen
Special exhibits
Ticket purchasing screen
Final confirmation/widget screen.
LOW-FI PROTOTYPE: The prototype follows the progress a user would take to purchase tickets and receive an optional widget. I filled out the app by including a profile, art construction, and gift shop pages, among others.
I named it The Hydra.
HI-FI PROTOTYPE: The Hydra gave birth to The Kraken.
ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS
1. I created uniformity in the design, establishing common text patterns, colors, icons, and arrangements. I adhered to app format conventions.
2. I primarily used the font family Lexend. Lexend is the most readable font for anyone with reading challenges, especially neurodivergent people.
3. I used different patterns to associate each section of the app. This would make groupings easier to see for the colorblind. The color palette is also high contrast.
