INTRODUCTION

Updating the end-to-end museum experience.

As part of my Marketing Management Master's program, I worked on a team project on Kusthal Rotterdam. Our objective was to find opportunity areas by using the design thinking methodology to improve both the offline and online experience.

The project culminated in us devising and presenting recommendations aimed at improving customer experience.

CHALLENGE

People want an engaging & smooth experience to escape routine. 

Unclarity and confusion in both the website and on location were deteriorating consumers' experience. This led to them not fully achieving their goals and questioning whether they'd want to visit again.

INFORMATION

COMPANY

Kunsthal

ROLE

Design
Research
Data analysis
Persona
Customer Journeys

TOOLS

Miro
Microsoft forms

TEAM

1 Product designer (Me)
2 Business consultants

DURATION

2 months

RESEARCH | ONLINE SURVEY

We discovered three key pain points: orientation at the museum, website experience & online presence.

Our first step was to understand our audience and what were their pain points. We chose to start our research by conducting an online survey which would be distributed in various relevant communities as it is a low-cost method and we wanted a good enough sample.

RESEARCH | DEEP INTERVIEWS

Pain points got verified during our interviews, but most importantly we got a more profound grasp of our audience.

We needed deeper insights so we decided to conduct deep interviews with some of the museum visitors. I recruited and interviewed five persons and afterwards, I led an affinity map exercise to help us find reoccurent themes. As it turned out, we got the same pain points as in the survey. Additionally, we got enough information to create our key persona.

DEFINE | PERSONA

A busy expat who wants to escape routine and enjoy art.

To truly empathize, we created a key persona. We used data insights from the quantitative and qualitative research and we found ourselves to refer back to her through the entire process. 

DEFINE | CUSTOMER DECISION JOURNEYS

Our persona was unsatisfied during three parts of her journey.

We continued our project by creating a customer journey map to get a comprehensive view of our persona's interactions. The journey creation was based on the findings of our research while being in the shoes of Jane(our persona). The journey clearly demonstrated the poor experience in the following stages: getting information, getting there and actual tour. 

DEFINE | PROBLEM STATEMENTS

Based on everything we discovered, we formulated our problem statements.

1. How might we enhance the orientation experience both outside and inside the museum to ensure a seamless and engaging journey for visitors, thereby improving their overall experience?

2. How can Kunsthal balance creative freedom and clarity in its website design to enhance user experience, while also ensuring brand consistency across various online channels?

3. What strategies can be implemented to make the museum's online presence more coherent and logical, ensuring it effectively complements and enhances the physical museum experience for users?

IDEATION | BRAINSTORMING & MINDMAPPING

Ideation helped us with finding out a big number of  ideas and eventually, focus on the low hanging fruits.

We started off with some brainstorming and continued with mind mapping to let out all of our ideas. Afterwards, we took a critical eye on the ideas and narrowed them down to the most feasible ones - the low hanging fruits.

STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS

A more seamless, engaging & accessible experience for visitors both on-site and online, leveraging technology & creative design to enhance the overall impact of the museum.

RETROSPECTION | NEXT STEPS

Thinking back to the project now, here is what I would do differently and how I would continue the project.

MULTIPLE PERSONAS

Even though our recommendations would still potentially improve the experience for everyone, using multiple personas helps in creating more inclusive and effective design solutions that cater to the varied needs and experiences of a diverse audience.

PROTOTYPE

Prototyping wasn't part of the project, but I believe that we missed a very valuable experience by not prototyping. Our recommendations aren't validated by our users because of that.

TESTING

Naturally, all prototypes would be tested before being rolled out in order to see if our solutions resonate with our customers. Between-subjects experimental design, A/B Testing and usability testing would be my go-to methods.

RETROSPECTION | LEARNINGS

This is what I learned from this project.

USABILITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CREATIVITY

Of course, creativity while building a website can be very important. Especially when it is part of branding. However, users won't appreaciate it at all if it is difficult to use the website.

PROTOTYPING SHOULDN'T BE SKIPPED

After finishing this project without prototyping, it felt unfinished. Actually, prototyping and testing our recommendations would make our suggestions valid.

Let's talk

From just having a chat to wanting my help for a project, my e-door is always open!

Phone: +31628750362
Email: kath.stavrou@gmail.com
LinkedIn: @kathstavrou

© Katharina Stavrou