Before I started my placement, my supervisor, Tricia, let me know that one of my main tasks was going to be giving feedback on an app called Smartify. Smartify has many functions such as a map of the museum, audio guides for tours, and descriptions of the artwork. The app’s key feature is that it allows users to scan a piece of art, which the app then will recognize and provide a description. My task was to spend time in the galleries and grounds reviewing the benefits and issues that arise when using the app. I faced a little bit of uncertainty as I wasn’t sure if I should focus more on the app’s functionality or how to promote the app to visitors. I decided to combine these issues and focus on both of them in my feedback.
In terms of encouraging more people to use the app, the first thing I noticed is that it is very easy to miss the signage for the Smartify app. There is a QR code that visitors can scan to access Smartify, but a lot of people walk right by it. I suggested using a more prominent or visually distinct sign to help visitors notice it. In addition, I noticed that one sign was the only place for visitors to scan the QR code, so I suggested placing additional QR code prompts throughout the gallery. This would encourage more users to try it and get more users aware it’s available. While most artwork scanned successfully and provided helpful information, some pieces didn’t respond. Rather than improving the scanning functionality, which would also be a good improvement but may take a while, I suggested a temporary solution could be including small QR codes beside each piece of artwork. This would give visitors another way to access descriptions, without needing to rely on scanning the piece directly.
In terms of the actual functionality of the app, I thought it was very impressive how the app could recognize a piece of artwork by a scanner and then provide a description. However, I noticed that some artwork wouldn’t scan when I was standing too close. I suggested that Improving the zoom or scan sensitivity would help users scan pieces from farther away, which is important when the museum is crowded and people are unable to get up close. In addition, I realized that many people may not know how to use the app right away. I said that a short onboarding tutorial or visual walkthrough when launching the app could make it easier for new users to get started. Finally, I noticed while using the app myself, it was tedious to keep having to take my phone out to scan a piece of artwork and then go back to the main page to scan another. Rather than having to scan each individual piece, I thought it may be easier to scan a QR code for a specific room or section. So, I suggested organizing the artwork in the app by gallery room or exhibition section to make it easier for users to find descriptions relevant to what they’re currently viewing.
Another one of my main tasks for my internship is to use Shopify to develop a suite of templates suitable for the IMMA shop based on IMMA strategy & branding documentation, and seasonal desires. I met with Eilis, the IMMA Shop and Retail Manager, and she was super welcoming and supportive. She gave me a lot of freedom by telling me to just explore the existing shop on my own and experiment with what I thought worked best. While it was flattering she trusted me and gave me a lot of creative freedom, it did leave me with a lot of ambiguity since she didn’t give any guidelines or tasks, meaning I had to create my own plan for approaching the project. First I looked at the current website to see things that worked well and things that could be improved. I decided to focus on organizing the content in an effective way first, rather than getting caught up on the styling, which I could always come back to. I liked everything that was included in the navigation bar, but I decided to change the layout to make it less cluttered. For example, they had separate top-level headings for “Books” and “Gifts”. I decided to make a single section called “Shop” with a dropdown menu that grouped both the sections “Books” and “Gifts”. This made the navigation bar less crowded and made it look cleaner. I also made changes to the homepage slideshow banner, one of the first things users see. While I liked the content, you could not read the words on top of the images. To fix this, I increased the opacity of the photos in the banner to make the text easier to read without losing the impact of the visuals.
