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Timeline
Team
Musense
Supporting adults with Autism in the museum space
UX Case Study
User Research: Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Journey Mapping
UX Design: Sketching, Interaction Design, Prototyping
Aug 2022-Dec 2022
-Class Project
2 UX Designs
2 UX Researchers
Problem Statement
According to the CDC, more than 5.4 million adults in the United States have Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD).
Given the significant presence of autistic individuals in the American population, there exists a need to support this group. This project decided to focus on supporting individuals with ASD plan and enjoy a trip to a museum.
Why Museums?
Despite the value that museums offer to the general public, adults with ASD are not necessarily included within the range of beneficiaries.
Within museum spaces, large crowds, tight corridors, glaring lights, constantly repeating sounds from museum installations, and an endless stream of other stimuli and information can easily overwhelm an adult with ASD.
Product Overview
Musense is a mobile site that provides information about sensory conditions at each museum, sensory accommodations, calendar views for Autism-friendly events, and a stress management support tool to help users manage anxiety in museums.
Our Process
Surveys
Cognitive Walkthrough
Semi-structured interviews
Affinity Mapping
Qualitative Coding
Design Requirements
Concept Sketching
Brainstorming Workshop
Contextualization
Literature Review
Evaluation
Design
Research
Analysis
Define
Ideation
Wireframes
Mid-Fi Prototype
Hi-Fi Prototype
Heuristic Evaluations
Stakeholder Testing
User Testing
Quantitative Research
Observations
39%
Visited museums by themselves
68%
Prepped for a trip to a museum
25%
Felt anxiety due to breaking their routine by visiting a musuem
69%
Experienced anxiety because of crowds in museums
46%
Overwhelmed due to loud sounds in the museum space
We used quantitative research to better understand persons age 18 and older who have Autism. We used a survey to understand the familiarity and usage of current museum resources. We also wanted to get a general understanding of how participants view museums. Through a screener question, we identified participants based on their self-classification of having Autism.
Qualitative Research
Showcases key interaction points in a typical museum journey
Features :
This activity was performed to understand the different steps someone takes when visiting a museum.
Cognitive Walkthrough
Used an affinity map to organize insights into major themes
Focused on museum resources, museum experiences, and coping mechanisms
Features :
After analyzing the data from our survey, we wanted to determine what areas we want to expand on in the interviews and what areas our survey didn’t cover.
Semi-Structured Interviews
User Needs
A way to manage anxiety around others in a public environment
Users need a way to regulate an overwhelming amount of stimulants
A personalized way to plan for a trip to a museum
A reference of what museum accommodations are available for individuals with ASD
A way to assess the environment of an exhibit before visiting
Sketches/Low-fidelity Wireframes
Museums
Search location
MUSEUMS
EVENTS
DESTRESS
Museum Features
Sensory rooms
Search
Accessibility Map
Lighting
MUSEUMS
EVENTS
DESTRESS
Reviews
Based on our feedback, we found that users found it unnecessary to have a feature for ticket purchasing. We decided to utilize the page for highlighting sensory friendly events at different musuems.
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Event Calendar
MUSEUMS
MUSENSE
EVENTS
DE-STRESS
Sensory Friendly Day at the High Museum
Experience the museum with reduced crowds, less noise and dimmed lights.
Puppetry Museum Sensory Theater
Enjoy a puppetry theater performance.
Final Designs
Museum Map
Musense loads in first on the Museums tab, allowing users to explore a pinned map or corresponding ordered list of nearby museums based on location data.
Users can tap on a pin, bringing up the card for that museum, or they can swipe to drag the list view up and select a museum card that way
Tap to learn more about a specific museum.
Museum Features
Several different information buttons are listed for a specific museum. Users can tap and scroll to view the information provided by both the museum and community sources. Through these cards, users can learn how many sensory rooms a museum has and where to find them, what the lighting conditions around the exhibits are, and what the usual order of operations for a visit looks like.
Accessibility Map
A feature that received much positive feedback during our wireframe review was the accessibility map pages. These feature a live floor map that can be filtered to show crowd densities, accessible routing, and sensory room locations.
Events
Users can also navigate to the “Events” tab to browse a calendar for sensory-friendly events hosted by museums. They can choose a day they are available, and a list of any scheduled events for that day will pop up, along with museum info, admission prices, and other details.
De-stress
This section serves as a stress relief aid to help users manage any anxiety attacks or other stress responses that they might experience from overstimulation at a museum. This feature provides a variety of options for stress management, like guided meditation/breathing exercises, a white noise generator, calming music, tips for calming anxiety, and relaxing videos to help users escape from stressful situations.
Key Takeaways
This project allowed for me to learn the process of going through the full UX process from research to design. I was also able to learn how to work with a group of researchers and designers to build a product. Some things that I would like to iterate on if time permitted would be the overall design language, to ensure that all the pages are cohesive in terms of the elements are being utilized.
Museums
MUSEUMS
MUSENSE
EVENTS
DE-STRESS
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MUSEUMS
MUSENSE
EVENTS
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Museums
MUSEUMS
MUSENSE
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FERNBANK MUSEUM
Sensory rooms
Lighting
Accessibility Map
Social Story
Sensory Bags
MUSEUMS
MUSENSE
EVENTS
DE-STRESS
Your are here
Musense
Supporting adults with Autism in the museum space
UX Case Study
Roles/ Responsibilities
User Research: Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Journey Mapping
UX Design: Sketching, Interaction Design, Prototyping
Timeline
Aug 2022-Dec 2022
Problem Statement
According to the CDC, more than 5.4 million adults in the United States have Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD).
Given the significant presence of autistic individuals in the American population, there exists a need to support this group.
This project decided to focus on supporting individuals with ASD plan and enjoy a trip to a museum.
Why Museums?
Despite the value that museums offer to the general public, adults with ASD are not necessarily included within the range of beneficiaries.
Within museum spaces, large crowds, tight corridors, glaring lights, constantly repeating sounds from museum installations, and an endless stream of other stimuli and information can easily overwhelm an adult with ASD.