Interview Research

Target User + Stakeholder (Keep updating)

This part is about my target user research and stakeholders interview conclusions.

Target user: Art exhibition attendees who wish to understand the meaning behind the artworks they are viewing. Contemporary art enthusiasts.

Stakeholders: artists, curators, museums(galleries), visitors, exhibition designers, critics, other art professionals.

1st Interview of art museum visitors

Field research: Guggenheim museum. I interviewed five visitors who were looking at the exhibition. These are my conclusions of interview.

Takeaways

1. People do not read all wall tags. The wall tags are too long. As exhibition time passed by, engagement and patience as well as the efficiency of information absorption decrease. Also, even if they read all the tags, they still feel confused about the meaning as the interpretations too academically written.
2. Visitors often check information on Wikipedia and Google when they want to know terminology on the wall tags.
3. Visitors stay in front of an artwork not exceeding 1 minute.
4. People do not like high technology products in the exhibition. Because this will make them a distraction and lead to another level of exhibition appreciation, too much technology will destroy the artwork’s atmosphere.
5. On one level, viewers have their understanding of artworks. However, a concise, compelling explanation would appear to be a helpful tool to give access to an artwork’s meaning.
6. Tour-guide commentaries are the best vehicles to open the door to the meaning behind the artworks on display.

Interview of Artists

General talk based on topic, first round interview.

Eric Forman

I want to separate my artwork from its interpretation. It’s really nice to talk with my audience about the meaning of in an exhibitions, but I don’t want them to be distraction when they are experiencing my works.

Kiya Kim

Whatever you decide to include in your explanatory, keep it brief. You’ll have plenty of time to get complicated later Give basic information only, just enough to entice or intrigue readers, and avoid the temptation to go overboard with words. Imagine yourself looking at another artist’s art, for example, and having that artist go on and on about what it means or why it looks the way it does. Nobody wants that; people want to start slow, get a feel for what they’re looking at, and move forward at their own speed. With practice, you’ll learn to provide just the right mix of information to maximize viewers’ experiences like that.

Shiyuan Liu

Remember — it’s ultimately about seeing your art, about progressing people from reading to looking. Your writing is the bridge between understanding and experiencing.
I think I wrote my interpretation in an intelligible way. But some times I feel hard to explain an artwork through several sentences.

Based on 1st prototype, the second round interview.

Ziyang Wu(Contemporary artist)

The machine could answer the questions via keywords search.
What is the difference between Instagram comments and your app comments?There are so many special symbols, and words used which is not familiar with visitors. Some artworks have an active context, and related knowledge should be known to understand whole artworks.
The feedback on the interpretation part is excellent. What’s more, instead of using levels to write the interpretation, I should use maximal words to let curator or artist write the interpretation.

Eric Forman

How you create this interpretation platform to museums and help them build interpretation content qualified? Make a 3D model or interaction animation which is needed so many designers and money. Think about the system of creating the interpretation content.
The interpretation page scroll up and down which is right for the user to keep concentrating on reading the content. (Maybe can have hyperlinked)
Differentiate the levels. Let the user realize the levels on your interface.

Interview of Art Practitioners

Xinyi Ren(Curator)

I would love to rewrite interpretations in a new way; I do want to make visitors to understand the artworks.
I like the idea of interpretation classification. This could make more visitors understand artworks on different levels.
It’s nice to get comments and opinions from visitors. This is an excellent way to help us promote the exhibition, but in the meantime, this would be awful, some visitors say if something harsh and mean.

Adam Cable(Operations Coordinator of SVA gallery)

Galleries in NYC always focus on collectors and selling artworks. Because this is their profit to support their operation.

Janine Defeo(Phd candidate of art history, Whitney museum teaching fellow)

There is a balance between visitors’ needs and the museum budget. Because it’s tough for the museum to find good guidance, the museum needs money and time to train us.
We also want to provide more tour guides for our visitors, but sometimes maybe not have so many visitors to listen, so it is hard to keep balance.
We offer paid multi-language service, but you need to preserve in advance early, and this is expensive.
There are different content when we talk to a diverse group of visitors; for example, when we guide for kids, we will adjust the content easier for them.

Based on 1st prototype, the second round interview.

Elushika (UX Designer)

Janine Defeo(Phd candidate of art history, Whitney museum teaching fellow)

Angla Chen(Thesis Advisor)