What the Van Gogh Museum Taught Me About User Experience
This summer I, along with six of my classmates, had the remarkable opportunity of traveling to Amsterdam as part of Utah Valley University’s UXpedition program. While most of the trip was focused on enriching our understanding of UX design, we had opportunities to explore the city as well.
I would like to share some insights I gained on user experience during our time exploring, especially while visiting the Van Gogh Museum. As a long time fan of the notorious artist, I was eager for the opportunity to visit the museum and see his work in person, and let me tell you- it did not disappoint. During my visit, I was entranced by the details of his artwork and his life, totally and utterly consumed in the experience. After wiping my tears and re-entering the real world, however, I was able to take a more analytical perspective of what made that experience so consuming.
The Floor plan
There is nothing more disappointing than spending hours on your feet at a museum, anxiously awaiting to encounter your favorite piece and never finding it, only to later discover that if you would have made a right instead of a left, you would have face to face with a piece you’ve dreamt of seeing. The Van Gogh Museum’s floor plan eliminates that by organizing the rooms in a way that visitors can easily flow from one room to the next, without the fear of missing out on any of the pieces. Because of the simple floor plan, visitors can confidently stroll through the museum, map-free (although maps are readily available in multiple languages).
UX takeaway: pay attention to user flows first. Solid information architecture is crucial to a positive user experience.
Limited Ticket Sales
Almost anyone who has gone to the Van Gogh museum will mention the need to pre-purchase your tickets, because they do sell out. While this is off-putting to some, there is actually great logic behind this decision. Limited tickets means shorter lines for entrance and fewer people in the museum at a time. The worst experience I have ever had at a museum was going to the MoMA in New York on the free entrance day… it is near impossible to enjoy a piece of art from 10 feet away, while being elbowed on all sides.
Even though the only time we had in our busy schedule to go the Van Gogh museum was Saturday afternoon (aka peak times for the museum), we were still able to enjoy the experience without an excessively large crowd.
UX takeaway: some people may think limited ticket sales is unnecessary, but they most likely are not taking into account all the repercussions of a decision like that. Users do not always know what is best. As UX designers, it is our job to interpret what people say they want and what they really want.
Story-Centered Rooms
Van Gogh’s painting career was brief- only 10 years. During those 10 years, however, he painted an average of 2 paintings per week and experimented with a variety of painting styles. With so many paintings in such a short period of time, perhaps the easiest approach for displaying the work would have been in chronological order. While the museum does follow the construct of time, it does so loosely, allowing themes and stories to take precedence where necessary. The first room, for example, is filled with self-portraits from throughout Van Gogh’s career. A later room displays his early styles of more traditional Dutch paintings, and the studies he did in preparation for creating one of his most well-known early pieces, the Potato Eaters. Alongside these paintings are pieces from his artist friends and muses that influenced him at the time. The most memorable room for me was one that featured his art but also discussed his relationship with his brother, Theo.
This story-centered design helped build pathos in the artist and his journey. By the time I arrived to the top floor of the museum, I was brought to tears. I felt a genuine connection to Vincent and his life, because of the way the museum connected his art to his life. I came for the art, but experienced so much more.
UX takeaway: providing positive user experiences means meeting user expectations. Creating meaningful user experiences, though, often means surprising users with a humanistic connection.
Great user experience is all around us; not only on our screens but in our daily lives. Take a look around you and see what experiences you can learn from too.
More About Our UXpedition
During our 10-day stay in the city, we had several learning experiences that helped deepen our knowledge of UX practices, including visiting Happy Labs, a UX research lab, and Osudio, a digital marketing agency; volunteering and attending the UX Strat Europe conference; and creating virtual and augmented reality experiences of the city. My classmates have done an excellent job detailing our experiences so I highly recommend checking out their Medium posts, which will be linked here.
