Personal Project • 2023
Pathify
Personalized Cultural Discovery
Company
Huntington Library
Pasadena, CA
My Role
Product Manager/Designer
Timeline
Aug-Oct, 2023
Responsabilities
User Research
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Visual Design
Product Strategy
Project Brief
Cultural institutions like museums and gardens often provide rich experiences, but visitors can feel overwhelmed by the size, layout, and information spread across different spaces. Our team partnered with the Huntington Library to design a mobile app that helps visitors explore more intentionally.
We created Pathify, a personalized exploration tool that guides users from pre-visit planning to on-site discovery. The app helps users find events, exhibits, and attractions that match their interests, while simplifying wayfinding across large venues.
By integrating search, filtering, and map-based navigation, Pathify enhances cultural visits with more clarity and personal relevance.
Context
01
Background
Enhance Cultural Exploration
The focus of this project is to design an intuitive mobile app that personalizes and streamlines the cultural tour experience for visitors at various institutions, beginning with the Huntington Library, Art Musueum, and Botanical Gardens located in San Marino, CA. It aims to improve the way users discover, plan, and engage with cultural spaces, enhancing their visit through technology.
Problem
Navigational and Informational Challenges
Visitors at cultural institutions like museums and botanic gardens often face challenges in navigation, information overload, and personalizing their experience. The vastness of such spaces can overwhelm visitors, leading to missed opportunities for learning and enjoyment.
Design Question
How can we develop a solution that enriches the visitor experience at cultural institutions, from personalized pre-visit planning to in-visit navigation and exploration?
Research
02
Research Methods
My design journey is structured into four essential stages: Research, Ideation, Prototype, and Reflection. This process encompasses everything from initial user research and creative ideation to prototype development and reflective evaluation, ensuring a thorough and effective approach to the project.
Interviews
Competitive Product Survey
Review Analysis
Interviews
Engaged with users through structured conversations to gather qualitative data on their experiences, expectations, and preferences. This method facilitated an in-depth understanding of the users' needs and the challenges they face when visiting cultural institutions.
User Persona
User Journey Map
Competitive Product Survey
Conducted a systematic examination of existing apps in the cultural tour space. This analysis helped identify current market trends, features that users appreciate, and areas where there is room for improvement.
The analysis revealed that all competitive apps has intuitive navigation, rich visual appeal, and personalized features such as audio tours and location-aware maps. However, there is a need for improvements in language support, content hierarchy to fully engage a global audience and cater to diverse preferences.
Visually appealing design, easy navigation, and has integrated map feature with navigation.
Lack of multi-language support and external links that disrupt user experience.
Highlights include offline guides, AR artwork scanning, and a ticket purchasing feature.
Lack recommended itineraries and location-aware maps, no multi-language support and font size adjustment options.
Responsive design and useful features but noted for excessive content on the home page.
The app's navigation is straightforward but lacks a strong brand identity for the art institute.
Review Analysis
Analyzed user feedback specifically from lower-rated reviews on platforms like Google Maps for the Huntington Library. This approach focused on identifying common grievances and suggestions for improvements, providing direct insights into user dissatisfaction and potential areas for enhancement.
Insights Summary
Engaged with users through structured conversations to gather qualitative data on their experiences, expectations, and preferences. This method facilitated an in-depth understanding of the users' needs and the challenges they face when visiting cultural institutions.
Why do employers perceive candidate quality as low?
Why do they fundamentally distrust the AI designed to help them?
01. Complexity in Pre-Visit Planning
A significant number of users find the pre-visit planning process overwhelming due to the abundance of available information. They seek a more streamlined approach to plan visits.
02. Demand for Customized Experiences
There is a clear preference for customized cultural experiences, as visitors want to explore attractions that resonate personally with them, rather than following a generic path.
03. Poor Content Structuring
Reviews and feedback from users indicate that poorly structured information hampers the decision-making process, pointing to a need for better-organized content within the app.
04. Value Efficiency and Time Management
Visitors prioritize efficiency; they want to ensure that the time spent at each attraction is optimal and that they can cover all desired stops within the constraints of their visit.
Ideation
03
Brainstorming Value Proposition
Conducted a session to generate a range of ideas that address the key user needs identified in the research phase. Focused on creating a unique value proposition that differentiates the app in the marketplace by enhancing user engagement and simplification of the planning process.
Storyboarding
Developed storyboards to visualize potential user scenarios, depicting the user's journey through the app. Utilized the storyboards to explore and communicate the emotional narrative of the user experience, identifying moments of delight and potential pain points.
Brainstorming Value Proposition
Designed preliminary user flows based on insights from brainstorming, outlining the step-by-step interaction path a user would take through the app.
Iterative Refinement
Applied iterative design methods to refine the user flows, incorporating feedback from 1 session of user tests (4 participants), and alignment with the storyboard scenarios. Finalized the user flows to ensure a seamless, logical progression from one feature to the next, with particular emphasis on the user's ability to personalize and adapt their journey.
Design Goals
The design goal is to streamline the cultural venue exploration process by providing a personalized and efficient journey planner that engages visitors while enriching the overall experience.
Design Process
04
Low-Fi Iterations
Wireframing laid the groundwork for Pathify’s user experience, focusing on layout and user flow to establish a functional interface.
Solution
05
Personalized Exploration Made Simple
Pathify is designed to transform the cultural exploration experience at venues like the Huntington Library. Emphasizing a personalized and efficient approach, Pathify aims to seamlessly integrate into the users' journey, from pre-visit planning to in-visit exploration. It addresses the key challenge of enhancing engagement and interaction within cultural spaces by not just to simplify navigation but to enrich each visit with a tailored, memorable experience.
Home Screen
Explore homepage for upcoming events, special exhibitions, and featured tours across various categories. Each element is interactive and can be directly added to users’ personalized tour plans.
Exploration Options
Explore attractions by categories for interest-specific discovery. Use keyword search to find attractions, with results displayed on an interactive map.
Multiple Attractions Exploration
Effortlessly switch between map view and list view for detailed information to compare multiple attraction results.
Individual Exploration
Select and view details for individual points of interest directly on the map.
Detailed Attraction
Access comprehensive details on attractions including walking distance, open hours, and estimated visit duration. Choose specific stops within attractions to tailor users’ plans.
In-App Navigation
Dynamic navigation within the app accompanied with synchronized audio tour that provides real-time insights based on current stop.
Navigation provides options to further modify path in real time, or save unfinished paths to revisit later.