Boosting audio guide playtime by 300% at London’s Wellcome Collection
My role
Jul-Aug 2024
Duration
Wellcome Collection
Company
Product Designer
Role
UX
UI
User Research
Project Management
Skills
Problem
Wellcome Collection is a London museum exploring health, art, and human experience.
Its key accessibility resource, digital audio guides, were outdated and had serious accessibility issues. This put at risk the quality of experience it provided to 2 million yearly visitors.
I led a full UX and accessibility redesign of Wellcome Collection's Digital Guides over four sprints:
Delved into user research through Hotjar and moderated sessions in the gallery
Improved overall user experience through iterative design and testing, collaborating closely with developers on a lean, feasible product
Key results
Award
1st place for Visitor Accessibility among UK museums
Highest WCAG accessibility rating
3A
Increase in average listening time
3x
Challenge
How might we better support gallery visitors in exploring the exhibition through audio?
Approach:
Identified low engagement: users spent listening to our audio content only 2 minutes on average, interacting with less than 10% of the exhibition’s content
Stepped into the UX researcher role due to a lack of a dedicated resource
Gathered insights on gaps in the experience using HotJar tracking, past user studies, and supervised research sessions in the gallery
Before & After
Re-design & Development
Key improvements:
1.
Visual cues for easier wayfinding
2.
Smooth navigation between guide stops
3.
Accessible audio player UI
Design solution
Let’s do a deep dive into new features of the guides that secured a 300% increase in audio play time.
Simple navigation
Indicate what type of aid you need and navigate the exhibit easily with your digital guide.
New audio player experience with transcripts
Listen to the fascinating voices of the artists and curators, and read along.
UI updates
WC’s guides needed particular accessibility attention as they are used by a diverse group of users, including people with visual and hearing impairments.
Here are examples how I handled meeting the WCAG accessibility standards while designing the guides in order to ensure their accessibility for our broad audience.
