Rapid Prototyping

I created three versions of a walk-up-and-use information kiosk prototype for the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA. I tested each version of the prototype with 12 real museum visitors and then revised the next prototype iteration based on the users' feedback. Initially, I talked to the volunteers at the information desk to understand what kind of questions visitors have when they come to the museum. I learned that their questions revolve around immediate needs such as:

• Where is the bathroom?
• Where can I get food?
• Is there a tour I can go on today?
• What temporary exhibits are showing?

As a result, I organized the information into four top level categories:

• Today at the Museum
• Current Exhibits
• Floor Plan
• Ticket Information

User Testing

The user tests revealed flaws in my design that I fixed in later iterations, such as:

• The need for links between sections. For example, if there is a movie today at the museum, there should be a link to the Floor Plan showing where that is.
• The map needed a lot of detail to be truly useful - it needed to be large enough to be legible, while offering detailed information if the user clicked on an item.
• Information should be chunked and organized in smaller pieces and there should be multiple ways to find a particular piece of information.