Most people will never visit the Louvre, The Met, or any major art institution outside their country. Distance, cost, and mobility all conspire to make the physical museum experience a privilege — not a universal one. Artual is built on the belief that the experience of standing in front of a remarkable work of art shouldn't require a plane ticket. It's a virtual gallery tour application designed to deliver genuinely immersive digital art experiences — not a PDF catalogue with zoom, but a curated, navigable space where the art is the destination.

I led the full UX design: from research that challenged my initial assumptions about what users actually wanted, through a high-fidelity prototype that spent more time than expected with one user who lost track of time in a virtual Rococo exhibition.

Goal

Design an engaging, accessible virtual gallery experience that lets users explore, learn about, and genuinely connect with art — regardless of where they are in the world.

Target Audience

Art enthusiasts of all ages and engagement levels — from casual cultural explorers to dedicated collectors — with particular attention to users with limited physical mobility.

My Role

Lead UX Designer, concept to delivery. User research, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, usability studies, accessibility implementation, iterative design.

The Problem

Three barriers kept users from getting what they actually wanted from digital art experiences:

• Geography as a gatekeeper. The most celebrated art in the world is concentrated in a handful of cities. For the vast majority of people — including art lovers who have spent decades engaging with culture — physical access is simply not possible. The gap between "interested" and "able to attend" is enormous.

• Digital museum experiences that disappointed. Existing virtual offerings tended to fall into two traps: superficial (a homepage tour that scratches the surface) or extractive (pay walling the content that actually matters). Users arrived curious and left underwhelmed.

• Technology that promised more than it delivered. VR and AR have been "the future of museum engagement" for a decade. But cost, technical barriers, and institutional risk-aversion have kept truly immersive experiences out of reach for most institutions — and most users.

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¹ Högberg, E. (2023). "Virtual Reality in Museums: Exploring the Experiences of Museum Professionals."

Research

What I assumed going in was that users couldn't visit museums because they were too busy.
But here's what the research actually showed: busyness was the smallest barrier. Navigation confusion, inability to find artwork information, and a complete lack of interactivity were what drove users away from existing digital experiences. They weren't too busy to engage — they were too frustrated.
Empathy mapping surfaced an important secondary finding: the most underserved users weren't young professionals with busy schedules. They were older users with limited mobility who had once been active museum-goers and had no viable alternative.

Personas

Carol

• Age: 39
• Education: BFA
• Hometown: New York City, NY
• Occupation: Art Museum Director
  

Carol runs a museum that's falling behind technologically. She needs a virtual platform that doesn't embarrass her institution — one that delivers the engagement and depth that modern audiences expect, and that the museum itself could adopt or learn from.

Maggie

• Age: 93
• Education: High School
• Hometown: Fairhope, AL
• Occupation: Housewife
  

Maggie spent decades visiting galleries. Now her mobility limits her. She needs an experience that's genuinely accessible — not just technically WCAG-compliant, but designed for someone who didn't grow up with smartphones and who deserves to engage with art on her own terms.

Starting the design

The core design challenge was spatial: how do you create the feeling of moving through a gallery on a phone screen?
Low-fidelity sketches explored multiple navigation models — from map-based exploration to linear gallery walks — before settling on a room-based structure that preserved the physical metaphor without requiring the user to manage a complex spatial orientation.

Ideation, Sketching & Wireframing

Explore the initial
Artual low-fidelity prototype

Usability Study

An unmoderated remote study (5 participants, 30–50 minutes each) produced three findings:

• First-time users needed a guide. Entering a virtual exhibition without orientation was disorienting — participants weren't sure where to tap, what was interactive, or how to move. A brief interactive onboarding layer resolved this without adding friction for returning users.

• Navigation elements were invisible. The 'map' button — critical for spatial orientation — was buried where no one looked for it. The 'sign up' button was similarly lost. Neither was helping users; both were being ignored.

• Payment flexibility was expected, not optional. Participants wanted Apple Pay, PayPal, and digital wallet options alongside card payments. In a cultural context where spontaneous purchases are common, checkout friction was a real abandonment risk.

Refining the design

Interactive onboarding cues: A first-visit overlay guides users through the navigation model on their initial tour — tap to move, tap to zoom, tap to read. It disappears after first use.

Map relocated to main menu: Removed from the gallery view (where it caused confusion) and placed in the main navigation where spatial orientation tools belong. The gallery view became cleaner; the map became more useful.

Signup/Login surfaced: Renamed from "Login" to "Signup / Login" and added to the main menu for all non-authenticated users. The Categories button was also made more prominent to support content discovery from the first visit.

Expanded payment options: Digital wallets and alternative payment methods added to the checkout flow — reducing the friction between impulse and transaction.

Key Mockups

The core user journey — browsing Exhibit Categories → entering an Exhibit Room → selecting a Painting → reading the Summary → zooming in on the Close-up — is designed to feel like moving through a physical space, not clicking through a website.

Exploring the Virtual Collection: This view demonstrates the seamless flow from browsing 'Exhibit Categories' to viewing the 'Exhibit Cover', entering a virtual 'Exhibit Room' and selecting a 'Painting', accessing detailed information in the 'Painting Summary (Summary and Technical Data)', and finally experiencing the artwork up close with the 'Painting Close-up (zoomed in)' feature.

High-fidelity prototype

Experience the complete interactive journey through the Artual virtual museum, including virtual gallery tours, the shop, account creation, and customization options:
 Artual high-fidelity prototype.

Style Guides

Going forward

Business Impact

A user testing the Rococo exhibition shared something that doesn't appear in usability metrics: "I never thought I would be spending so much time on a virtual gallery app! It's fun; I love the dark mode, and I enjoyed the Rococo exhibition. I can't wait for more new and virtual exhibitions. Thank you so much!"

Losing track of time in a virtual gallery is exactly what the design was trying to achieve. That's engagement — not as a KPI, but as an experience.

Next Steps

1) Run a follow-up usability study specifically measuring whether the onboarding and navigation changes resolved the friction identified in the first round.

2) Continue exploratory research to surface new user needs — particularly around social features, curator commentary, and offline access.

3) Build an AR/VR investment roadmap — starting with 360° room experiences that work on standard smartphones before committing to headset-dependent technology.

LinkedIn  |  edith@edithmoreno.com

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