Boosting audio guide playtime by 300% at London’s Wellcome Collection
My role & results
Jul-Aug 2024
Duration
Wellcome Collection
Company
Product Designer
Role
UX
UI
User Research
Project Management
Skills
Wellcome Collection is a London museum exploring health, art, and human experience.
It receives over 2 million visitors each year and provides digital guides with audio descriptions, British Sign Language, and transcripts to make exhibits engaging and accessible to all. However, these guides were outdated and had usability and accessibility issues.
Led a full UX and accessibility redesign of Wellcome Collection's Digital Guides over four sprints
Improved overall user experience through iterative design and testing
Achieved a 300% increase in session duration (from 2 to 6 minutes), hitting the key KPI
Key results
2M
Wellcome Collection visitors in a year
Highest WCAG accessibility rating
3A
Increase in average listening time
3x
Challenge
How might we better support gallery visitors with visual disabilities in exploring the exhibition?
My actions:
Identified low engagement: users spent only 2 minutes on average, interacting with less than 10% of available content
Stepped into the UX researcher role due to lack of dedicated resource
Gathered insights using HotJar tracking, past user studies, and competitive analysis
Before & After
Re-design & Development
Key improvements:
1.
Visual cues for easier wayfinding
2.
Smooth navigation between guide stops
3.
Accessible audio player UI
Ideation
I designed the guides iteratively, while working closely with the developers on my team to ensure their feasibility.
Below: early user flow diagram exploration
Design solution
The new guides address visitor pain points we set out to fix, while providing a sleek experience for users, both in the gallery and across the world.
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.
