Museum of Life

The Museum of Life project introduces a novel approach to personal digital archiving through immersive Virtual Reality (VR). It allows users to preserve, organize, and engage with digital and physical memories within an interactive VR environment, supported by a seamless smartphone companion app. Designed for tech-savvy individuals and nostalgia-seekers, the project reimagines digital curation, blending emotional connection with cutting-edge technology to enhance engagement and emotional well-being.

This user-centric project employed Lean UX methodology and iterative design, prioritizing core features such as AI-driven categorization, 3D object scanning, and intuitive navigation. By integrating psychological insights and innovative tools, the Museum of Life offers a personalized, aesthetically engaging experience that transcends conventional photo gallery apps.

Project Details

Role

UX Researcher
UI Designer
Environment Designer

Tools

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Lightroom CC
Adobe Premiere Pro
Figma
Unreal Engine
Microsoft Office

Timeline

May 2024 - September 2024

Platform

Virtual Reality

Mobile Application

Problem Statement

Modern digital and physical collections present significant challenges:

Digital Clutter: Users accumulate vast amounts of digital data without effective organization, leading to information overload and difficulty in retrieving specific memories.
Emotional Disconnect: Conventional archiving methods lack the emotional and nostalgic elements critical for long-term value and engagement.
Physical Item Loss: Sentimental physical items are often misplaced, damaged, or lost, with no reliable way to preserve them.
Inefficient Tools: Current solutions prioritize storage and retrieval over meaningful interaction and often fail to address the psychological dimensions of memory preservation.

Despite the availability of cloud services and gallery apps, there remains a gap in tools that integrate emotional engagement with effective organization and long-term preservation.

Solution

The Museum of Life addresses these challenges through a multi-faceted approach:

Immersive VR Environment: A virtual museum where users can "walk through" their memories, fostering a deeper connection to personal archives.
3D Scanning and Preservation: Physical items are digitally preserved as 3D objects, ensuring their safety and accessibility for future generations.
AI-Powered Organization: Intelligent tools categorize and label collections for seamless navigation and retrieval.
Integrated Companion App: A smartphone app simplifies uploading, managing, and interacting with digital content on the go.
Customizable User Experience: Users personalize their virtual museums with themes, music, and layouts, enhancing emotional engagement.

By combining innovative technology with human-centered design, Museum of Life empowers users to declutter, preserve, and revisit their memories in a meaningful and engaging way.

Methodology

The Museum of Life project employed the Lean UX methodology, a user-centered approach tailored to rapid prototyping and iterative development. This methodology ensured that the solutions were aligned with user needs, leveraging research insights to design, build, and test effectively.

1. Why Lean UX?

Lean UX was selected because it:

Focuses on user collaboration and real-world testing rather than extensive documentation.
Encourages a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) approach to prioritize essential features while iterating on feedback.
Aligns with the project's need for a dynamic, exploratory design process in emerging technology like VR.

2. Phases of Lean UX

Phase 1: Research

Goal: Understand user challenges and emotional needs for digital and physical memory management.
Activities:
- Conducted surveys and interviews with 23 participants.
- Reviewed literature on digital archiving, nostalgia, and VR applications.
- Performed a competitive analysis of existing tools like Google Photos.
Outcomes: Identified personas (Casual Collector and Organized Archivist) and highlighted key user pain points, including digital clutter and emotional disconnect.

Phase 2: Think

Goal: Analyze insights and generate feature concepts.
Activities:
- Developed personas to guide empathy-driven design.
- Brainstormed solutions using Rapid Ideation.
- Prioritized features using the MoSCoW method to focus on MVP development.
- Created Customer Journey Maps (CJMs) to identify user touchpoints and pain points.
Outcomes: Established core features like VR galleries, AI-powered organization, and 3D scanning.

Phase 3: Make

Goal: Build prototypes and test design assumptions.
Activities:
- Designed lo-fi prototypes (wireframes) to map user flows.
- Developed hi-fi prototypes using Unreal Engine 5.3 for VR and Figma for the companion app.
- Iteratively tested prototypes to refine the VR experience and app workflows.
Outcomes: Delivered functional prototypes with immersive galleries and a seamless app interface.

Phase 4: Test

Goal: Validate designs and refine features.
Activities:
- Conducted usability testing with two rounds of participants.
- Valence testing was used to measure emotional responses to designs.
- Analyzed task success rates and user feedback for iterative improvements.
Outcomes: Improved navigation, enhanced usability, and ensured all MVP features aligned with user needs.

Literature Review

The literature review for Museum of Life focused on exploring the intersections of personal digital archiving (PDA), user psychology, and technological innovation. Below are the primary themes and insights uncovered during the research process.

Challenges in Personal Digital Archiving

Key Findings:

Digital Clutter: Many users struggle with vast collections of unorganized digital media. Marshall (2008) highlighted the lack of effective tools for individuals to curate, manage, and preserve their digital content.
Reliance on External Platforms: Users depend on services like social media for archiving, despite their limited guarantees for long-term data preservation.
Emotional Disconnect: Traditional digital tools often fail to provide the tactile or emotional connection seen with physical objects (O'Hara et al., 2006).
Value Assessment: Users have difficulty determining what digital items to keep or discard, resulting in overwhelming collections (Kim, 2013).

Technological Approaches to PDA

Current Methods:

Traditional storage solutions (USB drives, cloud services, and external hard drives) often lack integrated tools for organization or memory engagement (Marshall, 2008).
Metadata, while essential for archiving, is frequently underutilized in personal archives. Systems that rely on tagging often fail due to user effort required in inputting and maintaining metadata.

Role of AI in Archiving:

AI-powered tools can revolutionize archiving by automating categorization, enabling advanced search capabilities, and predicting user intent. However, adoption remains low due to unfamiliarity or lack of emotional value in these systems (O'Hara et al., 2006).

Psychological and Emotional Dimensions of PDA

Key Insights:

Role of Nostalgia: Nostalgia positively impacts mood and psychological well-being (Routledge et al., 2013). Digital archiving platforms have the potential to evoke this emotion but often fail to engage users meaningfully.
Identity Formation: Personal archives, whether physical or digital, are extensions of identity. They help individuals construct personal narratives and foster a sense of continuity (Etherton, 2006).
Emotional Value of Archives: Emotional bonds with archived items (photos, documents, artifacts) are essential. Kim (2013) identified emotional value as a key driver for users’ willingness to curate and revisit their collections.

The Potential of Virtual Reality for PDA

Enhancing Engagement with Immersive Technologies:

VR offers a spatial and interactive approach to archiving, turning static digital collections into dynamic, experiential environments (Marshall, 2008).
The concept of "digital geographies" suggests VR can create immersive spaces like galleries or museums, where users can explore memories intuitively and emotionally.

Applications for Memory Preservation:

VR’s ability to recreate moments (e.g., viewing photos in a lifelike setting or exploring 3D models of physical objects) encourages emotional connection and motivates users to organize their collections.
Studies on VR’s impact in education and therapy suggest significant potential for enhancing recall and emotional well-being (Routledge et al., 2013; Layous and Kurtz, 2023).

Summary of Gaps and Opportunities

Gaps in Existing Solutions:

Lack of Integration: Current tools focus on storage or display but rarely address both meaningfully.
Low Emotional Engagement: Most existing tools fail to evoke nostalgia or connection, reducing user motivation to manage collections.
Physical-Digital Divide: Few platforms offer ways to preserve physical items digitally.

Opportunities:

Blending Digital and Physical Archives: 3D scanning and VR can integrate physical keepsakes with digital memories, offering a seamless preservation method.
Enhanced Retrieval and Re-engagement: Leveraging AI for smarter search and organization while using VR to foster emotional connections.
Personalization: Tailoring the archiving experience with themes, music, and curated displays to create a deeply personal museum of memories.

User Research

User research formed the foundation of the Museum of Life project, providing a deep understanding of the behaviors, needs, and challenges associated with personal digital archiving. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed to gather insights, resulting in user personas, affinity diagrams, and prioritized features that shaped the design of the VR and companion applications.

User Challenges

Digital Clutter:
- 62.5% of participants rarely clean their digital galleries, citing the task as tedious and overwhelming.
- Primary motivation to clean collections was low storage space notifications.
Retrieval Difficulties:
- All participants reported struggling to find specific images within their galleries, wasting significant time.

Perceptions of Existing Tools

Strengths:
- Google Photos and iCloud were commonly used for basic backups.
- Cloud platforms were appreciated for accessibility but lacked advanced organization features.
Weaknesses:
- Limited emotional engagement and personalization.
- Poor integration of physical and digital archives.

Emotional Connections

Users emphasized the importance of emotional engagement with their archives.
- Sentimental photos and physical keepsakes were most valued.
- Nostalgia was identified as a motivator for revisiting collections.
Physical items such as letters, gifts, and mementos were deeply cherished but lacked proper storage or preservation.

Desired Features

Participants suggested several features for a next-generation archiving solution:

AI-powered categorization and tagging for easier organization and retrieval.
3D scanning of physical items to create digital replicas.
A platform that evokes emotional connections through immersive and customizable displays.

User Personas

From the research, two primary user archetypes emerged:

Ideate

The Ideate stage of the Museum of Life project focused on transforming insights from the research phase into actionable solutions. This process involved creative brainstorming, prioritization, and user journey mapping to design features that addressed user pain points while fostering emotional engagement.

1. Problem Analysis and Personas

The user personas (Casual Collector and Organized Archivist) provided a foundation for understanding specific challenges:

Casual Collectors: Struggled with digital clutter, lacked motivation to organize, and sought simplicity in archiving tools.
Organized Archivists: Desired more engaging ways to interact with their structured collections and tools to preserve physical items.
This analysis informed the design goals for intuitive, emotionally resonant, and functional solutions.

2. Brainstorming Ideas

A Rapid Ideation approach encouraged generating a wide range of ideas, both practical and imaginative, to ensure no potential solution was overlooked. Key brainstorming areas included:

Immersive Experiences: Designing VR galleries that evoke nostalgia and allow users to explore memories in thematic sections.
AI-Powered Tools: Automating categorization and search functions to simplify retrieval.
3D Scanning Integration: Enabling users to preserve sentimental physical items as interactive digital replicas.
Personalization Features: Allowing users to customize themes, music, and layouts in their virtual museum.

3. Prioritization with the MoSCoW Method

The ideas were organized into four categories to focus on delivering the most critical features in the Minimum Viable Product (MVP):

Must-Have:
- Immersive VR galleries for digital and physical memories.
- AI-driven categorization and tagging for efficient organization.
- Companion app for uploading and managing content.
Should-Have:
- Personalized themes and music.
- Interactive guides and onboarding for VR.
Could-Have:
- Multiplayer mode for shared experiences.
- Advanced customization options for gallery layouts.
Won’t-Have:
- Integration with external apps (e.g., social media), deferred for future iterations.

4. Customer Journey Mapping (CJM)

Objective: Understand the end-to-end user experience and identify key touchpoints and pain points.

Casual Collector Journey:
- From being overwhelmed by clutter to experiencing satisfaction from organizing memories in an engaging VR environment.
- Emphasis on motivating organization with features like gamified decluttering and nostalgic themes.
Organized Archivist Journey:
- From efficient but passive management to active engagement with personalized galleries and interactive exhibits.
- Focused on enhancing emotional connections through immersive VR interactions and detailed annotations.

5. Core Features and Outcomes

The ideation process crystallized essential features to address user needs while pushing the boundaries of traditional archiving tools:

Interactive VR Galleries: Immersive, visually appealing spaces for users to explore their memories.
AI-Powered Organization: Categorization and search tools to simplify memory management.
3D Scanning Integration: A unique feature for preserving and showcasing physical keepsakes.
Companion App: A mobile interface for seamless content management, ensuring accessibility.

Prototype

The Prototype Stage of the Museum of Life project focused on translating ideas into tangible designs to validate hypotheses and refine solutions. By combining low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototyping, the team aimed to deliver a seamless, user-centric VR experience integrated with a companion app.

1. Hypotheses Development

To guide the design process, testable hypotheses were formulated based on user research and insights. These hypotheses addressed key assumptions about user behavior, product features, and market potential:

2. Low-Fidelity Prototyping

Goal: Rapidly explore design ideas and validate basic user flows.

Tools: Hand-drawn sketches, wireframes in Figma.
Focus Areas:
- Companion app workflows for uploading, tagging, and managing digital content.
- Initial layout of the VR gallery, focusing on navigation and memory categorization.
Testing Feedback:
- Lo-fi prototypes effectively communicated concepts but highlighted gaps in VR onboarding and companion app usability.

3. High-Fidelity Prototyping

Goal: Create detailed, functional prototypes for usability testing and feature refinement.

Companion App Prototype
- Platform: Designed in Figma.
- Key Features:
  - Intuitive upload and tagging workflows.
  - Settings page for account management and gallery preferences.
  - Artifact scanning feature for 3D preservation of physical items.
- User Task Examples:
  - Add a photo to “Highlights.”
  - Annotate a scanned 3D object with descriptions.
VR Museum Prototype
- Platform: Developed using Unreal Engine 5.3.
- Key Features:
  - Immersive gallery spaces with thematic sections for memories.
  - Clickable album covers for navigation.
  - AI-powered categorization and gallery customization.
- User Task Examples:
  - Explore the "Artifacts" section and find an item with an added description.
  - Use the Gallery Legend to locate specific memories.

Testing and Review

Testing

Iteration 1

Objectives:
- Evaluate the ease of navigation in both the VR environment and companion app.
- Assess the clarity of instructions and user interface elements.
- Identify any pain points or areas of confusion for users.
Methodology: In-person usability testing with 5 participants. Participants were given a series of tasks to complete within the VR environment and companion app, their actions were observed, and feedback was gathered through questionnaires and post-test interviews.
Key Tasks:
- Companion App: Selecting images, adding to "Highlights," removing from "Highlights."
- Companion App: Locating a specific artifact ("Golden Pineapple") and adding a description.
- VR App: Visiting the "Artefacts" section and finding specific information.
- VR App: Using the "Gallery Legend" to locate specific images.
Key Findings:
- Task completion rates were high, indicating good overall usability.
- Some participants required assistance, suggesting areas for improvement in clarity and intuitiveness.
- Time-on-task data revealed variations in efficiency, highlighting potential areas for streamlining workflows.
Redesign Elements: Based on the feedback, several changes were implemented:
- Larger image previews in the companion app.
- Enhanced explanations of app functionality.
- Introduction of a dedicated settings page.
- Improved scrollbar responsiveness in the VR app.
- Clickable album covers for quicker access to content.

Iteration 2

Objectives:
- Validate the effectiveness of the design changes implemented after Iteration 1.
- Further refine the user experience of the companion app.
Methodology: Usability testing with 2 new participants, focusing on the revised companion app features. A new task was added to assess the implemented changes.
Key Tasks:
- Image selection and management (similar to Iteration 1, but with the revised interface).
- Artefact interaction (similar to Iteration 1, but with the revised interface).
- Profile settings (new task to evaluate the usability of the settings page).
Key Findings:
- Task completion rates remained high.
- Time-on-task data showed improvements in efficiency for most tasks.
- The need for assistance was reduced, suggesting increased clarity and user-friendliness.

Valence Testing

To gain deeper insights into user emotional responses, valence testing was conducted. This involved gathering subjective feedback on the positive or negative emotional impact of various design elements.
The valence testing results helped further refine the design, ensuring it aligned with user expectations and elicited positive emotional responses.

Discussion and Conclusion

Discussion

While the "Museum of Life" project achieved its primary goals, there are areas for future exploration and improvement:

Accessibility: Further research and development are needed to ensure the application is accessible to users with disabilities, including those with visual impairments or motor difficulties.
Scalability: Exploring ways to scale the application to accommodate a larger number of artifacts and historical periods could be a future direction.
Cross-Platform Compatibility: Expanding the application's reach by developing versions for other VR platforms and mobile devices would enhance its accessibility.

The "Museum of Life" project serves as a valuable case study for future VR and AR projects, demonstrating the potential of these technologies to transform learning and engagement. By continuing to prioritize user experience, accessibility, and innovative design, the field of immersive technologies can unlock new possibilities for education and entertainment.

Conclusion

The development of the "Museum of Life" VR application and companion app was a complex undertaking that required a multidisciplinary approach. The project successfully merged historical research, 3D modeling, and user experience design to create an immersive and engaging educational experience.

The iterative design process, incorporating user feedback from multiple testing rounds, was instrumental in refining the user interface and ensuring a seamless user experience. The final product is a testament to the power of user-centered design, where the needs and preferences of the target audience were prioritized throughout the development cycle.

Back to Projects

Mihir Poddar

Museum of Life

Project Details

Role

Tools

Timeline

Platform

Problem Statement

Solution

Table of Contents

1 / Methodology

2.1 / Literature Review

2.2 / User Research

3 / Ideate

4 / Prototype

5 / Testing and Review