We have broken down the project into two elements: a desktop-centered exploratory website, highlighting insights and allowing users to filter through a database of underseen works, and a mobile webapp that guides users through curated “meta-collections” of works across the museum. After receiving feedback that suggested attaching users more to their data insights rather than merely generating data, we added a page to the exploratory website mockup to represent some possible data analytics presented visually.

After reviewing several options to bring in various curator perspectives, we also decided on tab-style profiles that allow for several perspectives. We evaluated active and passive approaches to navigation - perhaps reading or listening to a conversation between curators or geolocked items so that the visitor must be in a certain space. Ultimately, we decided on this approach to allow for perspective comparison. Say, a piece of art from the Netherlands, to have a curator vs a historian vs a Dutch person vs an artist of the same art offer their perspectives adds value to the piece.

The final exploration and tour app prototypes will be interactive mockups using Figma/ Adobe XD. We’re still in the process of generating various analytics. Two that were recently added are the objects and dominant colors in images. Since the dominant color in most of the images differs drastically, we’re grouping the colors based on their hue by converting RGB to HSL/HSV and maxing the saturation and value/ luminosity. This allows us to group colors within 360 different color buckets. Our next step is to group these by different metrics (e.g. century, type, etc.). We’ve managed to find the right blend of proxies and delays to keep scraping 2019 Instagram images without being blocked, albeit at a very slow pace.

We began creating our design document as the final iteration is coming to realization. Additionally, we worked to standardize fonts across the design for coherence.

Apart from presenting the data directly on the exploration website, we also want the users to have an experience that is less seemingly analytical, but just to enjoy some of the less represented artworks. In addition to the general analytical page and free exploration page, we also have a more curated page, in which users can see artworks under different categories, for example, Asian collection, decorative art, and textile. Users can choose whether or not to explore the object further, and they can also change the options in these categories. It would also be interesting to do a curator’s selection here, which is similar to what we want to do in the mobile app.