UI & UX
Art Institute of Chicago
Goal.
By taking excerpts of classic and new Fairy Tales, and setting these magical stories to new landscapes we are elevating the Thorne rooms through an enhanced virtual experience and renewing the interests in not only the rooms but also the stories with a fresh inspired take that will bring imagination to children and adults alike.
The app provides —
Story Options
Audio
Interaction with room
Synopsis.
The Thorne Miniature Rooms, located at the Art Institute of Chicago consists of 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms. The rooms were researched and designed by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. It highlights her collection of miniature furniture and decorative-art objects. The rooms consisted of European interiors from the late 13th century to the 1930s and American furnishings from the 17th century to the 1930s.
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Mrs. Throne donated her Thorne Miniature Room collection to the Art institute during 1940.
Structure.
User Persona.
Age: 34
Pronoun: She/Her
Gender: Female
Status: In a Relationship
Occupation: Interior Designer
Location: Australia
An interior designer, from Chicago but currently working in Australia. Spends her time at work and her spare time with her boyfriend. Loves seeing furniture from around the world.
Interest.
Pain Points.
User Needs.
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Collecting
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Designing
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Wes Anderson Films
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Antique Roadshow
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Borderline Hoarder
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Reading Style: Skimmer
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Her boyfriend’s kids are on the fence about her
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To enjoy seeing small things at a closer look
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To imagine
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To explore history
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Create a connection with her boyfriends kids
Scenario.
After work, she decided to hang out with her boyfriend, who is a single father of 8 year old twin daughters. However, his kids are not too fond of her, so she tries her best to engage with them so they can create a bond. She intends to bring them to Chicago one day, so she starts talking about Chicago and the fun things to do there, mentioning the Art Institute of Chicago and the Thorne Miniature Room Gallery since she knows they love playing with dolls and watching Disney movies. Before the girls went to bed, they were asking her to talk more about the Miniature rooms, so she searched online and came across the Thorne Room app and downloads it because she can not take them to the museum. She starts by browsing the story options and comes across her favorite childhood fairy tale: ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, however, the kids were not interested in the story and asked if they had Princess Belle. So she searches for ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in the Romance category. She and the kids were intrigued by the interactions connected to the rooms. After 10 minutes their father took the iPad away from them since it was their bedtime and told them that they could play with it tomorrow.
Typography.
Buttons.
Color.
Frame.
Search Bar.
Progress Bar.
Navigation.
The app starts with an intro and lands on a suggested fairy tale that they could click on to or scroll down for more options.
The frame acts as a highlight spot for each room as the user scrolls horizontally.
As a new image appears within the frame, the information changes simultaneously, providing the fairy tales title and author, along with the miniature room's name.
When entering a room, the fairy tale is automatically played. The fairy tales are broken up into sections.
The user has the choice to mute the audio, pause the video or go back to choose another fairy tale.
When a section has played, the user will be led to the 'pause section'..
The 'pause section' provides the ability to roam around the miniature room, while revealing new facts about the furniture of that time period.
They can continue with the fairy tale at any time by pressing the 'and then,' button.
The fairy tale they just played will now have a progress bar and the user will be able to choose any other category and fairy tale.
Prototype.
Listen with audio to be immersed in the fairy tale.
