Hong Xue

In 2012 Hong worked with Aaron Quigley on a project aimed at mapping out a conceptual design of the museum visiting guide application running on handheld devices. Based on working in MUSA (Museum of University of St Andrews), a user-centred interaction design process was carried out, which emphasised real visitors’ needs and involves new digital technology i.e. Augmented Reality to support and improve visiting experience. Two iterations were conducted, including requirements collection, design, prototype creation and evaluation. Different research techniques were used during the whole design process for the sake of producing a museum visiting guide to achieve high usability goals.
Museums attract an increasing number of people to visit. Currently the visiting experience is assisted in simple ways such as museum information brochures, printed maps, audio guides, and staff services. Since visitors are varied in terms of educational levels, cultural backgrounds, physical conditions and so forth, they have different needs when visiting museums. The service and information provided, however, are not always sufficient to meet such varied needs.