Introduction

The first three reports in this series have covered the first phase of the design process (Discovery and User Research). This report is broader, examining all activities carried out through the remaining Phases of the design process. These activities involve interdependent, non-linear processes that cannot be easily separated. Different sections of the report cover micro-phases such as the iterative exploration of different design prototype options (Phase 2); specific propositions around the design implementation (Phase 3); as well as insights from evaluation sessions with research participants and stakeholders (Phase 4). The report traces how the iteratively developed design propositions both serve as an outcome, and inform the methodology of this research.

VIEW PROTOTYPES VERSION 1

VIEW PROTOTYPES VERSION 2

VIEW PROTOTYPES VERSION 3

Structure of the report

The report’s structure follows the design process through 3 stages of iteration punctuated by user feedback workshops which were organized between each major iteration. The sections titled Version 1, 2, etc., illustrate and discuss the decisions behind specific design elements and user interactions introduced in each version. The Workshop and Evaluation sections following each Version include short summaries of the proceedings for each session and relevant user feedback. The report concludes by outlining a set of organizing principles, or design strategies—but not fixed solutions—that emerged in the course of developing each iteration of the design prototypes. These principles can be taken forward by Rhizome into implementation, or can be developed further into future research projects.

NB: If reading the report as a PDF on a relatively large screen, the following settings in Acrobat Reader are recommended for optimal vieweing: View > Page Display > ✓Two Page View & ✓Show Cover Page in Two Page View.

▍ Cite as: Rossenova, L (2020) “ArtBase Redesign—Prototype Development: Design Exploration and Evaluation 2018–2019”. Available from: https://lozanaross.github.io/phd-portfolio/docs/4_Report_DESIGN_EXPLORATION_2020.pdf

✦ About the report series ✦ This report is part #4 in a series documenting the research process and practice of Lozana Rossenova, a PhD researcher embedded at Rhizome between 2016–2020. These reports trace the development of a practice-based interaction design research project, starting with a Discovery and User Research Phase. This phase includes the study of the organizational context and history, documented in Report #1; gathering information about past and current use-cases and user expectations, documented in Report #2, as well as a review of the current landscape of digital design for cultural heritage archives and collections, documented in Report #3. The next phase—Design Exploration, including low-fidelity sketches and prototypes and continuing the conversations with users, is documented in Report #4. This report also includes a summary of the Evaluation Phase, since it is an iterative process throughout the other phases, rather than one final step. The final outcomes of the Design Specification Phase, wherein the initial design proposals are transformed into interactive prototypes and specific recommendations for a data model schema, can be found under the Prototypes and Data Models sections of this website, respectively.