Digital Museum Website
Golden Plains Stories is a digital museum website that presents the history and current experiences of the Golden Plains Shire Council. The final product offers curated stories and multimedia content for the primary persona, new residents of the council, providing an informative and immersive experience to get to know the past and present of their local community.
During 12 weeks, I collaborated with 3 designers on the UX/UI design and coding with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and I have solely created multimedia content including AR filters and virtual tours for this project.
UX/UI Deisgner & Developer
2022 （12 weeks）
Mobile-first App
Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, After Effects, Modelo (360 tour), VS Code
Shimiao Fu, Yang Li, Xiuping Zhang
Problem Space
The challenge is to create an engaging web experience for Golden Plains Shire's local history. We must thoughtfully preserve and present the community's rich heritage and oral history. As much of the history was not properly documented, the primary challenges include collecting as much as possible, ensuring accessibility, engaging storytelling, and facilitating community connection. The goal is to develop a digital platform that informs and connects users to the history and culture of the Golden Plains Shire.
Resolution
Based on our primary and secondary research including field study, user interviews, and competitive analysis, I have curated the content strategy as 'to record the history and to present the present'. Our final design showcases the existing documented history and provides 'add your story' features encouraging users to create content. UX considerations including breadcrumbs and other accessibility measurement including focus state, alt tag, and labels for people with low visions are implemented in the final design. Additionally, I have created AR filters using the illustrations of the featured town Stieglitz's iconic architecture to play with on Instagram to boost user engagement. In response to the strategy 'reserve the present', I have implemented 360 panorama photos as well.
“ As previously noted, your group were consistent in maintaining the project direction and very receptive to ongoing feedback throughout the semester to improve your work. Your final work had sufficient sophistication and complexity in both design and content. Your effort is evident in the final website and you should be proud of yourselves. ”
Li Ping Thong
Interim Associate Dean (Digital Design) | RMIT University
Reflecitons
Constraints:
Balancing the workload of 15 town pages and resources within the limited time for designing and developing the website was very challenging.
What I would have done differently:
Given the museum nature of this project, I would have delved deeper into the content to find more engaging ways to present the stories and invoke user interest. Additionally, I would have integrated more accessibility considerations into the final design.
Next Steps:
Despite the tree testing done at the class scale, broader usability testing should be conducted.