As a museum-addicted person, spending a whole day in a museum is an enjoyable activity for me. With my former experience of visiting museums in various cities, I used to take a good exhibition experience for granted. This time, I changed my perspective from first-person to third-person to perceive the information embedded in the museum, using a whole new way to observe the information interaction between the environment, people and technology. MoMA, a world-famous museum, attracts millions of visitors from over 50 countries per year. How to make sure that visitors from different countries, languages and cultures can have good experiences when visiting exhibitions is a significant challenge for the management of MoMA.

The first mission people get at the entrance of MoMA is to buy a ticket. MoMA provides two main ways for buying tickets on-site; one is buying from the counters, where staff would help you to get tickets especially if you want to buy discount tickets for which need you to provide ID, such as NYC students or seniors; the other way is using ticket machines to purchase tickets by yourself, and we can see that the ticket machines offers ten languages to ensure world-wide tourists get access to the ticket system. However, because the traffic flow brings people who have just entered the entrance to the line of the counters, most people do not seem to notice there are ticket machines as well. Even though it is considerate that MoMA provides different purchasing methods, they should consider putting ticket machines in an appropriate place to let more people notice them.

There is a large screen that shows all of the exhibition information and the directions in the hall. Most people would stay for a while to figure out where to go next. Impressively, it also shows the QR code for the mobile guidance app on the screen, so that people can get access to the online map and audio service. After visitors decide where to go, the online map continues the responsibility of navigating users, making sure users get assistance at any time, and making sure they won’t get lost when wandering around. MoMA understands if users use their app, a fast Internet connection would be the main factor for users to decide whether or not to continue using the app or not, therefore, they also provide WiFi to visitors.

How can visitors keep from becoming lost in such huge exhibition spaces? The first time I went to MoMA was last month, and at that time I hadn’t figured out the traffic flow of MoMA. I just wandered around and when I saw the paintings I was interested in, I walked directly to them without following the traffic flow. That resulted in me having to spend more time walking through every room which I had already been to to find the exit. This time I figured out that at every border of exhibition rooms, there are room numbers on the wall to lead you to the next room. Thus, people just have to follow the ascending rooms numbers, then they won’t miss any artwork and can find an exit easily. However, because the numbers are not obvious, many people didn’t see the hints.

People can find the numbers for a paintings’ introduction on descriptive cards, then type that number on the app to access the audio introductions. Not every painting provides all types of audio services. Take Jackson Pollock’s One: Number 31, 1950 for example, as it provides three kinds of introduction which includes a general introduction, a verbal description, and a playlist for kids. The general introduction talks about the information of the artist’s background and artistic statement. Verbal description audio focuses on describing the details of the appearance of the artwork, and it is a tool that can also benefit the visually impaired. However, how can they access this app and type in the number which shows on the wall? This is a tough mission for the visually impaired to complete. Therefore, if an app can provide the function that when a visually impaired individual walks close to the painting, the app could automatically detect the painting and play its audio introduction automatically, as it could be helpful for the visually impaired to get involved in visiting a museum with less frustration. When it comes to the kid’s version, the audio gives instructions to kids for them to interact with paintings, such as “take a few more steps back”, ” What? You can’t see one?” and ”use your finger in the air to trace where your thread is going”. It gives not only an interactive user experience, but enhances fun for children as well.

In the two hours I spent in MoMA, only 10% of visitors used the app for the audio introduction. Most people took pictures or stood in front of the paintings and read the descriptive cards for a few seconds and left. I observed that some people used earphones to listen to the audio and some of them didn't. In my experience, earphones would improve the experience since hands will get sore if you have to hold a phone to your ear to listen to the introductions. Forgetting to bring earphones might be one of the reasons why there were few visitors who used the audio app.

A museum is a place whose purpose is to transmit information to participants. From this observation experience, I think a better traffic flow is a significant issue for the museum to make an effort towards. Taking environmental obstacles into account, where the best place is to site hints of specific information is worth reassessing. In addition, management should pay attention to how to design an environment with accessibility needs more in mind so that MoMA can more fully implement its mission to transmit artworks to more people.

“MoMA” The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/.

Bates, M. J. “Fundamental Forms of Information.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, vol. 57, no. 8, June 2006, pp. 1033-1045–1045. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20369.