A mobile art-gallery tour and check-in experience designed to help visitors navigate, engage with, and keep track of their gallery visits.
A mobile art-gallery tour and check-in experience designed to help visitors navigate, engage with, and keep track of their gallery visits.
Artchive
Year
2025
Scope
Product Design · UX/UI · Mobile App
Duration
3 weeks
Artchive explores how a mobile check-in experience can become part of the gallery visit itself, helping visitors orient themselves, engage with a tour, and preserve a record of their experience.
Artchive explores how a mobile check-in experience can become part of the gallery visit itself, helping visitors orient themselves, engage with a tour, and preserve a record of their experience.
Context
Context
A check-in shouldn't feel like a checkpoint.
A check-in shouldn't feel like a checkpoint.
challenge
challenge
I wanted to work on a design problem that felt different from the projects I kept seeing across portfolios. Many of them explored large, feature-heavy products that required designing an entire ecosystem. I wanted to do the opposite: take a small, specific interaction and see how much thought could go into making it work well.
A tour check-in experience for an art gallery felt like an opportunity to do exactly that. That meant the experience had to be quick, clear, and purposeful. Every piece of information needed to earn its place.
I wanted to work on a design problem that felt different from the projects I kept seeing across portfolios. Many of them explored large, feature-heavy products that required designing an entire ecosystem. I wanted to do the opposite: take a small, specific interaction and see how much thought could go into making it work well.
A tour check-in experience for an art gallery felt like an opportunity to do exactly that. That meant the experience had to be quick, clear, and purposeful. Every piece of information needed to earn its place.
How visitors currently enter/participate in gallery tours
How visitors currently enter/participate in gallery tours
understanding the visitor
understanding the visitor
Once visitors decide to take a tour, the transition from “I want to join” to “I’m checked in and ready to go” is often handled manually through desks, staff, tickets, or meeting points. Artchive explores how that check-in experience could become simpler and more self-directed.
Once visitors decide to take a tour, the transition from “I want to join” to “I’m checked in and ready to go” is often handled manually through desks, staff, tickets, or meeting points. Artchive explores how that check-in experience could become simpler and more self-directed.
What information they need
What information they need
Visitors need clear information about available tours, including the tour topic, start time, meeting point, duration, cost and availability, so they can decide whether and how to participate.
Visitors need clear information about available tours, including the tour topic, start time, meeting point, duration, cost and availability, so they can decide whether and how to participate.
Where they experience friction
Where they experience friction
What they might want to remember afterward
What they might want to remember afterward
The process between discovering a tour and actually joining it can involve several small steps: finding
the tour, checking its details, locating the meeting point, confirming availability and checking in.
The process between discovering a tour and actually joining it can involve several small steps: finding
the tour, checking its details, locating the meeting point, confirming availability and checking in.
Beyond checking in, visitors need a way to retain what made the visit meaningful: the artworks
they discovered, what they learned and what they want to revisit later.
Beyond checking in, visitors need a way to retain what made the visit meaningful: the artworks
they discovered, what they learned and what they want to revisit later.
Workflow
Workflow
Check-in notification
Artchive app
Upcoming event pop up
Your details screen
Check-in button
Confirmation screen
Reschedule
Cancel tour
Begin tour
Later
More gallery info
More gallery info
Check-in notification
Artchive app
Upcoming event pop up
Your details screen
Check-in button
Confirmation screen
Reschedule
Cancel tour
Begin tour
Later
Check-in should be quick, but not empty.
Because the check-in happens close to the visitor's scheduled tour, I treated this as a time-sensitive interaction.
The interface prioritizes information according to urgency rather than trying to present everything about the gallery at once. Essential visit information comes first, while additional content is available when the visitor wants to explore further.
This helped keep the check-in flow focused while still allowing Artchive to provide a richer experience beyond the basic transaction.
Because the check-in happens close to the visitor's scheduled tour, I treated this as a time-sensitive interaction.
The interface prioritizes information according to urgency rather than trying to present everything about the gallery at once. Essential visit information comes first, while additional content is available when the visitor wants to explore further.
This helped keep the check-in flow focused while still allowing Artchive to provide a richer experience beyond the basic transaction.
The Check-in Experience
The Check-in Experience
The tour
Notification page
App opening page
Event reminder pop-up
System states
Self-guided tour check-in page
Guided tour check-in page
Confirmation page
event rescheduling screen
Self-guided tour screens
Visual & Interaction Design
Visual & Interaction Design
Buttons
Buttons
Colours
Colours
Type
Type
Logo colour blend
Logo colour blend
reflection
Learning to design within the brief
My first approach to Artchive started with a map-first landing screen. From there, I built a flow that took users through multiple steps before they eventually reached the check-in experience.
As the project developed, I realized I was designing for a much larger problem than the brief asked me to solve. The map and discovery experience were beginning to take over the product, while the actual focus, checking in for a gallery tour, was becoming secondary.
I decided to step back and restart.
The second iteration was intentionally more focused. Instead of asking users to navigate through the app before reaching their goal, I made the check-in experience the starting point. The user should be able to quickly understand their event, review the necessary information, make changes if needed,
and check in without unnecessary steps.
My first approach to Artchive started with a map-first landing screen. From there, I built a flow that took users through multiple steps before they eventually reached the check-in experience.
As the project developed, I realized I was designing for a much larger problem than the brief asked me to solve. The map and discovery experience were beginning to take over the product, while the actual focus, checking in for a gallery tour, was becoming secondary.
I decided to step back and restart.
The second iteration was intentionally more focused. Instead of asking users to navigate through the app before reaching their goal, I made the check-in experience the starting point. The user should be able to quickly understand their event, review the necessary information, make changes if needed,
and check in without unnecessary steps.
Designing for clarity
This shift also changed how I approached information.
The check-in interaction is deliberately straightforward, with only the information needed to make a confident decision presented upfront. Where additional context is useful, I introduced supporting notes and guidance
at the point where the user needs them, rather than adding more screens to
the primary flow.
I also explored how the experience could extend beyond the check-in itself through features such as an audio tour guide and additional gallery information. These became secondary layers of the experience rather than competing with its core purpose.
The biggest lesson from Artchive was that a good product does not necessarily need to do more. It needs to do what it is designed to do well.
For me, the project became an exercise in restraint: knowing when an idea adds value, when it distracts from the brief, and when to remove something even after investing time in designing it.
This shift also changed how I approached information.
The check-in interaction is deliberately straightforward, with only the information needed to make a confident decision presented upfront. Where additional context is useful, I introduced supporting notes and guidance
at the point where the user needs them, rather than adding more screens to
the primary flow.
I also explored how the experience could extend beyond the check-in itself through features such as an audio tour guide and additional gallery information. These became secondary layers of the experience rather than competing with its core purpose.
The biggest lesson from Artchive was that a good product does not necessarily need to do more. It needs to do what it is designed to do well.
For me, the project became an exercise in restraint: knowing when an idea adds value, when it distracts from the brief, and when to remove something even after investing time in designing it.
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