Review of Competing Products

Competitor Analysis

NYC Museum

Strength: Detailed and educational information are available for each museum and exhibit

Weakness: Exclude arts and exhibits from other local museums

YELP

Strength: 1) Allows users to search local museums nearby 2) Social feature allows users to write down comments, ratings, and send photos

Weakness: No detailed introduction on arts and exhibits

Google Arts & Culture

Strength: 1) Utilize virtual reality to allow users to explore global museums online 2)Explore arts and artists through daily topic

Weakness: Information is random and has way too many categories without focus; User interface is chaotic

Daily Arts

Strength: Daily post is automatically sent to users at a certain time

Weakness: 1) Only has a focus on arts (mostly paintings) 2) Not free for all if users want to access all learning

Smartify

Strength: 1) Has scanning feature designed for users to immediately get information on arts while visiting museum 2) Online tour allows users to learn about the highlights of global museums through texts and audio 3) Enables online booking

Weakness: 1) Only has a focus on only paintings 2) Introduction on arts are not categorized in logical structured order 3) Museums included in the apps are worldwide, which is way too broad

Our mobile design differs from these applications above and has a local and educational focus that aims to utilize a situational and constructivist approaches to help users, including students, residents, and tourists based in NYC gain knowledge on arts through structured and effective e-learning. Additionally, we hope to encourage them to actively explore local museum resources to apply what they learn from the app to real-world context and create meaningful museum educational experiences for them.

The existing apps ignore the learning experience aspect of design, as information is often random and is not given in a logical and systematic approach. Media is mostly limited as audio and video options are not available, therefore learners can easily lose interest, motive, and focus through disengaging and fragmented knowledge information.

Our app will enable learners to choose what knowledge to consume based on artists and historical periods through a variety of learning mediums such as audio and video. Merging the advantages of Daily Museum, which sends learners one art or exhibit at a time, our application will send knowledge information to users based on their learning goal to avoid fragmented and ineffective learning. We will also use the museum punch cards feature, social feature, achievements and progress tracker, to enhance the intrinsic motivation of learners.