Curio
Where Curiosity meets Culture.
Where Curiosity meets Culture.
Product: Curio Role: UX Researcher | Designer Duration: 5 Weeks | July 2025
The vision for Curio was to create an engaging and intuitive mobile experience that encourages users of all ages to explore museum exhibitions and book visits with ease. The goal was to make culture more accessible by streamlining the booking process, showcasing educational exhibits, and ensuring the app is inclusive and easy to navigate. Every design decision aimed to balance function with visual clarity, helping users discover, plan, and enjoy their museum visits with confidence.
One of the biggest challenges was designing a booking flow that felt both simple and informative, without overwhelming the user. It was also important to address accessibility and navigation; ensuring that features like the profile section, navigation panel, and exhibit details were easy to locate and understand. Through usability testing, I discovered friction points in the booking confirmation and navigation flow, which led to important refinements for a smoother user experience.
Before diving into design, we conducted foundational UX research to better understand user behavior, expectations, and pain points related to visiting and booking museum exhibitions. Through surveys, interviews, and usability testing, we gathered insights from a diverse group of users, including students, families, and first-time museum visitors. The goal was to uncover user needs, identify friction points in the booking process, and gather feedback on how users explore exhibitions digitally; ultimately informing a more user-centered design.
Who are our primary users, and what do they need from a museum app?
What challenges do users face when trying to book a museum visit online?
How do users currently discover exhibitions and museum events?
What information do users expect to find when viewing an exhibition?
How do users prefer to navigate through an app like this?
What accessibility features are necessary to support a wider audience?
After completing the usability study, I organized all observations, quotes, and patterns into an affinity diagram to make sense of the data. I wrote each individual insight on a virtual sticky note and grouped them based on shared behaviors, challenges, and user sentiments. This method helped surface key themes; like navigation confusion, lack of clarity during booking, and interest in visual content; that guided the refinement of the app. It was a crucial step in turning raw research into actionable design improvements.
Curious high school teacher who seeks engaging and educational group outings for her students.
Busy parent looking for fun, kid-friendly museum activities that are easy to plan and book.
Retired art enthusiast who enjoys visiting museums regularly and values clear information and easy navigation.
Our competitive audit revealed that Google Arts & Culture offers an excellent digital experience with immersive content but lacks clear booking functionality. The MET Museum App provides strong educational resources, yet its design feels outdated, and the navigation is cluttered. The Louvre Museum Website impresses with its visual appeal and cultural prestige, though it can be overwhelming for new users due to dense content. Eventbrite stands out for its smooth booking process and intuitive user flow, but it lacks the storytelling and emotional connection that cultural platforms should offer. These insights helped shape Curio into a user-friendly, engaging platform that balances seamless booking with meaningful museum exploration.
The user journey for booking an exhibition visit in the Curio app is designed to be clear, intuitive, and efficient. It begins on the Home Page, where users can either search or browse exhibitions. Upon selecting an exhibition, they are taken to the Exhibition Page, where they can view more details and choose to book a visit.
If they proceed, they move to the Booking Page to select a date and provide guest details. After clicking Confirm, users are shown a Confirmation Page with booking details and payment summary. A final confirmation action completes the booking, leading to a Booking Confirmed screen. From there, users can opt to set a calendar reminder and choose how to receive their ticket—either via SMS or email—before being redirected back to the Home Page. Each step includes decision points to allow users to cancel or adjust their actions, ensuring flexibility and control throughout the experience.
Paper Wireframes
After sketching out some wireframes and thinking through the preliminary flow. I reviewed what was necessary, unnecessary, and what areas needed improvement with the main function of the product. I poured a lot of time into this step to make sure we had the finishing touches on the underlying UX before moving onto the visuals.
To improve our design, we conducted a moderated usability study with five participants, guiding each through tasks like exploring an exhibition, making a booking, and navigating to the profile and booking history. During the sessions, we recorded their behaviors, feedback, and common challenges. From this, we identified four key findings:
Some users felt overwhelmed by the busy homepage layout.
The booking process was generally smooth, but a few users missed the confirmation step due to unclear visual hierarchy.
Navigation through the menu was effective, but participants requested clearer icons and labels
On the profile page, users struggled to find their visit history quickly.
Cluttered Homepage Layout:
The homepage was redesigned to reduce visual overload by reorganizing content into clearly labeled sections like “Quick Bookings,” “Suggestions,” and “Explore.” We also introduced more spacing and visual hierarchy to guide the user’s attention more effectively.
Challenge 2
Unclear Confirmation Step:
To prevent users from skipping the confirmation, we introduced a progress indicator on the booking screens and added clear headers and a contrasting “Confirm” button. This made the final step more prominent and encouraged users to complete the booking with confidence.
Ambiguous Navigation Labels:
We refined the menu labels to be more intuitive and added simple, recognizable icons next to each label to improve scan ability and reduce confusion.
Hidden Visitor History on Profile Page:
The profile page layout was reorganized with “Visitor History” placed at the top of the list and marked with a clock icon. This increased visibility and made it easier for users to quickly find and revisit their past bookings.
Your design style is clean, modern, and user-focused. You used Inria Sans throughout the app for its soft, approachable look and easy readability. The consistent use of #52DCA0 green adds a fresh, energetic contrast to the neutral backgrounds, while also clearly emphasizing interactive elements like buttons and calls to action. This balance between clarity and visual appeal helps create a smooth and engaging user experience.
Through the Curio project, we learned the importance of simplicity and clarity in user flows, users responded well to a streamlined booking experience and clear confirmation messages. Our usability study emphasized how small design details, like icon clarity and visual hierarchy using Inria Sans and the contrasting green (#52DCA0), can significantly improve usability. We also realized the value of testing and iteration, as it uncovered hidden issues and allowed us to make informed improvements. Lastly, we gained a deeper appreciation for accessibility and inclusive design, ensuring that Curio meets the needs of a diverse audience.