Poomice
An interactive app for a repurposed pumice factory in a UNESCO Heritage Island in Sicily
Timeline
5 months
Category
Mobile App Design
Role
Everything
Team
Tools
Miro
Figma
Illustrator
Photoshop
Marco Borsotti
CONTEXT
WHAT IS POOMICE?
Poomice is an interactive mobile app for museum visit in the island of Sicily. It is a part of my Architecture Masters thesis project which is about reactivating an abandoned pumice factory in a UNESCO Heritage island in Sicily. It doesn’t only use the history and remaining remnants of the factory rail tracks as part of storytelling of the museum, but also complimenting the beauty of nature surrounding the mountains, parks and sea of Sicily, adding to a very rich museum experience for someone visiting Sicily, Italy.
After spending 3 months in Sicily purely for research and observations, I came up with museum narrative and journey mapping that became the framework for the proposed museum itinerary. Although it was not realized to an app, it is important to show the continuous problem-solving processes that became the user experience.
THE AIM OF THE PROJECT WAS TO CREATE AN APPLICATION FOR THE MUSUEM, WHICH WOULD SERVE AS A DIGITAL COMPANION FOR USERS TO EXPLORE HISTORICAL REMNANTS BOTH WITHIN THE MUSEUM AND THE SURROUNDING SEA AND LANDSCAPES.
PROJECT GOAL
Up to now, there are still existing remnants of the pumice factory in the Aeolian Islands, a thriving tourism paradise adorned with high-quality agricultural goods situated on the main floor of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Due to its active volcanic activity, it was a unique harvest source of pumice, obisidian, and granite.
BRIANSTORMING
3 ROUNDS OF STICKY NOTES
The important thing in the architectural brainstorming session is not to get ahead of the solution. The first thing to address is why is there an importance to recognize this abandoned pumice factory even though it has been existing for decades? Why is it important for Sicily? And how is this importance going to be manifested digitally? It is best to answer the HOW’s and WHY’s and ask as many questions as possible in order to get to the root of the problem. While conducting research, I collected insights that were put into common themes to finally define the major pain points.
1. Ask as many questions
2. List as many problems
3. List as many solutions
USER PERSONA
CREATING THE 3 DIFFERENT PERSONAS FOR MUSEUM NARRATIVE
It is important to know which kinds of visitors are possible to visit the establishment and so by creating a general typology of travelers, there is a boundary of which spaces will be missed out and not. This is the scope and limitation for features to show for a create your own journey and recommended tours in the museum.
The survey outcomes allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the elements of the impact users’ decisions to explore museums. We gleaned insights into their communication preferences, cultural interests, and technological inclinations, enhancing our comprehension of the overall museum experience. Answers were divided, and similar answers were chosen though Affinity Mapping with demographic and social divisions. We then created an Affinity Diagram to organize ideas.
Taking a broader view, we identified several overarching factors:
A social disconnection exists between cultural information and the arts in Sicily, even when events are showcased, and users express interest.
Balancing the integration of technology with the preservation of cultural essence, while also managing to detach from certain experiences.
A low frequency of user engagement was observed throughout the 6 months.
Users distinguish between immersive and interactive experiences, perceiving them as distinct concepts.
AFFINITY MAP
TO IDENTIFY SEVERAL OVERARCHING FACTORS
USER JOURNEY MAP
CREATING THE DIGITAL ITINERARY
The digital journey is similar to the physical journey. The art of going through spaces and more possibilities of exploring such spaces, such as exploring the past through VR, creating your own journey, collecting sculptures by scanning (gamify) and having the accessible options of listening to an in-depth explanation or reading through texts. There is also another way of exploring the outdoor museum which is by exploring the surrounding sea and landscapes which can be an additional feature as health track for the app.
