Many museum visitors struggle to connect with contemporary art, often leaving without truly understanding the artist’s impact. At the Andy Warhol Museum, visitors unfamiliar with his work find it difficult to grasp his techniques, inspirations, and bold use of mass production. Without guidance, they miss the deeper meaning behind his art.
Problem
How might we make Warhol’s art more accessible and engaging for visitors, helping them understand his creative process, techniques, and artistic vision in a way that feels intuitive and meaningful?
Outcome
WarhoLens is a mixed reality experience that immerses visitors in Andy Warhol’s art and life through interactive storytelling.
Providing Context: Digital storytelling overlays guide visitors through Warhol’s inspirations and techniques.
Encouraging Interaction: Gesture-based controls allow visitors to explore Warhol’s creative process hands-on.
Bridging the Knowledge Gap: MR enhances traditional exhibits, making them more engaging and informative for all visitors.
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Reflections
Designing for MR in a museum setting requires balancing technology with physical space.
Gesture-based interactions must be intuitive and accessible to all visitors.
What I Learned
Next Steps
Explore hardware and software optimizations to make MR technology more practical for museum integration.
Client
Team
The Andy Warhol Museum
Me | Experience Designer
Malavika | Experience Designer
Avanita | Product Designer
Riley | Product Designer
Maggie | Visual Designer
I focused on research and conceptualization, identifying visitor engagement challenges and designing Mixed Reality (MR) features to enhance learning and interaction. I developed a structured storytelling framework, integrated gesture-based interactions, and designed a seamless MR interface to bridge the gap between traditional museum experiences and immersive digital exploration.
Gold Winner in Virtual Reality (VR) Design / Indigo Awards 2024
The Warholens
An immersive experience showcasing Andy Warhol’s life, art and ideology.
1934
1934
1934
1934
How was high school?
How were your friends?
To understand visitor behaviors and engagement challenges, we conducted:
10 interviews
20 surveys
20 Museum Reviews
User Research
Research and Discovery
Lack of Context
Visitors struggled to grasp Warhol’s artistic influences and creative process due to minimal background information.
Passive Information Consumption
The museum relied on wall labels and sequentially placed artworks, which didn’t provide enough relevant or engaging context.
Limited Engagement Opportunities
Visitors were most engaged during guided tours, but these were not available throughout the day. Screen printing workshops, a hands-on activity, were only held three times a week, leaving many visitors unaware of them.
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Key Insights
Technology Research
Research and Discovery
MR as the Ideal Solution
Mixed Reality (MR) offered the best balance of interaction, accessibility, and storytelling, allowing visitors to engage with Warhol’s art while still being present in the museum.
From our user research, it became clear that a more interactive and context-rich experience was needed to bridge the knowledge gap and encourage deeper visitor engagement.
We developed a structured approach to guide visitors through Warhol’s work.
User Journey
Feature Conceptualisation
The Design Process
In terms of technology, the current ones had shortcomings for long term wear. So we envisioned lightweight MR glasses with gesture and voice control, AR/VR display integration, and real-time contextual guidance to create a frictionless and immersive way for visitors to explore Warhol’s world without disrupting the traditional museum experience.
A technical flow of the MR system was designed to visualize how different components, projection mapping, gesture recognition, and spatial tracking all work together.
To make interactions intuitive, we implemented
Gesture-Based Interactions
System Diagram
Interface
The Design Process
A Used Bezi for rapid MR prototyping and Unity for hand gesture simulations. Conducted pilot tests with museum staff and visitors, refining interactions based on feedback.
Prototyping & Implementation
The Design Process
Solution
Floor Overview
Information Hotspots
Bringing the Artist to Life
Accessing the interactive experiences
Talk to the artist himself over years to better understand his life and influences.
Motivation behind the Artwork
Versions of the Artwork
Immersive understanding of the context behind the Soup Can painting. Step into Andy Warhol’s childhood home.
View the completed painting and the other colored versions of the iconic painting. Join the dots to see what the process painting led to eventually.
Screen Printing Technique
The technique
Learning about the screen printing technique in an experiential manner.
Explore the layers of a painting by exploding it into stencils.
Self Reflection
Souvenir for prolonged experience
Tying the experience together with a moment of reflection. Listening to others reflection
As a takeaway collect a printed postcard of the screen print you created at the station.
Impact 🍪
We conducted brief interviews with participants before and after the demo. After analyzing the insights gathered, we found that:
Past visitors found this experience more engaging but preferred a phone-based version due to current tech constraints.
Knowledge retention improved, with visitors gaining a deeper understanding of Warhol’s techniques and inspirations through hands-on interaction.
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