Overview

Guildhall Art Gallery is home to the City of London Corporation’s works of art, with a wide-ranging collection of 4,500 works, including over 1,300 oil paintings, dating from 1670 to the present day.

The brief

Guildhall asked Smartify to conduct a communications study on-site and online to explore how best to promote the mobile guide. We were tasked with creating a new signage system inviting all visitors to use the mobile guide without needing free-standing signs at the gallery entrance points. We looked for under-used areas for signage and worked closely with the Guildhall team to ensure ideas met their requirements for security, health and safety, and brand guidelines.

Guildhall Art Gallery, London

The solution

Drawing on the principles of good user experience design (UX), we worked through the visitor journey, highlighting all touchpoints, interactions, and feelings of visitors, as well as pain points, gaps, and opportunity areas. This involved speaking with various staff, from the director and marketing teams to the front-of-house and municipality staff who use the space.

The results

A thoughtful design refresh was developed to introduce the Smartify guide at various points throughout the visitor journey. The intuitive and easy-to-understand signage increased the uptake of the guide by 30%. It has received high praise, and visitor assistants have been given extra training to help them interact even more with visitors.