Redesigning the visitors’ museum experience

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli

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Reimagining and redesigning the museum experience that a visitor has through a careful analysis of the current pain points.

3 things to know

Pain points of a visitor’s journey 

A systematic representation of an ordinary visitor’s journey that highlights the positive and negative aspects of the museum experience

A concept for a new wayfinding system 

A proposal for the redesign of the elements that guide the visitors along the museum

Ideas for a new museum experience 

A range of ideas that can improve the visitors’ experience, from redesigning spaces to offering new services.

Gallery

Context

The art gallery, inaugurated in 2002, sits on the top floor of the Lingotto complex, the first FIAT factory and now a modern complex with concert halls, theatre, a convention centre, shopping arcades and a hotel. The Gallery contains a selection of works from the private collection of Gianni and Marella Agnelli. The collection is housed in the “jewellery box”, a steel body designed by Renzo Piano, with an area of 450 square meters raised 34 meters from the test track on the roof of the factory.

Challenge

The location within the Lingotto complex creates a multitude of wayfinding challenges for the visitor. The challenge was thus how to create a new visitor experience that helps guide visitors but also provides a new identity for the museum.

Research

Four colleagues explored and mapped the services provided by the Pinacoteca Agnelli. Only two were native Italian speakers. We collected experiences from people that visited Pinacoteca for the first time. This allowed us to create a systematic representation of an ordinary visitor’s journey that highlights positive and negative aspects of the museum experience.

Design

The design activities started with idea generation activities: we conducted several brainstorming sessions internally, merged the ideas that were similar, selected the most effective, and developed the most promising one in more detail. The next phase concentrated on developing a proposal for the redesign of the elements that guide the visitors along the museum, in other words a concept for a new wayfinding system. Following a process focused on the visitor experience, 
we took into account the visitors’ impression of the building to inspire the new design of the signage. A gradient recalls the experience 
that visitors have while going up the elevators: from a chaotic environment 
to a delightful and sophisticated art space. By using the shapes of the roof and the 5th floor we want to enhance the link to the architectural space by creating an echo of the structure inside the Pinacoteca Agnelli. We also developed a range of ideas that can improve the visitors experience, from redesigning spaces to offering new services.

Impact

The museum is in the process of implementing the Experientia design guidelines.