Overall Goal
Design a CMS that makes internal registrar work current, faster, and easier – usable on mobile, and able to manage a wider variety of collections.
USE CASES
There were multiple systems used by the users interviewed, only one had a usable mobile version. About half the users were self-taught on them, while the rest have learned via other staff or college.
Mariana Custodio
"As our collection grows, I'd like to be able to make changes in situ, as opposed to taking notes and doing them later on my desktop."
Andrew Ambrosio
"Our CMS is expensive for the size of our organization and we don't have a big team or an IT person to keep coding it to our needs."
Kimberly Richardson
"The education department would benefit from having their own access to build the didactic programming efficiently."
CONTEXT
Common scenarios for a lot of museums and organizations include working with limited funding or staff, as well as having backlogs of past/pending filing work.
It's essential for this tool to eliminate speed bumps and streamline the user's workflow. So they don't end up like Tilda.
MARKET VALUE
The collections management field may not be huge but that does not mean it is immune to competition. As institutions evolve, employees with newer mental models and software literacy will come and expect tools to match that.
FEATURES
Better architecture to adapt to more types of collections
Improved workflow to allow for a non-linear process
Optimized dashboard for management capabilities
STRUCTURE & happy path
Information architecture - Catalog hierarchy
PastPerfect's file hierarchy begins with fixed Catalogs that fit a very specific type of collection. By keeping a hierarchy of levels, but making them all user-editable, the types of collections using the CMS are endless.
This architecture would also allow more granular control on access. Unlocking access to specific areas for registrars, interns, assistants, curators, etc.
Editing an object location - User flow
This action became one of the main use cases to work on and perform a usability test on Past Perfect: Entering the CMS to lookup, open a record, and edit its location. The user spent about 16 seconds just to pull up a record.
7 seconds faster
When a new user looked up a record with no filters added (9 seconds).
Open. Edit. Done.
With the same streamlined workflow and improved usability, the user can do more record edits in a shorter amount of time, reducing risk of bad inputs.
