Cultural Collections Discovery Portal
Overview
The University of Melbourne manages a diverse set of cultural collections spanning a wide range of disciplines, formats, and historical contexts. Together, these collections represent a significant academic and cultural asset used across teaching, research, and public engagement.
At the time of engagement, collection content was distributed across multiple systems and interfaces. This fragmentation made it difficult for educators, researchers, students, and the wider community to discover, explore, and meaningfully engage with collection material across domains.
This project explored how a single, unified discovery experience could improve access, usability, and engagement with the University’s cultural collections at a conceptual and proof-of-concept level.
Challenge
Institutional perspective
How might a unified discovery experience improve the visibility, accessibility, and educational value of the University’s cultural collections?
Users perspective
How might different audiences discover and engage with collection content in ways that align with their goals, contexts, and constraints?
Limitations of the existing state
- Fragmented discovery experiences across collections
- Inconsistent presentation and metadata structures
- Limited support for exploration, reuse, and learning workflows
- Valuable content hidden behind complex or unintuitive interfaces
Outcome
An overview of the current state
An overview of the proposed future state
Role & Responsibilities
In my role as Principal Innovation Facilitator and Product Designer, I led the discovery, experience strategy, and design exploration for a conceptual Cultural Collections Discovery Portal.
The engagement began with the synthesis of existing research and benchmarking conducted prior to my involvement. Building on this foundation, I facilitated discovery workshops and interviews with a broad range of stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of goals, constraints, and user needs.
A key focus was ensuring alignment early in the process by establishing:
- A shared vision
- Clear objectives
- Experience principles
- Agreed priorities
Following discovery, I led the experience design work, including conceptual user journeys, interaction models, prototyping, usability testing, and stakeholder communication to validate direction and assumptions.
"Mike and I worked closely on developing a Proof of Concept UX/UI interface. It was a challenging project with multiple stakeholders and complex outcomes, but it was a very positive experience. As part of the project, Mike facilitated several unmoderated online test sessions that culminated with an in-person Discovery workshop. The feedback from the test group was great. Mike designed UX/UI interface that responded very well to the needs of three primary user groups - Teaching & Learning, Academic Research and Civic Engagement. Mike is very approachable and meshed seamlessly with the enterprise wide team that came together for this special project."
- Allison Holland
The University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Stakeholders
- This project involved collaboration across a large and diverse group of stakeholders, including representatives from collection management, curation, education, research, and public engagement functions.In total,
30+ stakeholders contributed insights and feedback throughout the engagement.
Scope & Constraints
Scope
- Exploration of user journeys across multiple collection types
- Stakeholder alignment and communication artifacts
- Early validation of experience concepts through prototyping and testing
- Conceptual design and definition of a unified discovery experience
Constraints
- Fixed timeframe and scope for discovery and validation
- Concept-level exploration rather than production delivery
Process
- Focus on real user needs and contexts
- Enable experimentation at low risk
- Identify usability and experience risks early
The double-diamond design thinking framework
Design Framework
The Double Diamond framework was used to structure discovery, exploration,
and validation activities, supporting:
- Deep understanding of user needs
- Iterative concept development
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Risk reduction through early testing
User research
Prior to my involvement, existing research and benchmarking provided a strong foundation. I synthesized this material and used it as an input into workshops and design exploration.
Rather than creating prescriptive solutions, the research informed experience principles and design directions that could accommodate multiple audiences and evolving needs.
Users & Audience
Through collaborative workshops, several broad audience groups and use cases were identified, including:
- Educators
- Researchers
- General and civic audiences
These groups differ significantly in goals, familiarity with collections, access constraints, and discovery behaviors. Designing for flexibility and accessibility across these contexts was a core consideration.
What we know about our users:
Curators
Essential insights emerge from this workshop where we use sticky notes to visualize and
define user personas, a vital step in user-centric design
Jobs-to-be-Done & Journey Mapping
Workshops were used to understand the outcomes users seek when engaging with collections, helping shift focus from features to meaningful goals.
Storyboarding
Conceptual storyboards were used to visualize potential discovery experiences and communicate ideas clearly across stakeholder groups.
I've used storyboards to visualize user journeys to provide additional context to our teams and stakeholders. Using images makes the story quick to understand at first glance and easy to remember.
Content strategy & mapping
High-level content mapping ensured that conceptual prototypes reflected the diversity and complexity of collection material without exposing sensitive or proprietary information.
Wireframing & Prototyping
Low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes were created to explore navigation patterns, interaction models, and discovery concepts. These artifacts were used exclusively for validation and discussion, not as production specifications.
Usability Testing
Early usability testing helped identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities in proposed concepts, informing iterative refinement.
A glimpse of the prototype. This rapid prototype was built in just one day, serving as a valuable tool to unearth numerous pain points at an early stage, avoiding significant expenses related to design and engineering costs further down the track.
Insights gleaned from remote, unmoderated user testing sessions that I facilitated.
User Interface (UI) design and high-fidelity prototyping
Following early validation and iteration, the focus shifted to refining the experience at a higher level of fidelity to further evaluate interaction patterns, visual hierarchy, and overall usability.
Visual design exploration was guided by established institutional design principles and aimed to support clarity, accessibility, and focus on collection content rather than interface elements.
Higher-fidelity prototypes were used as evaluation tools, allowing stakeholders and users to better assess proposed interactions and identify remaining usability considerations prior to any potential build phase.
A selection of high-fidelity screen designs from the Cultural Collections Discovery Portal
Key Takeaways
This proof-of-concept engagement demonstrated the value of early alignment, user-centered exploration, and iterative validation when working across complex institutional contexts.
For me personally, the project reinforced the importance of designing cultural and educational systems that balance accessibility, integrity, and long-term adaptability — particularly in domains where social and academic impact matters deeply.
The Constellation view of the Cultural Collections Discovery Portal
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