ESTABLISHING THE SALT as a CULTURAL COMMUNITY
ESTABLISHING THE SALT as a CULTURAL COMMUNITY
ESTABLISHING THE SALT as a CULTURAL COMMUNITY
SALT is a cultural institution in public services in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey. It provides research-based exhibitions, publications, web and digitization projects. Also, developing programs and offering screenings, conferences and workshops. Due to its impact SALT became a part of L'Internationale, an association of European art institutions. SALT is aiming to provide an environment for discussions and co-learning to users and collaborators. SALT respects each period, discipline and object-based practise and is eager to extend opportunities to all.
SALT wanted to improve its visitor experience and understand people needs better, to build stronger relationships.
The approach
The focus of our work based on persona building. We designed a series of sessions with the SALT team to define their vision profiles. Defining vision profiles helped us in building user journeys to understand SALT's experience in detail, to create a better holistic experience.
“Personas made me think more than I could in any other activity. Because it was someone else and I had to think about the environment the personas are in. So, it was both stimulating and creative. " - Melisa Korkmaz, SALT Communication
The solution
After conducting multiple workshops, the team was able to define insights into three main pillars to help improve the user experience:
COLLABORATIONS: SALT's environment influence the visitor experience. For this reason, findings and ideas that will improve SALT's cultural and commercial relations with its environment are under the Collaborations heading.
BUILDING: Main physical space problems of SALT are practical (shelves are difficult to access, the library is noisy, etc.). Findings and ideas on this subject are under the Building heading.
ACCESS: The way visitors access SALT (transportation, getting information, giving feedback, etc.) is one of the drastic factors that affect the experience. Findings and ideas aiming to improve visitor access are under the Access heading.
Establishing the SALT
as a cultural community
The main finding through user journeys was the visitor experience is not limited to the space area alone. The physical space of SALT, the exhibits and demonstrations within the institution play a significant role in the visitor experience. SALT environment, the access to SALT and the interaction between people etc. shape the visitor experience. Therefore, we set the actions in the SALT building and outside the SALT building to establish a community and ecosystem within the institution.
All in all, by including visitor's actions conducted before, during and after and putting the user in the centre of the design process. GEDS was able to provide SALT a better understanding of the visitors and how they use space according to their needs. Which resulted in improving visitor experience and building a stronger relationship with them.
