About:
The Da Nang Museum is a cultural institution preserving Vietnamese history and art. The aim of this case study is to show how service design can improve the visitor experience and simplify the interaction between the museum and its visitors.
Category:
Service design
Client:
Da Nang Museum
Year:
2024
Location:
Da Nang, Vietnam
Design framework:
Service design, Double Diamond
Tools:
Figma, FigJam, Google Forms, Google Docs, Dovetail
Research
Define
Ideate
Outcome
The problem:
The website isn’t translated, exhibit labels are only in Vietnamese, navigation inside the museum is unclear and basic information for international visitors is missing. Foreign tourists leave disappointed and the museum loses a large share of its potential audience.
Goal:
Map the entire visitor experience from first contact to departure, identify the key issues, and propose practical, financially realistic recommendations the museum can introduce without major investment.
My role:
Service designer responsible for the end-to-end visitor experience. From field research and stakeholder interviews through the customer journey and service blueprint to the final recommendations for museum management.
Methods:
•
Stakeholder interview
•
Internet review
•
Visitor survey (Google Forms)
•
Visitor interviews
•
Personas
•
Customer journey mapping
•
Service Blueprint
•
Double Diamond
•
Affinity mapping
•
Insights report
Discovery
I started in the field, not at the desk. Before designing any solution, I needed to understand how the museum works for different types of visitors and where the experience breaks down. I worked iteratively: the first version of the research was insufficient, the second produced real data that moved the project forward.
/01
Research A: survey
The first version was a simple Google Forms questionnaire distributed through the Department of Information and Library Studies. The response rate was low and the data couldn’t support concrete problems or personas.
Too few respondents. It didn’t reach a representative sample of actual museum visitors.
Not enough data. The responses showed no recurring patterns or priorities.
/02
Research B: visitor interviews
For the second iteration I switched to qualitative interviews with specific visitor types, using a structured script of 13 questions covering the whole visit: before, during and after.
Three distinct personas came out of it, each breaking down at a different point of the visit.
/03
Stakeholder interview and internet review
Alongside the visitor research I interviewed the museum and ran an internet review in parallel: online reviews, social media and the museum’s own web presence. Both streams converged on the same issues.
Define
With the research data in hand, I mapped the entire visitor process to see exactly where the experience breaks down. The customer journey and the service blueprint turned scattered findings into a structured picture from which we could prioritise what to fix first.
/01
Customer journey
Seven phases, from exploring museums in Da Nang and finding the main museum, through the first interaction, entering and walking through, to the end of the visit and post-visit. Each phase covers actions, doubts and concerns, best moments, photos, customer feeling and opportunities.
/02
Service Blueprint
The blueprint mirrors the seven phases of the journey and adds what visitors don’t see: frontstage actions, the line of interaction, employee actions, technology, the line of visibility, backstage actions, support processes and proposed improvements for each phase.
Ideate
The research and journey work surfaced around 20 issues. Through brainstorming and affinity mapping I narrowed them down to priority areas and translated them into specific solution ideas.
/01
Design process
The work followed the Double Diamond: research into root causes, a diagnosis of the problems, a wide round of ideas, and a short list of actionable recommendations.
/02
Top 2 problems
Two priority areas clearly emerged from affinity mapping. They are the foundation on which the whole visitor experience stands or falls.
“The website is not translated into other languages, so I got lost in the museum’s programme. On site I realised the exhibit labels are not translated either, so I left disappointed.” Sarah Thompson, solo traveller
Deliver
For each priority problem I proposed a specific, financially accessible solution the museum can introduce without major investment. The aim was not the ideal end state, but a realistic first step that significantly improves the visit for international visitors.
/01
Recommendations
Four first steps, two for each priority problem.
/02
Website: language barrier
A simple Google plugin that translates the website into any language. Low investment, no structural changes to the website, immediate impact for international visitors.
/03
Exhibits: language barrier
Exhibits can carry a simple QR code linked to Google Translate. A more convenient option is a single QR code at the entrance that opens a translation app for the entire museum.
/04
Wayfinding and guide: navigation
Wall-mounted symbols with descriptions, or simple floor markings that work without translation, plus a general overview map. The cheapest option is a printed guide in all language versions with descriptions of each section.
Outcome
The final deliverable was an insights report for museum management, summarising every identified problem area with priorities and proposed solutions, structured so the museum can move step by step within its own budget.
/01
Insights report
Beyond the basic issues, the report lists the problems and their solutions on a timeline aligned with the museum’s budget. It combines outputs from all phases: root causes, current state analysis, recommendations and an implementation roadmap.
/02
What I learned
Service design for a cultural institution with a limited budget means realistic, low-cost, quickly deployable solutions. The point is the first step with a clear, measurable impact.
A quantitative questionnaire isn’t an automatic path to data. For smaller institutions, qualitative interviews with a few precisely targeted personas work far better.
Customer journeys and blueprints work when they structure the conversation with stakeholders and become the basis for decisions, not as one-off documents.
/03
Next steps
Pilot. Roll out the Google plugin and QR codes in part of the museum and gather feedback from international visitors.
Measure. Track international visitor numbers and online reviews.
Navigation. Gradually introduce floor markings and printed guides across the museum.
Website. Rebuild it with multilingual content as a long-term project.
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