Audioguide App
Designing a progressive web app that gives visitors flexible access to exhibition content and enables curators to manage it independently.
Progressive web app
Museum
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
8 weeks
team
2 Enginners, 1 PM, me
platform
Web
Futurium is a museum in Berlin focused on science, technology, and society. They needed a digital audioguide for two user groups: visitors who want self-paced, multilingual access to exhibition content on their own device and curators who need to manage tours, audio, and translations without developer involvement.
I ran two workshops with museum stakeholders to map content workflows and pain points. Then did on-site observation, watching how visitors actually move through exhibitions. What I observed was that visitors seek information in moments of curiosity, in their preferred format and language. Some listen, others read. Some follow a sequence, others jump between topics. The design needed to support all of these paths.
Three ways in, no wrong path
The guide runs as a progressive web app, no download needed. Visitors connect to the museum Wi-Fi and meet Dio, a neutral voice assistant that guides them through setup.
From there, they choose how to explore: curated Tours, a spatial Map, or direct access via Code. All paths lead to the same content.
Guided, flexible, and accessible
Visitors rejected rigid tours, so we designed a guided but flexible model, a recommended path with freedom to deviate. Progress is tracked, so visitors can pause, skip, or return anytime. Tours can be filtered by duration, topic, and audience.
Accessibility is built in: every audio has a full transcript, and content can include synced images or video. Users can read instead of listen, and settings stay consistent with the main museum site.
A content system curators can run
Content is structured around exhibits as the core unit. Each exhibit holds its audio, text, location, and tags, and can be reused across multiple tours. Tours are simply sequences of these exhibits. This means curators don’t build content from scratch each time, they assemble it. Result: they can create and update tours, audio, and translations themselves, without relying on developers.
