Serpentine Galleries launch app by AllofUs that aims to enhance exhibition experience

Interactive design studio AllofUs has created a new web-app platform for the Serpentine Galleries, launching alongside the opening of the Serpentine Galleries’ Summer Season.

Orlando Mathias co-founder of AllofUs, says: “launching a permanent physical digital presence in the galleries…to sensitively merge the advantages of new technologies with the unique experience of seeing art in its physical form.”

Accessible via the Serpentine Galleries’ WiFi network, the web-app will give visitors access to a plethora of specially curated content including videos, interviews and editorials tailor-made to tie into the works and themes on display so as to augment the exhibition experience. Collaborations and contributions from artists and curators, as well as commissions and information about past, present and future exhibitions will round out the available content.

Orlando told us: “the content is intended to be insightful bites of information that help you appreciate the artwork in front of you, rather than in-depth descriptions. It is very much a mobile first approach to how people consume content rather than what would appear on a website.”

AllofUs says it has focused heavily on designing a stripped down, natural user experience: “minimising the UI to eliminate any real form of navigation, making the app more of a well informed companion that travels with you around the artwork.”

Having previously designed UX for a number of interactive exhibitions for the British Museum, as part of the Ancient Lives: new discoveries mummy exhibition and permanent information terminals in the Enlightenment galleries, as well as the V&A, AllofUs spoke of their desire to innovate further, “so that contextual content can be pushed to visitors based on their location around the galleries.” 

The realisation of the project comes from a grant given to the Serpentine by Bloomberg Philanthropies with the expressed purpose of creating a digital engagement programme using new media, to support and encourage cultural interest and engagement with art among young people and new audiences.

AllofUs says: “the launch is really the beginning of where the platform will go, and as the curators learn how visitors are using the app, the tours will evolve becoming more tailored and varied.”