Making System State Visible in AI Course Creation
View case study →Designing a Multiplayer Experience for Gen Z Museum Engagement
Problem
High Traffic, Low Satisfaction Among Gen Z
As a world-class art museum, NGA attracts significant online traffic, but Fun Seekers, largely Gen Z, have the lowest satisfaction among the six audience groups. NGA had already experimented with several approaches to attract them. One example is Artle, a daily art-guessing game. Artle attracts around 10,000 players each day, and Fun Seekers are one of its main user groups, proving that games work. However, like many lightweight guessing games, Artle supports only a narrow type of interaction. This creates an opportunity to design a mobile experience that better aligns with how Fun Seekers want to engage.
What the National Gallery of Art Already Knows
Fun Seekers make up 13% of online traffic but report the lowest satisfaction
Fun Seekers make up 13% of online traffic. However, they have the lowest satisfaction.
Engagement is narrow
Artle drives strong return behavior, with 54% of Fun Seekers returning. However, a lack of interactive content remains their main pain point.
57% of traffic comes from mobile
Fun Seekers primarily use mobile devices to access the NGA website.
Research
Engaging, informative experiences feel social and authentic
Based on these insights, we focused on understanding what Gen Z Fun Seekers consider engaging and how they use museum websites.
Museum websites are informative but not engaging
Fun comes from social interaction, sharing, and co-creation
Gen Z values authenticity
Strategic Direction
Meet Gen Z where they already are
Our strategy focused on shifting from one-way interactions to participatory, shareable experiences, while rethinking information discovery as an engaging process. Instead of relying on standalone game mechanics, we integrated social and co-creative behaviors into the core art experience.
We designed a participatory art experience that turns exploration into a social, game-driven interaction.
- 01
Discover
Discover the game on the NGA website
- 02
Join
Read the rules and enter the lobby
- 03
Play
Reveal the theme and play
- 04
Social
Vote and react
- 05
Results
View the leaderboard and share
Ideation
Creating art as competition
Our breakthrough was Art or Fart, a concept inspired by Gen Z's fast-paced digital culture that transforms art appreciation into a competitive, social game. Earlier ideas fell short because they lacked immediacy or meaningful social interaction.
Design Decision 01
Increase discoverability through existing behavior
Gen Z users typically visit museum websites for practical information, such as opening hours and current exhibitions. We placed an entry point near exhibition information to increase the game's discoverability and encourage users to learn about the featured artistic style before visiting. We added another entry point to Artle's results page, allowing existing players to try the new game.
Design Decision 02
Lower the barrier to drawing with a finger
Drawing on a small screen with just a finger creates a high barrier to entry. We integrated multiple drawing assistance tools that interpret sketches and suggest options, making creation feel accessible rather than frustrating.
Design Decision 03
Enable social expression without losing control
Open chat risked undermining NGA's institutional voice. We replaced it with a reactions feature, preserving social expression while keeping communication controlled.
Design Decision 04
Learn through play
Letting users vote on themes created more problems than it solved. A carousel selector that combines an art style with an object gave players more variety, clearer context, and a built-in learning moment.
Impact
Transform learning into a game
Art or Fart is a competitive, multiplayer drawing game where players paint to a themed prompt, vote on each other's work, and climb a weekly leaderboard.
- 01
Shifts a one-way information channel into a participatory platform
- 02
A competitive game loop sustains social engagement
- 03
Themed prompts naturally surface NGA's collection
“A lot of this is familiar to our developers. I can see this easily fitting into our portfolio of products.”
Conclusion
Scaling the Experience
Future work will focus on expanding the catalog of themes and integrating a shared engagement system that connects this experience with other NGA games, encouraging long-term participation and extending engagement across the broader NGA ecosystem.
