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TL;DR

Challenge

Service Design

Facilitation

How might we design “moments that matter” across the museum journey?

Design Strategy

User Research

Reimagining the Telecom for Taiwanese Gen Z

How might we design “moments that matter” across the museum journey?

Design Museum of Chicago

Chicago

ROLE

Design Strategist

TEAM

Shreya Mathur
Tanvi Waghray
Sanjana Kumar
Zubair Bhaidani

TOOLS

Figma, Mural
Facilitation, Service Blueprints

Working with the Design Museum of Chicago, we led research and service design strategy to explore how the museum could expand audience engagement, strengthen membership, and build sustainable growth.

The work uncovered key gaps across visitor retention, value perception, and system fragmentation, and we introduced strategic service directions, journey frameworks, and experience blueprints designed to extend engagement beyond the physical visit.

SERVICE BLUEPRINTS

6

blueprints created, each mapped to a concept

CO-CREATION

3

sessions conducted
(ideation and prioritization) to align stakeholders

REUSABLE SYSTEM

Framework

guiding future concepts, journeys, and decision-making

PROBLEM

The Design Museum of Chicago attracts thousands of visitors, but engagement often ends after the first visit.

Despite strong programming and community presence, the museum faced challenges in retaining audiences, growing membership, and building sustainable revenue streams.

How can we grow engagement beyond the physical visit and create sustainable value for both visitors and the museum?

BUSINESS GOALS

So, our challenge came down to how can we grow DMOC's audience, deepen engagement beyond the physical space, and drive long-term growth

Increase Public Awareness

Increase public awareness of DMOC through expanded reach across digital and physical channels.

Boost Membership

Boost membership by delivering new offerings in the plan that encourage visitors to become part of the DMOC community.

Strengthen Revenue Options

Strengthen revenue by turning engagement and memberships into sustainable financial support through events and partnerships.

PLANNING OUR APPROACH

Primary research through stakeholder interviews & observational research

Secondary research through benchmarking other institutions and engagement models

Co-creation workshops with stakeholders for ideation

Co-creation workshops with stakeholders for prioritization

Service blueprints and journey frameworks to map experience concepts

DRIVING INSIGHTS

Okay, so how did we come to our insights?

INTERVIEWS

"Most of our visitors just stumble upon us, but we have no way of keeping them engaged beyond their visit."

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Art Institute, Shedd, and MS&I create pre-visit and post-visit engagement via mobile apps, virtual tours, and robust social media strategies.

MEDIA LISTENING

Community members expressed surprise upon learning about the museum's existence, indicating a gap in visibility despite collaborations

These together informed our first insight:

Visitor engagement is low below beyond the first visit

5,000 walk-ins per month, but no structured retention efforts

No post-visit engagement strategy

Marketing & branding inconsistencies, expectations

Similarly these were our other driving insights

The museum operates on isolated revenue streams rather than a connected growth system.

Main funding sources: 35% Grants, 35% Donations, 30% Programs & Events

Funding relies heavily on grants and donations, while events and programs function independently without scalable mechanisms to drive membership, retention, or recurring revenue.

Membership is positioned as support for the museum, rather than value for the customers.

Visitors love the exhibits but don't see the value of becoming members. Unlike peer institutions, where membership unlocks continuous experiences, DMOC’s offering lacks differentiated benefits that incentivize ongoing participation.

CO-CREATION WORKSHOPS

Given the short timeline, this project leaned on co-creation sessions with the founders to ensure continuous alignment and buy-in.

Ideation & Prioritization Workshops

We facilitated two workshops — one online and one in-person — designed to accelerate ideation and decision-making.

Each session was built around structured activities, allowing stakeholders to collaboratively generate, refine, and prioritize concepts efficiently.

STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATION

Our concepts form an interconnected ecosystem of experiences that entice new audiences, engage them meaningfully, and extend their relationship with DMoC.

Strengths & Assets

Existing assets of DMoC was evaluated and the strongest ones were pulled out to be leveraged

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Business Goals

The key business goal defined by DMoC was made central to our concepts

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Ideation Workshop

All the ideas were co-created to make sure they were feasible and prioritized

These together helped up build our concepts that were grouped by how they engage members and visitors—whether through physical objects, shared experiences, storytelling, or hybrid models.