Design thinking approach in Radya Pustaka Museum website interface as an information medium

Abstract

Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, is one of Indonesia’s oldest museums which preserves ancient manuscripts and Javanese historical relics, yet its current digital information distribution relies primarily on social media and does not provide a single, structured source for museum information. If neglected, it will reduce appreciation of cultural heritage and the museum will lose its relevancy in the digital era. This study aims to develop a user interface (UI) for a museum website that presents content in a way that is accessible, useful, and visually coherent. Structured as a design-oriented project, the study follows the five stages of design thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Formative data were gathered through interviews with one museum staff member and three visitors, direct observation of the museum's existing information medium, comparative analysis of museum websites, and literature research on visual communication and UI design. The insights gathered were used to develop information architecture, wireframes, visual design choices, and an interactive prototype. The prototype was evaluated by 25 respondents aged 16 to 50 through a five-point Likert scale, yielding 121 Agree or Strongly Agree responses out of 125 total (96.8%), with the item on interest in visiting the museum attracting the most neutral replies. This study demonstrates how design thinking can connect identified museum information needs to interface structure, visual identity, and user evaluation within an applied visual communication design context.