Hello!

Does Design Matter to Science Museums?



At the most recent ASTC conference in Philadelphia we asked this very question.   During the session, “Does Design Matter,” there was a fantastic turn out with 9 fruitful roundtable conversations on various topics about design.  Thanks to everyone who participated!



As promised we are posting the notes from the roundtable discussions.  We hope these may inspire your work and future sessions in Fort Worth or Hawaii.  See below!



Prior to the conference we also posted a survey on the listserv to access how design is used, viewed and new trends within the ASTC community.  Follow the link below to see the results.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=N9_2bCUQ9qhHnwsPCuclOZBdzhjegIcflSc0J2QYQDwnk_3d



Lets keep this conversation going! For anyone interested in more information about the session feel free to email me: [log in to unmask]  I can also forward a word document with the notes.



Best,

Dottie Miles

Exhibit Designer

The Franklin Institute



___________________________________________________________



ASTC 2008 “Does Design Matter in Science Centers?” NOTES



Session Leaders

Dottie Miles – The Franklin Institute

Polly Mckenna-cress– The University of the Arts & Alusiv Design

Abbie Chessler - Quatrefoil

Lath Carlson- Art Guild

Ann Neumann --Liberty Science Center

Cynthia Sharpe- thinkwell

Craig Berger – SEGD

Jeanne Maier -- The Franklin Institute

Victoria Prizzia—Independent Museum Consultant

Cliff Wagner – Cliff Wagner Science Interactives, Inc.





TOPIC “Branding Design Experience- merging the identity of the exhibition with the brand of the facility”

Facility design?

-       Can you see your building from the city? Are there interesting views?

-       Does your building have an impression on visitors?

-       Does your website have a presence?

Public Perceptions?

-       What are visitor expectations for your museum?

-       How is design used in your space?

-       Are you building or expanding? What are your opportunities?

-       How are long time visitors or members going to react to change or expansion?

Brand is a perception and comes from intention.

How can we identify what we are not as a museum that might allow us to get to what we are?

How do local business or other landmarks work for or against us?

What are your human factors?

-       Cultural shifts?

-       Science of design is more anthropology than ergonomics

-       The museum is only a container

Do visitors see a unified design?

-       Newsletters

-       Website

-       Fonts

-       Brands

-       Outreach

-       Exhibits

-       (kid colors are not always the best choice)

Do you have in-house or out of house designers?

-       Is your design team working across the institute? Or just on exhibits or graphics?

-       Are your designers central or peripheral?

Experience design incorporates people as facilitators

-       Generation shift

-       Exhibit as blog—with continuous upgrade

-       How do you work with volunteers?

-       How do you foster an environment of respectful disagreement and effective brainstorming?



TOPIC “Design as exhibition vs. Design as Museum. What is Experience Design?”

Experience should deliver true to theme

Building as an exhibition with exhibits inside

Strategies

-       Holistic approach – integrate a consistent experience

-       Wayfinding and identity—

-       Support a sense of place through architecture

New building—opportunity to integrate everything new

Look at the building or space first

-       Where is the Chaos?

Standard Conventions:

-       Using walls-pallet for information

-       Vocabulary – what is the museum voice?

-       Lighting – How does this add or create excitement?

-       Landmarks- what are your major icons?

-       Typography – more then one level?



TOPIC “Moving from a zero environmental impact to a positive impact through Design Choices and Techniques”

Story  vs. immersive env. vs. overarching idea/theme:

-       Can you have a storyline? Do you need to have a storyline?

-       Can you linking together individual and non-sequential notions

Can an immersive experience be simple?

Does an immersive experience create an experience that is more meaningful?

What is our goal?

-       To educate

-       Entertain

-       Engage

-       Excite

-       Heighten interest and confidence

-       Participation

-       Create a memorable experience

-       Inspire

How do you know you’ve succeeded?

-       Visitor feedback

-       Are the visitors interactacting?

-       Do they return?

-       Dwell time

-       Survival of the exhibit

-       Have we affected/changed their behavior in anyway?

Preparation

-       Are you asking the right questions?

-       Are you working well in your team?

-       Do you have the info/tools you need?

How do you limit your topic to something you can achieve?



TOPIC “Establishing museum graphic standards”

The organization of the visitors’ trip is based on ease of visit—wayfinding, color-coding, and pattern

-       This method of design should be flawless.

-       It eases in the accessibility of content

Importance of consistency and graphic standards

-       Should carry from media to media

-       Out of house and in house designers should use

-       There should be creative continuity at all touch points

How do deal with standards in old galleries vs. new galleries?

There is a lack of awareness regarding the amount of time and scope of work for each project.

-       Need to have transparency of the process so that institutionally people are aware of time, planning and expertise

The website is the portal to your institution.

-       There should be consistency of look

-       Navigation

-       Sets the tone for the quality of visit

-       Builds up anticipation for your museum experience



TOPIC “What are visitor's Expectations for Design?  Do we ask them?”

Do you get feedback once your exhibit or museum is open to the public?

How large is your sample size?

-       Objective vs. the subjective –how do you test things that are somehow immeasurable?

-       How does the impact of design change behavior?

-       Understanding the criteria in which we judge

When is an exhibit complete?

-       Can we build in iterations?  How are energy and money limitations?

-       Need a responsive infrastructure for renovations

-       Can an exhibit be a living thing?

What are visitor’s expectations?

-       -Visitors expect magic, comfort, clean space, and valuable experience…

-       Visitors are exposed to good design.



Could we look at how theme parks, movies, and retail are evaluating consumers?

-       How could we use this expertise and apply it to our industry?



TOPIC “Creating a positive visitor experience”

The importance of laughter and inspiration by our visitors.

Look at each exhibit or interactive

-       Refine/ map controls and placement

-       Titles and graphic placement

-       Help visitors be more successful by thinking these through

Where do visitors look?

What allows greater accessibility?

-       Color, texture, shape

-       Graphics

-       3-D objects, models





TOPIC “Where does Design fall in your Process? What comes first design or content?”

Design Process guide?

-       How do you get all disciplines on the team speaking the same Language?

-       Coordination and input from all museum departments (administration, board members, community?)

-       Evolves and changes…with each project and with each team



Is everyone on the team a designer?

-       How can you create a more holistic process?

-       All disciplines on the team should contribute to “design”

-       Design is essential

-       Value of the team working together to create the experience



Can you, should you test design?

       -       Are there measurable outcomes?





TOPIC “Do new technologies keep us relevant and provide new opportunities to explore content?”

Goal of Designers: “Dazzle me, Blind me with Science?”



Is lots of content still relevant?



Technology is just a tool – content and experience are the drivers

Technology has upped the ante, visitors expect more complexity

-       Are science centers becoming technology centers?

-       How do we mediate with experts? How best do we use the scientists and

their visualizations

-       Technology has changed our perception of time

-       Expectation of instant contact and connection

-       Understanding the mediums, appropriate application, careful use of new

-       Visual metaphors and interfaces is key

-       Follow “Occams Razor” principle

Creating Community is important

-       Technology and new interfaces provide opportunities for interaction,

conversation and social activity

Harnessing the power to personalize

-       Sensor technologies, geo‐tagging, cell phone technologies etc allow for

making connections to relevancy

Redefine the museum as a point of departure

-       help swim through the information

-       revise and gather info, give opportunities to be passionate about science

-       beyond the museum wall

Challenges of technology: permissions, harnessing cell phones, cost to visitor.





TOPIC  “How important is user interface design in the success of interactive exhibits? What can we learn from the success of products like the I-Pod and I-Phone?”

It was a little hard to keep the discussion focused on UI design and not to let it become more about using interactive screen based technology in science museums. Key ideas are in BOLD.

Why are museums putting these interfaces in?

-       Expectations of visitors

-       Needs to be on par with what they have at home

-       If you use technology then it must be reliable

-       Challenging to keep up to date

Designers should not be lazy and just say “we’ll just make this a computer interactive”

-       Design of interactive media needs to lead from the story the designer is telling

-       Design of content for this media should follow the same process as the rest of the design.

Exhibits should be a blend of high and low tech

Some media based experiences can be overwhelming

-       Staff can sometimes be used to facilitate.

-       Use of media can vary based on the user and how many people are in the exhibit

UI design as a language

-       Use of website icons and structure

•       People are familiar with this type of design

-       Some components that do not follow standard web design can be confusing

-       New tech, like multi-touch, can take a while for people to get used to.

-       People’s familiarity with technology changes all the time, what is novel now will be common soon.

-       Most media is designed for the average user, which leaves some people out

Building competence with new user interfaces

-       With new types of interfaces people want to know how they work

-       People need to grasp how to use a new technology quickly

-       Build competence slowly- start with it just being a cool experience, and add more content later.

Depth of content

-       Sometime media based interactives are a dumping ground for content that couldn’t be fit in elsewhere

-       Can be a place for visitors who want to dig deeper

-       Ability to personalize experience, challenges of censorship

-       Can be designed for easy updates

Design process for media based interactives

-       Must follow from larger design

-       Use same process as larger design, don’t leave it up to non-designers

-       Prototype early and often

•       Need better tools for making media based prototypes

-       Need to be able to go back and change things if they don’t work

Future session ideas

-       “Available Media Technology for Museums”- Overview of all of the media based technologies out there and their possibilities and limitations.

-       “Designing Effective Media Based Exhibits” – Processes, tips, and tools for designing media based experienced that are successful.

-       “The Language of Media Based Exhibits”- What are the symbols and structure of the language of user interfaces?