design for participation: three lessons from museums

design for participation:lessons from museums

nina simon, museum 2.0nina@museumtwo.com

@ninaksimon on twitter

slides at http://bit.ly/baychinina

where i live

what i dobalboa park online collaborativeboston children’s museum calgary science centerchabot space science centerchicago history museumdenver art museumexperience music projectgirls math and science partnershipinternational spy museummonterey bay aquariumoakland museumSFMOMA smithsonian museum of natural historystatens museum for kunsttech museum of innovation

the participatory institution is a place where visitors can create, share, and connect with each other around content.

what i focus on

in cultural institutions, that can mean...

Stanford Art Center upper: chicago children’s museumlower: Science Museum of Minnesota

Minnesota History Museum

and it requires some changes

Authority is content provider Authority is platform provider

how do you design a space to support

community engagement & meaningful visitor

participation?

three core challenges on the web

✴ participation inequality

✴ variable quality amateur content

✴ limited tools for social interaction

three design techniques

✴ scaffold participation

✴ design for thoughtful response

✴ design from “me” to “we”

three design techniques

✴ scaffold participation

✴ design for thoughtful response

✴ design from “me” to “we”

90,000 visitors, 37,000 posters made

average time poster-making: 25 minutes

social participation also requires scaffolding

GoMA

Statens Museum of Kunst

giving good instructions

SFMOMA

SFMOMA

three design techniques

✴ scaffold participation

✴ design for thoughtful response

✴ design from “me” to “we”

web 2.0 is software that gets better the more people use it

-Tim O’Reilly, technologist and publisher

Minnesota History MuseumAuckland Museum

turning trash into data

Worcester City Gallery and Museum

an exhibit that gets better the more people use it?

Chicago History Museum Staff of Life grocery store

all of this hinges on responsiveness

Ontario Science Centre

and asking good questions

DAISY: How do I know I'm talking to a human and not just another machine? DAISY: Are you sure that I'm not a real person talking to you by e-mail? What would it take to convince you?

EXPLORATORIUM

Lowell National Historical Park

three design techniques

✴ scaffold participation

✴ design for thoughtful response

✴ design from “me” to “we”

less like this more like this

Photo by cybertoad on Flickr

who are you relative to the institution?

social infrastructure for interaction

Advice, University of Washington

I’ve never had a gay friend. It was unbelievably exciting to find myself facing him with his body, opinions and identity. It seems he was not very different from me and especially he was not an alien. From now on, I will not disrupt my communication with the gays, I will enhance it.

- Reader in Istanbul, 2007

the participatory institution is a place where visitors can create, share, and connect with each other around content.*

* it doesn’t have to be a museum

what’s next?

creative, interactive, content-rich social objects

venue that encourages interpersonal engagement +

BAR MUSEUM

continue the conversation...@ninaksimon

nina@museumtwo.comhttp://bit.ly/baychinina