jerry watkins arc centre of excellence for creative industries and innovation queensland university...
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Jerry WatkinsARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and InnovationQueensland University of TechnologyKelvin Grove, Australia
November 2007
By Alvin John
Overview of Participatory Design
Australian Museum Stories
experiment
Critique of the paper
GUEPS and CDs
Participatory Design (PD) originated in Scandinavia in 1970s
User-centered design approach:
• involves users as much as possible so that they can influence it
• integrates knowledge and expertise from other disciplines than just IT
• is highly iterative so that testing can insure that design meets users’ requirements
Experiment conducted at the Australian Museum to investigate the potential of social media based
communication strategies
Australian Museum Established in 1827 and oldest institution in the
country Heritage has a collection of 14.5 million specimens Attracts web visitation rates exceeding 1.5 million per
month
Museum authorities Shifted focus to quality of experience offered Explore social media as a medium to interact with
communities of interest ▪ Youths▪ Informal learning groups
Participatory Design (PD) was chosen as the strategic methodology to guide the social media experiment
PD was extended to museum exhibition design library website design
PD methodology was broken down into three phases for the museum project Phase 1: Due Diligence Phase 2: Iterative Design cycles Phase 3: Desired Performance
Working party formed
Author as the designer/researcher
Museum’s Head of Audience Research
Head of Web Services
Phase 1 had three steps:
1. Organizational observation▪ First hand experience of culture and working practices
2. Domain review▪ Reviewed current best practices by cultural institutions▪ Attracted by digital story telling genre – participants write and
produce autobiographical “mini-movies”▪ Chose to try “do-it-yourself” digital narratives
3. Initial project strategy▪ Use museum staff as participants in the first cycle of prototyping ▪ Develop skills in creative storytelling
Project was christened “Australian Museum Stories”
Workshop Design Social prototyping experience Experiment conducted with online audiences, rather than physical
visitors Initial phase was designed
▪ to skill museum staff in social media production techniques▪ in-house training program
2-day workshop Focus on three main areas:▪ Creative teamwork▪ Creative development▪ Multimedia production
First workshop in June 2006▪ Eleven participants assigned to four teams
Second workshop in November 2006▪ First workshop was sufficiently positive▪ Fourteen participants assigned to four teams (2 teams of three, 2 teams
of four)
Teams consisted of:
The writer
The creative producer
The editor
The executive producer
Micro-documentary – a creative non-fiction piece (preferably informal tone)
Teams start with a tentative story idea, genre definition, required sources checklist
Executive producer leads creative development exercises
Team members required to generate by the end of the day existing content original content final scripts storyboards
Second and final day of workshop
Editing and postproduction at the Powerhouse Museum’s Soundhouse Vectorlab facility
Participants given crash course on Sony’s Vegas video editing suite
Tasks: Record voiceovers Edit micro-documentary according to storyboard
End product – Presentation of playable micro-documentaries in full screen and web-ready codecs
Evaluation techniques instituted: Output analysis▪ Produced nine artifacts from eight groups over
two workshops▪ Varied audiences interested in different
subjects In-workshop survey▪ Self administered questionnaire▪ Indicated a high level of satisfaction with
social prototyping experience (24 out of 25)▪ Organizational pressure may be a factor
(internal audience)
Post-workshop surveys▪ Discussion group approximately three months later▪ Sessions based on ideas of “Future Workshop”▪ Involved complete a self-administered survey▪ How stories created could be used by museum▪ Reflections on any perceived organizational barriers
Focus groups▪ Four focus groups conducted in February 2007▪ Capture reaction of external potential target audience ▪ Parents of under-5s▪ Parents of under-16s▪ Science teachers▪ Culturally active seniors
▪ Positive reaction to more informal style of museum communication
▪ Negative reaction to the quality of micro-documentaries
First iterative design cycle concluded in March 2007
Parties involved in discussion: Workshop participants Senior management
Critique the current design, conduct of workshops, evaluation protocols to make improvements
Outcomes of the strategy meeting Production quality▪ Improve quality of audio and video created
Genre and format▪ Micro-documentary format was a success▪ Include other genres like linear micro-
documentary and online interactives for the museum’s forthcoming Web 2.0 website upgrade
Second iterative design cycle▪ Continue cultural engagement through social media▪ Establishment of a core in-house team to continue
and sustain creative social media production▪ Conduct pilot projects with external communities
associated with the museum▪ Wide extensive use of the micro-documentary
format▪ Creation of vodcasts and podcasts by external
biodiversity groups, students of secondary schools▪ Powerful way to summarize results of studies and
disseminating to the wider audience
▪ Online distribution▪ Introduce blogs and wikis
Participatory Design application extended to this experiment was a success
Incorporated users into decision making process
With social prototyping in an iterative design cycle, Australian Museum teams designed new tools, techniques and genres of mirco-documentaries for communication strategies
Positive Positive results with application of Participatory
Design
Not so positive Working party intervention might be a little too
much for the first iterative cycle of PD – more structured than usual
Not a lot of detail about questionnaires and surveys administered
Not a typical experiment with hard data tabulated and arriving at a conclusion – different style (PD approach)
GUEPS Explaining Mental model
CDs Visibility Consistency Progressive Evaluation