Museum education: conceptual stage
2011
Description
Building understanding of the 21st century museum.
Fields
Design Research
  • Spring 2011
    Instructor: Santiago Piedrafita

    NC State graduate design students were asked by North Carolina Museum of History (NCMH) to conduct a comprehensive audit (leading to recommendations) of the current user experience of the museum. The audit addressed the following components: users (profiles), online (virtual), site (outside), building program (inside), communications, information, wayfinding, display, narrative, education, social, affiliation and patronage. 

    My research is built around educational programming that makes use of museum spaces and engages audiences in informal learning. We (graduate design students) started our investigation with the initial discussion which covered three main questions: first, what the 21st century museum should be doing? Second, what does the user expect? And finally, how we structure the work process and schedule. Mapping the touch points for possible design intervention followed the discussion.
  • Museum: more than a place, more than objects, more than an exhibition, program, or visit.
  • As an outcome of the initial research I came up with five clusters, each or them representing a particular touch point for museum-based education. The touch points are: static displays, tactile interactions, multimedia interactions, maps and information, which I unpacked both in the information poster (below) and during the summarizing oral presentation to the North Carolina Museum of History. 
  • I concentrated on multimedia interactions and tactile interactions within the museum space, which led to designing a digital storytelling prototype for the studio project.
  • Case studies included such organizations as Digital Stories at University of Maryland, Center for Digital Storytelling, Streetside Stories.
  • See the prototype.