This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine

ON WRITING EXHIBIT TEXT TO FACILITATE FAMILY LEARNING

One of the functions of the museum is to provide visitors with stories told by each object. The object itself often attracts visitors, while the texts that tell its story are completely ignored. For museum professionals, writing good texts that visitors would love to read is always a big challenge.

In our museum, the “parent-child social context” is often key. In a typical scenario in our galleries, children who are interested in an exhibited object are likely to ask their parents, “Mom/Dad, what’s this?” This question often troubles the parent, and he/she replies like this: “Something . . . something very old,” trying to avoid the question. But if parents could easily find relevant text, they would be happy to read it for their curious children.

I suggest utilizing two different types of text to help the visitors understand the exhibitions: short text and longer text. The short and simple text’s role is to attract parents’ attention immediately. And it helps them think like this: “This text seems to help me in answering my kid’s troubling question.” It then leads them to read the longer text.

The body of the text (longer text) usually explains what kind of story the specimen has. In this type of text, we often use a dialogue (question-and-answer) format. When the parents find the dialogue text, they can make use of it and read the answer part for their kids. In other words, the parents can take the role of the characters in the dialogue, and at the same time, they are able to answer their kids’ questions. You can let your museum characters appear and talk in this type of dialogue. It will make it more fun and easier to understand.

Assisted by this parent-child social context, we have successfully conveyed what we want both kids and parents to know about the specimens. In this model, there are two important ideas. First, learning something from parents is often more efficient for children than learning it from someone else, because the parents know their kids’ learning levels and how much experience they have had so far. Second, a museum experience like the one above can provide a good learning opportunity not only for kids, but also for parents. We believe that “texts” may work effectively in learning at museums when they better fit the needs originated from a parent-child social context.

Junko Anso, former curator, Fukui City Museum of Natural History, Japan

This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine

ON DESIGNING DIGITAL GAMES

Future Energy Chicago is a games-based simulation at the Museum of Science and Industry in which players collaborate and compete to create an energy-efficient landscape for Chicago. Playing in teams, visitors can reinvent the home, the car, the transportation system, the neighborhood, and the power grid. Grounded in real-world data, the simulation presents complex energy issues in a fun, social experience.

Multiplayer games-based design was completely new to us, and it was critical to conduct an in-depth formative evaluation process encompassing paper and digital prototypes, which we did with Randi Korn & Associates (RK&A). Not only did this shape key design and content decisions, but it also highlighted the importance of particular elements—two of which we discuss here—that are applicable to many types of projects and budgets.

• Don’t underestimate the power of the paper prototype! After settling on a framework for the game play, our interactive media design partner, Potion, created inexpensive paper versions of each of the digital games. These full-scale prototypes mimicked the actual anticipated design, as project team members became “human computers” to respond to players’ choices. This paper testing led to overarching design adjustments that we could further test through quick, iterative changes along the way. It also led to significant changes in the games’ scoring metrics.
• Involve the design team in the evaluation process. Potion’s continuous involvement and presence during testing meant that 1) they observed audiences’ reactions first hand and could integrate simple, effective changes, and 2) the follow-up discussions with RK&A were seamless, keeping us all on the same path of improving the experience.

The time and energy spent on the paper prototyping and Potion’s participation in the process was invaluable in achieving conceptual clarity, while saving considerable time and expense.

Patricia L. Ward, director of science and technology, and John Llewellyn, senior exhibit developer, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine. Kari Jensen, senior exhibit developer, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland

ON PROTOTYPING

The Museum of Science, Boston, has been prototyping extensively since the 1980s. We have experimented over the years with various ways of prototyping, all using an iterative process of exploring, testing, and refining learning and design strategies so that the final exhibition fulfills the project aspirations, which include meeting the needs of the widest possible range of visitor abilities, learning styles, and interests.

We have found that the most successful projects are ones in which the team engages in a design process that includes:

• data-based decision-making
• active reflection upon and discussion of critical issues
• continual refinements of exhibition designs
• a focus on the visitor’s experience and learning.

We typically prototype in phases, from the earliest concept in which we confirm that the idea has traction with visitors, to the near-final version of the component, in which we verify that the visitors can successfully use, learn from, and enjoy the component, and that the component is technically feasible and maintainable.

Research and evaluation staff are included in every team, which results in a seamless process, and ensures not only that findings from prototyping are applied throughout the life of a project, but also that lessons learned during one exhibit project are applied to other projects as appropriate.

Recently we have found success in increasing our emphasis on testing the technical feasibility and maintainability of components throughout the prototyping process. Our technical designers and exhibit maintenance staff are working closely to refine a process that ensures that components are designed in a way that they can be easily repaired, and that replacement parts are available and affordable, are safe for visitors, and are durable for long-term survival in our extreme exhibit hall environment!

Andrea Durham, former director of exhibits, Museum of Science, Boston