Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Critical Reflection on Three Paradigms in Museum Experience Design

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Museum Experience Design

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Cultural Computing ((SSCC))

Abstract

This chapter identifies and describes three technological paradigms in museum experience design, all positioned within an overarching visitor-centredness frame: (1) User-centred experience design, which emphasises modelling experience design in response to visitor views and interests, through methods adapted from or inspired by user-centred approaches in Human–Computer Interaction; (2) Participatory experience design, which shifts the emphasis from the product to the process of design and invites the visitor to become partner in the design of experiences; and (3) Agile experience design, in which the main preoccupation is with being constantly responsive to evolving visitor aims and needs, and innovating the experiential offer on an ongoing basis. In the context of museum experience design, each of these paradigms represents a systematic way of delivering value to the public through meaningfully designed experiences. The chapter contributes a critical reflection on the importance of acknowledging the existence and endorsement of these paradigms, which can impact museum practice beyond single design projects. In particular, I will discuss to what extent working within a certain paradigm can be transformative for the way museums function, how they are organised and how they engage with their public.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Nina Simon (2010) proposes a typology of forms of public participation in cultural institutions which spans: (1) contributory projects, in which visitors input ideas, comments or objects in processes ideated and controlled by the institutions; (2) collaborative projects, which invite visitors to take part in the ideation and creation of projects, which are thereafter developed and managed by institutions; (3) co-creative projects, in which members of institutions work side by side with the public or community members to ideate, design and run programmes that are aligned to the interests of the latter; and (4) hosted projects, in which ideas and design come from the public and are hosted in cultural institutions, which offer spaces and resources.

References

  • Bannon L (1986) From human factors to human actors: the role of psychology and human-computer interaction studies in system design. In: Greenbaum J, Kyng M (eds) Design at work: cooperative design of computer systems. Erlbaum, pp 25–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker S (2006) When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges. In: Proceedings of the 4th nordic conference on human-computer interaction: changing roles. ACM, New York, pp 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/1182475.1182476

  • Dogan M (2001) Smelser NJ, Baltes B (eds) International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences. pp 16–11023

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis D et al (2008) Agile methods for project management. In: Trant J, Bearman D (eds) Museums and the web 2008: proceedings, Toronto: archives and museum informatics. Published March 31, 2008. Consulted January 19, 2017. http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/jenkins/jenkins.html

  • Falk JH, Dierking LD (2013) The museum experience revisited. Routledge

    Google Scholar 

  • Gronbaek K, Grudin J, Bodker S, Bannon L (1993) Achieving cooperative system design: shifting from a product to a process focus. Schuler D, Namioka A (eds) Participatory design: principles and practices. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 79–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall T, Bannon L (2005) Co-operative design of children’sinteraction in museums: a case studyin the Hunt Museum. CoDesign 1(3):187–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Handa ML (1986) Peace paradigm: transcending liberal and marxian paradigms paper presented in international symposium on science, technology and development, New Delhi, India, March 20–25, 1987, Mimeographed at O.I.S.E., University of Toronto, Canada (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison S, Tatar D, Sengers P (2007) The three paradigms of HCI. In: Alt. Chi. Session at the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems San Jose, California, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hegley D, Tongen M, David A (2016) The Agile museum. In: MW2016: Museums and the web 2016. Published January 15, 2016. Consulted January 19, 2017. http://mw2016.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/the-agile-museum/

  • Hooper-Greenhill E (1994) Education, communication and interpretation: towards a critical pedagogy in museums. In: Hooper-Greenhill (ed.) The educational role of the museum. 2nd edn. Routledge, London, pp 3–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn T (1977) The essential tension: selected studies in scientific tradition and change

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn T (1996) The structure of scientific revolutions, 3d edn. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. (1st ed., 1962)

    Google Scholar 

  • Laudan L (1977) Progress and Its problems: towards a theory of scientific growth. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Mannion S, Sabiescu A, Robinson W (2015) An audio state of mind: understanding behaviour around audio guides and visitor media. In: MW2015: museums and the web 2015. Published February 1, 2015. Consulted December 19, 2016. http://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/an-audio-state-of-mind-understanding-behviour-around-audio-guides-and-visitor-media/

  • Muller MJ (2003) Participatory design: the third space in HCI. Hum Comput Interaction Dev Process 4235:165–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller MJ, Wildman DM, White EA (1993) Taxonomy of PD practices: a brief practitioner’s guide. Commun ACM 36(6):26–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Nonaka I, Konno N (1998) The concept of “ba”: Building a foundation for knowledge creation. Calif Manag Rev 40(3):40–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sabiescu AG, David S, van Zyl I, Cantoni L (2014) Emerging spaces in community-based participatory design: reflections from two case studies. In: Proceedings of the 13th participatory design conference: research papers, vol 1. ACM, New York, pp 1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabiescu A, Charatzopoulou K (2015) Shaping a culture of lifelong learning for young audiences: a case study on the samsung digital discovery centre at the British museum. RICHES EU project deliverable

    Google Scholar 

  • Samis P, Michaelson M (2017) The visitor-centred museum. Routledge, New York and London

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwaber K (1997) Scrum development process. In: Business object design and implementation. Springer London, pp 117–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon N (2010) The participatory museum. Museum 2.0

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon N (2016) The art of relevance. Museum 2.0, Santa Cruz, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Suchman L (1993) Foreword. In: Schuler D, Namioka A (eds) Participatory design: principles and practices. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp vii–ix

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland J (2001) Inventing and reinventing SCRUM in five companies. sur le site officiel de l’alliance agile

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland J, Viktorov A, Blount J, Puntikov N (2007) Distributed scrum: Agile project management with outsourced development teams. In: 40th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences, 2007. HICSS 2007. IEEE, Waikoloa, 274a p

    Google Scholar 

  • Takeuchi H, Nonaka I (1986) The new product development game. Harvard Business Review

    Google Scholar 

  • TaxĂ©n G (2004) Introducing participatory design in museums. In: Proceedings of the eighth conference on Participatory design: artful integration: interweaving media, materials and practices, vol 1. ACM, New York, pp 204–213

    Google Scholar 

  • TaxĂ©n G (2005) Participatory design in museums. Visitor-oriented perspectives on exhibition design. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Google Scholar 

  • Watkins J (2007) Social media, participatory design and cultural engagement. In: Proceedings of the 19th Australasian conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Entertaining User Interfaces. ACM, New York, pp 161–166

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Loughborough University London, London, UK

    Amalia Sabiescu

Authors
  1. Amalia Sabiescu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amalia Sabiescu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Arnold Vermeeren

  2. NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, The Netherlands

    Licia Calvi

  3. Loughborough University London, London, United Kingdom

    Amalia Sabiescu

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Sabiescu, A. (2018). A Critical Reflection on Three Paradigms in Museum Experience Design. In: Vermeeren, A., Calvi, L., Sabiescu, A. (eds) Museum Experience Design. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58550-5_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58550-5_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58549-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-58550-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation