Challenge
In recent years, a large museum in Denmark has succeeded in creating alternative approaches to convey historical and societal content, which to a higher degree accommodates a user perspective. With the ambition of creating an unpreceded type of engaging museum experience, aiming to attract especially younger children and teenagers (12+ of age), the museum is currently in the process of developing a brand-new exhibition set to open in 2023. The project is still in its early stages. To help validate early concept ideas, the museum has asked Epinion to collect perspectives and opinions from potential users.
Approach
Using storytelling and visualisation techniques in three online focus groups, we succeeded in presenting the early-stage concept in a way that made the "exhibition-to-be" come alive for potential users to discuss. More specifically, we narrated a short story from a visitor's perspective, using drawing sketches, mood boards, and 3D models made in collaboration with the museum's architectural developers. The story was presented to three online focus groups with participants matching the exhibition developers' target groups. During the fictive museum tour, the moderator made "pit stops" to facilitate discussions of selected concept elements and overall impressions.
Resolution
All perspectives were summarized into a short, interactive report creating a tool and making it easy for the client to find and navigate the results. Furthermore, Epinion created a short video based on drawings visualizing the central targets groups and findings. The hand-drawn look in the video underlines that the project is still in the making and that the insights support further development in the process. This co-creation project helped the exhibition developers validate their concept ideas, challenge their own biases, and even be inspired to continue to investigate blind spots. Based on these early-stage user insights, the exhibition developers will return with added confidence, knowing that they are working in the right direction and new ideas to improve the exhibition concept. The next step is to conduct user tests on a more finalized exhibition concept.
