The augmented house: Crafting tangible interaction in house museums

Abstract

With my practice-based PhD, I intended to broaden current practice in exhibition design by means of designing for tangible interaction in house museums. The main goals were (1) to identify the challenges and opportunities for designing interactive experiences in historic houses, (2) to show how to include underrepresented actors such as museum volunteers in the creative process, and (3) to use design as a means to demonstrate the potential of tangible interaction in house museums. I was motivated by my experience as an exhibition designer where I identified a space for experimenting with a new approach to exhibition design, one that was more inclusive, multisensory and design-led. To achieve this, I blended Research Through Design (RtD) with co-creation to magnify the voices and roles of museum volunteers in the context of one historic house: the Bishops' House museum (Sheffield, UK). I designed for tangible interaction where embedded technology enabled me to augment the visiting experience in ways that were magical, embodied and highly evocative. The thesis reports the four phases of my investigation in which I reflect on my process alongside presenting findings from co-creating and implementing novel experiences of heritage at the museum. I contribute to the field of exhibition and interaction design at different levels: firstly, by providing practitioners with guidance on how to design for sensitive places like the Bishops' House; then, by developing my own tools to nurture co-creation during the RtD process; finally, by addressing issues with current practice through design and showing how tangible interaction can enhance the visiting experience in the particular context of house museums. With my work, I believe that I have opened a new area of exploration for exhibition design where challenges and concerns can be addressed through an inclusive approach with craftmanship at its centre.

Creating Futuristic Heritage Experiences: An Exploratory Co-Design Study through Design Fiction

“…A specific area that needs further exploration is speculative and imaginative work by designers and artists across the arts and sciences, which would allow innovative engagements with heritage that go beyond the current frameworks. Participatory and co-design-based practice can play a significant role in exploring the possibilities and positioning of digital heritage, especially its potential for creating a shared space for heritage professionals, stakeholders, practitioners, humancomputer interaction (HCI) researchers, and audiences to discuss heritage-related practices and prototypes [4][5][6]. However, understanding ways of integrating design fiction into co-design activities, in order to facilitate speculation over design practice, is an area that needs further exploration.…”

Playing Games with Tito

“…The perspective of 'hybrid design' [15] focuses on designing experiences that merge the physical visit with digital content in new ways. Hybrid design has been used to enable participation [31,36], and in various ways provoke and challenge the visitor in order to invite reflection [11,29,47,59]. Smartphone technology makes it possible to create pervasive games [89]: Games that challenge the spatial, temporal and social limits for play.…”