This morning brought about an irritating but ultimately productive set of events which gave me time to think about where this project is going, as well as where I ultimately want it to end up. What I have concluded is that I’ve been looking at it all in completely the wrong light.

In the course of my research I have come upon many companies that design and create museums, showrooms and exhibition spaces. One example would MET Studio who have developed some incredible environments that impact those who go to see the exhibition, as well as the surrounding space and those in it. Their design philosophy encompass closely working with their client and understanding their needs, then moving on to finding what is appropriate for the project in question (link).

The key thing that I took from this was understanding that everything needs to work together. So far in this project, I have been picking out issues I’ve identified within current museums as they stand at the minute. This has been my mistake. It’s no good understanding what is wrong with museums if you don’t take into account all the factors that contribute to these problems. The problem might be poor information representation, but the space itself could be a major hindrance when it comes to rectifying this issue. In order to come up with a solution, one would need to start from the ground up. Otherwise you would just end up with a poorly thought out, misplaced form of information representation that may work in the short term but would ultimately fail in the long term; and, in my mind, one of the key principles of design and goals of a designer, is to make timeless, long standing pieces of work.

For this project to work, I need to become a part of the museum or exhibitions development process from beginning to end. Everything needs to fit together in a perfect mould to create a seamless user experience from the moment the user steps into the environment, to the moment they leave. At first this sounds like a daunting task, however I see no reason why a space can’t be developed that has great navigation and user pathways, stunningly made exhibition displays but it’s key feature is incredible information representation. The main thing is that everything fits together perfectly. Interaction is all about the user experience, if there is no user experience then there is no interaction. In a space such as a museum, the user experience is merely being there. By wandering around, taking in the displays and discovering what there is to be learnt, the user interacts with the environment, they follow its pathways, are influenced by what it can tell you. Understanding the users needs from start to finish is essential, and a museum needs to direct and guide its users from start to finish.