Prototyping practices supporting interdisciplinary collaboration in digital media design for museums

Abstract

In the museum world, innovative design practices often result from collaborations spanning disciplinary borders within the museum. This article focuses on prototyping as one of the fundamental methods to support design activity, and to foster collaboration amongst members of the design team. In particular, the article aims to explore how prototypes support design practice by integrating knowledge coming from different team members' expertise. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper explores the use of prototypes in five digital media projects in museums. The qualitative data collected have been analysed and discussed through the lenses of the SocializationExternalization-Combination-Internalization (SECI) knowledge management framework. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of how and why team members can take advantage of prototypes to create, transfer, combine, and embody knowledge.

Developing experiences: creative process behind the design and production of immersive exhibitions

“…One common approach throughout scholarly literature is that an interdisciplinary practice that encompasses a range of professionals contributes to the intertwinement of physical and virtual spaces, content and objects, visitors and information while maintaining the museum's purpose and attributes (Mason 2015).…”

“…Studies on interdisciplinary collaboration have focused on intermediary objects that facilitate the process (Mason 2015;Vavoula and Mason 2017). Extending the creative team to include members with multidisciplinary expertise has simultaneously altered the design and production process (Carrozzino and Bergamasco 2010).…”

“…Those deliverables are defined as objects that reflect the design stage or problem. For instance, prototyping is a means to support the co-design process and combine knowledge from different experts (Mason 2015).…”

Design of Digital Interaction for Complex Museum Collections

“…The focus was then on the narrative structure of the virtual application, that was developed keeping in mind the "interplay between Form, Story, and History" theorized nearly 20 years ago by Maria Roussou [50], through an iterative and interdisciplinary process [51] with the participation of experts in digitalization, computer graphics, virtual reality, museum curators, Egyptologists, and anthropologists.…”

Re-negotiating Exhibitionary Practices and the "Digital" Politics of Display: The Case of the MTL Urban Museum App

“…With the introduction of digital media technologies in the museum context over the last decades, museum research and literature has placed increasing attention on "the digital". As Olesen (2016) points out, a significant number of researchers have contributed to this growing literature from a variety of perspectives, including digital heritage (Parry 2007(Parry , 2010, new media in museums (Henning 2006(Henning , 2007(Henning , 2011; app experiments in museums (Smørdal et al, 2014), and digital media design practices (Mason, 2015(Mason, , 2016. But as Olesen (2016) also reminds us, while museum research and literature has placed an increasing concern on "the digital", there are few 'behind the scenes' investigations that shed light on the organizational practices and processes from which "digital" exhibits emerge.…”