Experience design is not about shiny new digital technology - apps, touch screens, games, beacons, the works. It is a different perspective on exhibition and museum design, and a different process as a result. My talk at the Museum Association's 2017 Moving on Up event in Edinburg, February 28, 2017.

1. experience design
in the museum
Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets)
Digital Creativity Labs
Moving On Up, Edinburgh, 28/02/17
c b

2. chapter 1
What it’s not

3. experience
design
user

4. touchscreens!

5. apps!

6. games!

7. screen zombies!

8. experience design
digital technology
≠

9. “As Deputy Director of Digital Initiatives and Chief
Experience Officer at the Barnes Foundation, I’ve got a
funny old world/new world title... the digital part of my
title only demonstrates the position within the
institution while the experience part explains how we are
thinking about moving forward.”
shelley bernstein

10. “The Chief Experience Officer — quite literally
— puts a leash on digital and, instead,
shifts the focus to better experiences
regardless of how they are implemented.”
shelley bernstein

11. how does this feel?

13. “Don’t make me
feel dumb.”

17. chapter 2
What it is

18. experience design
What experience do I afford?
default design
What information do I convey?

19. exhibition goal
+
object info insight

20. exhibition goal
+
object info insight
insight
exhbition goal
curosity interaction experience info seeking &
deliberation

21. exhibition goal
+
object info insight
insight
exhbition goal
curosity interaction experience info seeking &
deliberation
Why care?

22. exhibition goal
+
object info insight
insight
exhbition goal
curosity interaction experience info seeking &
deliberation
How learn?

23. insight
exhbition goal
curosity interaction experience info seeking &
deliberation

24. insight
exhbition goal
curosity interaction experience info seeking &
deliberation

25. “Create a need to know by organising
learning around complex problems in
engaging contexts.”
katie salen-tekinbas

26. gerrymandering

27. your mission: hack the election
Build a mathematical model to
explore and demonstrate how
changing voting methods can
elect different presidents
despite the same votes.

28. Answer, design for, start with
“need to know”
before
“what’s to know”

29. everyone should care about the climate.
But what will make your audience care?

30. framing questions

31. spatial design

32. spatial design

33. spatial design

34. object design

37. insight
exhbition goal
curosity interaction experience info seeking &
deliberation
“Active prolonged engagement”

39. physical interaction grounds and stokes info-seeking & deliberation

40. cognitive interaction grounds and stokes info-seeking & deliberation

41. cognitive interaction grounds and stokes info-seeking & deliberation

42. interaction affords insight through practice, probing

43. this is puzzle design!

44. trivial
Not a (good) puzzle
impossible
Not a (good) puzzle
solvable
A (good) puzzle

45. trivial
Not a (good) puzzle
impossible
Not a (good) puzzle
avoid quizzes at all cost!

46. trivial
Not a (good) puzzle
impossible
Not a (good) puzzle
avoid quizzes at all cost!

47. good puzzles test (collective) reasoning, not memory

48. dan meyer: math education

51. chapter 3
How to do it

52. “Ultimately, a game designer does not care
about games. It is this experience that the
designer cares about. ... Your goal is to figure
out the experience you want to create, and find
ways to make it part of your game design.”
jesse schell

56. let’s play a game

57. Goal: Find out what the oraclethinks of
1. Each table is a group
2. In each group, choose 1 player who is the oracle.
3. The oracle thinks of a thing (person, object, animal, ..., alive or dead,
fictional or real) but doesn’t tell the group.
4. The rest of the group has to guess what the thing is.
5. Every group player can ask the oracle a question, but the oracle can
only answer “yes” or “no”.
6. The group has unlimited time to think and debate what questions to
ask, but can ask only 20 questions.
20 questions a

58. how did this feel?

59. Goal: Find out what a person thinks of
1. Each table is a group
2. In each group, choose another player who is the oracle.
3. The oracle thinks of a thing (person, object, animal, ..., alive or dead,
fictional or real) but doesn’t tell the group.
4. The rest of the group has to guess what the thing is.
5. Every group player can ask the oracle a question, but the oracle can
only answer “yes” or “no”.
6. The group has unlimited time to think and debate what questions to
ask, but can ask only 20 questions.
20 questions B

60. and how did this feel?

61. why?

62. Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
a model

63. Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
a model
+$ !+
-$ !-
frustrating
endgame
slow
poverty gap

64. Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
Define
Ideate/evaluate
Build & playtest
how the designer creates it

65. “The life blood of game design is testing.
Why are we playing games? Because it‘s fun.
You cannot calculate this. You cannot plan
this out in an abstract manner. You have to
play it.”
rainer knizia

66. 67
Ideas what
to change
Build out
idea
Playtest
Evaluate
experience

70. how might we
prototype & playtest
museum experiences?

71. where the heck is the entrance?

74. chapter 4
Summary

75. experience design
digital technology
≠
experience design is not a different means

76. experience design
What experience do I afford?
default design
What information do I convey?
it is a different perspective and end

77. insight
exhbition goal
curosity interaction experience info seeking &
deliberation
it means designing for why people care and how they learn

78. Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
it means acknowleding experiences cannot be planned
+$ !+
-$ !-
frustrating
endgame
slow
poverty gap

79. 80
Ideas what
to change
Build out
idea
Playtest
Evaluate
experience
… and therefore prototyping and playtesting towards them.

80. sebastian@codingconduct.cc
@dingstweets
codingconduct.cc
thank you.