Friday, November 8, 2019

With the introduction of the Pen in 2015, Cooper Hewitt established itself as a pioneer in digitally-integrated visitor experience. Four years on, we’re creating what’s next. Rather than working behind closed doors, we’re opening up our design process and living our mission – “to educate, inspire and empower people through design.”

The recently-launched Cooper Hewitt Interaction Lab will introduce a user-centered process to the museum’s visitor experience design process. We’ve designed the Lab’s activities to bring our strategic plan to life - emphasizing inclusive, digitally-integrated design.

As a space for research, experimentation and assessment, the Lab will keep with the pace of new technological development, grounded in visitor insight. In addition to an already collaborative design process, we will also launch a slate of public programs to involve an even wider community.

This year’s MCN theme aligns beautifully with our aims for the Interaction Lab, which itself will be a collaborative, transparent interface between the museum, art/technology/design communities and the audiences we’re designing with and for. This session will provide an overview of the Lab, with emphasis on “Lab as interface” and the methods and approaches we’ll use to bring this to life.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackExperience
Chatham House RuleNo

Key Outcomes

After attending this session, participants will have learned about a new way to approach visitor experience design that is collaborative and transparent, and how to align it with your organization’s mission and purpose.

Speakers

Session Leader : Carolyn Royston, Chief Experience Officer, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Co-Presenter : Rachel Ginsberg, Interaction Lab Director, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum