Virtual exhibits should be social spaces that give visitors control over who they engage with, how they engage, and how much they engage. In this blog post, explore how to use the scholarship on social interaction design for virtual worlds to build virtual exhibits that connect visitors to each other and museum content.
Let's imagine we’re building a virtual exhibit around The Smithsonian’s History of American in 101 Objects by Richard Kurin. How might we do it?
I reached out to a bunch of talented museum professionals and asked them to tell me about their favorite virtual experiences of the year. Here's what they said...
Adam Koszary, the social media editor at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, observed, “museums have become used to being masters of their own spaces, but on the internet we need to embrace the fact that we are one voice among many." Virtual exhibits should invite visitors to create new content and share their creations with other visitors. It makes exhibits more engaging and helps visitors connect to the content.
Personalized experiences empower visitors to sort through content and to select opportunities to interact with other visitors, allowing each visitor to focus on what they find meaningful and exciting.
UX design processes can help you take full advantage of the virtual medium to make a great exhibit.
Can a ragtag group of exhibit people inspire Chicago museums to become more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive?
As an exhibit developer, my job is to create exhibits that engage visitors. In order to effectively do my job, I need to know who my visitors are. Unfortunately, few museums understand their in-person audiences and even fewer institutions profile their virtual visitors.
Museums are undergoing a metamorphosis. Historically, museums have been primarily physical spaces. However, in response to the wave of COVID closures, an increasingly large number of museums have been creating virtual exhibits. Unfortunately, most virtual exhibits are not serving visitors.
Museums are physical locations where we make face-to-face connections with each other, objects, and exhibits. But, in this time of social distancing, how can museums support our communities? As the Chicago Museum Exhibitors Group (CMEG) pivoted our own programming for the museum community from in-person to online, we hosted a webinar that explored how diverse Chicagoland... Continue Reading →
American Perceptionalism 