Background
Our design functions as an access point for visitors into WCMA’s exhibits with the goal of optimizing not only the visitor’s overall experience, but also adapt, on a step-by-step basis, to the preferences and habits of its users. Therefore, our design incorporates the experiences of avid museum visitors who know the exact pieces, artists, or time period of art they want to view with those who have no previous knowledge of what sits in front of them or in the depths of the collection. As our design is effectively a personal curator tool, making a large stakeholder in its use the actual curators, who curate exhibits with specific ideas and themes in mind.
We plan on interviewing a current WCMA curator or staff member that has knowledge of both the artwork as well as how the space was designed to be experienced by visitors, a student with deep knowledge of the WCMA collection who visits the museum often, and a student who has never previously been to WCMA and isn’t an avid viewer of art. All of our contextual inquiries will take place within WCMA as we aim to learn about how each interviewee interacts with the space, traverses the exhibits, and reacts the museum as a whole. We hope to complete these during hours when the museum would have outside visitors, in order to create a realistic museum atmosphere for the interviewee.
Interviewees
Inexperienced WCMA Visitor: A Williams student, local person, or tourist. We will interview one of the freshmen in Ryan’s entry who has never been to WCMA.
Experienced WCMA Visitor: NS – we will be interviewing a senior at Williams who has worked at WCMA for three years, including for most of this past summer. She is very familiar with the collection and the museum both from the perspective of a visitor and of a stakeholder.
WCMA stakeholder: We will contact Chad Weinard and ask if we can be put in touch with a WCMA staff member, who plans exhibitions or programs for public engagement. We will ask Mr. Weinard’s advice on who to interview and will go with whoever is most available.
The Plan
We will instruct the WCMA visitors (both experienced and inexperienced) to take us through a typical, unplanned walk through the galleries and to enjoy the museum and art as they normally would if we were not with them. We will be asking about past museum experiences (if applicable, experiences at WCMA) and will focus on their feelings about the accessibility of information about works on display and in the collection as a whole. Furthermore, we will inquire about their interest in a product that could facilitate planning a museum experience for visitors based on the kinds of works they are interested in. Throughout the interview, we will observe how they decide where to go in the museum, the kinds of questions they have about works, how they express these questions, and how they want to have them answered.
When interviewing our WCMA stakeholder, we will observe them either in their normal process or interview them about this process and examples of things they do when planning exhibitions or programs for visitor engagement. We will ask about their experiences visiting and observing visitors at WCMA and other museums and what their goals are for visitor engagement. We will ask them their feelings about a product that helps guide a museum visit while introducing people to new works based on their tastes. We will encourage them to voice any questions or ideas related to this product design.