Jerry WatkinsARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and InnovationQueensland University of TechnologyKelvin Grove, Australia

November 2007

By Alvin John

Overview of Participatory Design

Australian Museum Stories

experiment

Critique of the paper

GUEPS and CDs

Participatory Design (PD) originated in Scandinavia in 1970s

User-centered design approach:

• involves users as much as possible so that they can influence it

• integrates knowledge and expertise from other disciplines than just IT

• is highly iterative so that testing can insure that design meets users’ requirements

Experiment conducted at the Australian Museum to investigate the potential of social media based

communication strategies

Australian Museum Established in 1827 and oldest institution in the

country Heritage has a collection of 14.5 million specimens Attracts web visitation rates exceeding 1.5 million per

month

Museum authorities Shifted focus to quality of experience offered Explore social media as a medium to interact with

communities of interest ▪ Youths▪ Informal learning groups

Participatory Design (PD) was chosen as the strategic methodology to guide the social media experiment

PD was extended to museum exhibition design library website design

PD methodology was broken down into three phases for the museum project Phase 1: Due Diligence Phase 2: Iterative Design cycles Phase 3: Desired Performance

Working party formed

Author as the designer/researcher

Museum’s Head of Audience Research

Head of Web Services

Phase 1 had three steps:

1. Organizational observation▪ First hand experience of culture and working practices

2. Domain review▪ Reviewed current best practices by cultural institutions▪ Attracted by digital story telling genre – participants write and

produce autobiographical “mini-movies”▪ Chose to try “do-it-yourself” digital narratives

3. Initial project strategy▪ Use museum staff as participants in the first cycle of prototyping ▪ Develop skills in creative storytelling

Project was christened “Australian Museum Stories”

Workshop Design Social prototyping experience Experiment conducted with online audiences, rather than physical

visitors Initial phase was designed

▪ to skill museum staff in social media production techniques▪ in-house training program

2-day workshop Focus on three main areas:▪ Creative teamwork▪ Creative development▪ Multimedia production

First workshop in June 2006▪ Eleven participants assigned to four teams

Second workshop in November 2006▪ First workshop was sufficiently positive▪ Fourteen participants assigned to four teams (2 teams of three, 2 teams

of four)

Teams consisted of:

The writer

The creative producer

The editor

The executive producer

Micro-documentary – a creative non-fiction piece (preferably informal tone)

Teams start with a tentative story idea, genre definition, required sources checklist

Executive producer leads creative development exercises

Team members required to generate by the end of the day existing content original content final scripts storyboards

Second and final day of workshop

Editing and postproduction at the Powerhouse Museum’s Soundhouse Vectorlab facility

Participants given crash course on Sony’s Vegas video editing suite

Tasks: Record voiceovers Edit micro-documentary according to storyboard

End product – Presentation of playable micro-documentaries in full screen and web-ready codecs

Evaluation techniques instituted: Output analysis▪ Produced nine artifacts from eight groups over

two workshops▪ Varied audiences interested in different

subjects In-workshop survey▪ Self administered questionnaire▪ Indicated a high level of satisfaction with

social prototyping experience (24 out of 25)▪ Organizational pressure may be a factor

(internal audience)

Post-workshop surveys▪ Discussion group approximately three months later▪ Sessions based on ideas of “Future Workshop”▪ Involved complete a self-administered survey▪ How stories created could be used by museum▪ Reflections on any perceived organizational barriers

Focus groups▪ Four focus groups conducted in February 2007▪ Capture reaction of external potential target audience ▪ Parents of under-5s▪ Parents of under-16s▪ Science teachers▪ Culturally active seniors

▪ Positive reaction to more informal style of museum communication

▪ Negative reaction to the quality of micro-documentaries

First iterative design cycle concluded in March 2007

Parties involved in discussion: Workshop participants Senior management

Critique the current design, conduct of workshops, evaluation protocols to make improvements

Outcomes of the strategy meeting Production quality▪ Improve quality of audio and video created

Genre and format▪ Micro-documentary format was a success▪ Include other genres like linear micro-

documentary and online interactives for the museum’s forthcoming Web 2.0 website upgrade

Second iterative design cycle▪ Continue cultural engagement through social media▪ Establishment of a core in-house team to continue

and sustain creative social media production▪ Conduct pilot projects with external communities

associated with the museum▪ Wide extensive use of the micro-documentary

format▪ Creation of vodcasts and podcasts by external

biodiversity groups, students of secondary schools▪ Powerful way to summarize results of studies and

disseminating to the wider audience

▪ Online distribution▪ Introduce blogs and wikis

Participatory Design application extended to this experiment was a success

Incorporated users into decision making process

With social prototyping in an iterative design cycle, Australian Museum teams designed new tools, techniques and genres of mirco-documentaries for communication strategies

Positive Positive results with application of Participatory

Design

Not so positive Working party intervention might be a little too

much for the first iterative cycle of PD – more structured than usual

Not a lot of detail about questionnaires and surveys administered

Not a typical experiment with hard data tabulated and arriving at a conclusion – different style (PD approach)

GUEPS Explaining Mental model

CDs Visibility Consistency Progressive Evaluation