Ideas from IDEO for Museum Designers

Fred Dust from from the design firm IDEO gave a great session at the AAM Conference on Tuesday morning.

There were many great takeaways involving IDEO's approach to "design thinking" that were useful for museum folks.  Here are some bullet points that I rapidly scribbled down on my legal pad:

• Good design reframes problems.

• Constraints create/Create constraints.

• Every design problem is an opportunity to learn.

• Don't survey (design for behaviors, not demographics).

• Museums need to look at everything as their competition, not just other museums.

• Evolution is revolution --- create cheap, easy prototypes! (real-time and full-scale, if possible.)

• Crowdsource for questions not answers.

So get out there and start looking for questions!


Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog. P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)

Thinking Inside The Box

I like to keep a stash of interesting junk --- stuff I've found from trolling through the aisles of hardware stores, toy stores, office supply stores (o.k. just about any store!) or "leftovers" from previous exhibit projects. It's fun to look at the products on the store shelves and consider the possible exhibit uses for such items.

Having "junk boxes" nearby gives me the opportunity to think about creative reuses for common materials, and also provides a good supply of prototyping fodder for when I'm putting together exhibit ideas.

The design company IDEO employs a similar practice by keeping sets of materials in its offices to serve as inspiration during design projects or creative meetings. The New York Times wrote an article about the practice.

So here are four quick links to serve as inspiration for either starting (or re-stocking) your own "idea box"

Creative reuse of office supplies.

How to repurpose toys to aid in stem cell research.

High Tech/Low Tech Garden Lighting.

A different way to use Sticky Notes.

Have fun tinkering, AND thinking "inside the box"!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog.

P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like movies!)