Design Museum Research Articles

Designing the Virtual Museum with Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Abstract In the 2020 video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the player builds the collection of the impressive Animal Crossing Museum (ACM). Exploring the visitor experience of this video game museum’s art wing from the perspective of museum professionals allows for the discovery of inventive ways to deepen connection with museum patrons in the virtual space. The ACM is more successful at engaging visitors than traditional virtual museums. It meets visitor needs by offering an immersive, interactive experience, and depends on direct action from the visitor to expand and grow its collection and space. By taking lessons from the player interaction design of the ACM, virtual museums can be designed to meet the psychological needs of visitors and build long-lasting relationships between the visitor and the institution. From the text, this essay proposes seven lessons for designing virtual museums: start with visitor experience at the center of virtual museum design, allow the visitor to collaborate on the creation of the virtual museum, make the virtual museum a habit with intermittent rewards and increased access over time, build social interaction into the virtual museum, add an avatar, show off curator personality, and address colonial roots of museums.

«Я никогда не думал, откуда берутся деньги»: Обзор школы-конференции «Прикладная антропология сегодня» (Нижний Новгород, 28 апреля — 4 мая 2023 года)

Conference reviews are usually dull: they are easy to write but tedious to read, and what was lively and dynamic in person often becomes less engaging in text. In the review below, we’ve tried to bring the event to life with videos and photos, capturing what was essentially a showcase of applied anthropological research being conducted in Russia in the 2020s. We will include links to studies and Telegram channels that, perhaps even more effectively than academic articles, demonstrate how applied sciences are evolving — from folklore studies and museum design to anthropology and sociology. During the event, the authors of these Telegram channels actively covered the proceedings, helping us capture the most important moments included in this review. We would like to extend our gratitude to Mikhail Alekseevsky, Dmitry Rogozin, and Oleg Bazaleev.

The Role of Museum Design in Enhancing Visitor Learning: A Critical Review

This study examines the impact of museum design on knowledge acquisition through a comprehensive literature review. By analyzing existing research on museum architecture, exhibit layout, and visitor engagement, the study explores how design elements such as spatial organization, lighting, and interactive displays influence learning outcomes. The literature review reveals key insights into the ways museum environments shape cognitive processes and retention of information. Findings suggest that well-designed museums significantly enhance visitor engagement and facilitate deeper understanding. This review highlights existing trends and identifies gaps in the current research, providing a foundation for future empirical studies on the relationship between museum design and knowledge transfer

Designing a Design Museum: Issues on the Establishment of the National Design Museum of Japan

Designing a Design Museum: Issues on the Establishment of the National Design Museum of Japan

Exploring the Application of Artificial Intelligence in Qiang Culture Heritage and Museum Design

Exploring the Application of Artificial Intelligence in Qiang Culture Heritage and Museum Design

Innovation and Practice of Virtual Reality Interaction Design in Chinese Medicine Science Museums

Chinese medicine, as a treasure of traditional Chinese culture, has a long history and deep cultural heritage. However, traditional science education methods often make it difficult to demonstrate the complexity and depth of Chinese medicine fully. With the development of virtual reality technology, VR interaction design provides new possibilities for the popularisation of Chinese medicine. Using VR technology, the interaction design of TCM science museums is innovated to enhance visitors experience and learning. Based on this, this article studies the innovation and practice of virtual reality interaction design in Chinese medicine science museums for reference.

The Museum Journey: Phenomenological Exploration of User Experience in the Bahrain National Museum

The design of museums has significantly evolved over the years, from simple exhibitions of artifacts to immersive andinteractive experiences. This paper explores the pivotal role of architectural phenomenology in shaping visitor’sexperience in museum design. We aim to achieve this goal by adopting a qualitative research approach of the BahrainNational Museum. The museum is an excellent example of how architectural phenomenology can cater to creating aspace that has meaning beyond its physical dimensions. By analyzing the museum's design elements, we identify keycontributors to the emotional and intellectual engagement of visitors with the museum environment. The findingsreveal that incorporating phenomenology principles has significantly elevated the overall design quality of the museumand provides visitors with a unique and immersive experience that highlights Bahrain's rich history and culturalheritage. Ultimately, this knowledge can inform future museum designers and professionals, leading to more effectiveand rewarding experiences for museum visitors.

The mind of a maker: a learning framework for a continuum of K-12 invention education

Invention education offers an exciting combination of knowledge and skill-based learning that is intertwined with important social and emotional competencies, especially for youth engaged in structured programs. KID Museum in Bethesda, Maryland, is an experiential museum and K-12 makerspace whose offerings include a suite of invention programs implemented through formal curricula, field trips, and out-of-school time opportunities. KID Museum’s Mind of a Maker learning framework is a promising pedagogical model for conceptualizing the broad range of learning outcomes targeted in these programs. By comparing to other frameworks developed separately but concurrently, the Mind of a Maker offers insights into the underlying values and learning theories that shape invention education and can contribute to a field-wide understanding of this area of experiential learning. This article explores constructs that promote an inventive mindset that may be reproducible in other learning contexts, as well as the ways in which framework outcomes are integrated into the design, reach, and evaluation of KID Museum’s invention programs.

Analysis of Art Museum Design under the Concept of Sustainable Development

With the rapid growth of economy and urbanization, the development of cities has gradually focused on promoting the culture and image of cities and meeting the spiritual needs of the people. Therefore, cultural public buildings play an important role in urban development. However, the process of urbanization has led to the gradual saturation of urban architectural space. Cultural public buildings must not only meet the development requirements of cities, but also have the sustainability of development advocated by society and the diversity of use functions. On this basis, this article takes spatialism as a design approach and urban art gallery space as a design carrier to summarize the characteristics of green, low-carbon and sustainable development pursued by urban development under the spatialism design idea. This article discusses the overall situation from large to small, from far to near, summarizes the corresponding design ideas, and uses a large number of cases to support the relevant design ideas, aiming to explore the research on the architectural space design of art galleries that is both in line with the sustainability of urban development and in line with the aesthetics of modern people in architectural space.

Design quality assessment and investigation of visitors satisfaction of the Jordan Museum using Post-Occupancy Evaluation

AbstractThe Jordan Museum is the most important modern archeological museum in Jordan. This paper assesses the quality of design and the visitors' satisfaction with the Jordan Museum. Also, it investigates which of the selected performance elements contribute most to visitors' satisfaction. Investigative Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) was used within a mixed methodology approach. A questionnaire was used for the quantitative part, complemented by other qualitative methods. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the design quality and visitors' satisfaction. Stepwise regression was used to detect which performance elements predict overall visitors' satisfaction. The design quality of the museum was rated as good, and its permanent galleries were exceptionally rated as excellent. The visitors were generally satisfied with the museum. Visitors were satisfied with the interior and exterior finish but were not impressed with the heavy use of stone in the façade. The simplicity of the museum layout made navigation easy, and visitors were satisfied with wayfinding. This paper is the first to use POE to assess the Jordan Museum. The findings can be used to enhance the management and operation of the Jordan Museum. Also, important performance elements can be developed into guidelines to guarantee effective museum designs in the future.

Visiting experience of digital museum interior design based on virtual reality and sensor networks

China's computer technology and image sensor technology are both rapidly developing, and the related advantages of digital holography technology are gradually expanding. These technologies have been applied in many fields. For example, three-dimensional measurement, deformation measurement, and anti-counterfeiting fields. This article combines holographic technology and virtual reality technology, and applies them to the interior design of digital museums and the optimization of auxiliary visits. A corresponding mathematical calculation model is established for digital holographic images, and in-depth research is conducted on this mathematical calculation model. Relevant personnel have also conducted relevant research on commonly used digital holography technology, and provided a detailed introduction to the principles of virtual reality technology. They have also conducted in-depth research on the specific working principles of VR technology and the application technology of virtual reality systems. Finally, an analysis and research were conducted on the development of Chinese museums, and a new perspective was proposed on the indoor space of museums under the new digital concept, which has certain reference significance. Currently, Chinese museums are thriving, so deepening the interior space of museums is very important. This article hopes to provide some guidance and practical value for the development of Chinese museums.

An empirical study of virtual museum based on dual-mode mixed visualization: the Sanxingdui bronzes

The design and implementation of virtual museums have evolved over decades, broadening the scope of traditional museum exhibitions and serving as an effective complement to physical museums. However, virtual visual effects have consistently fallen short of replicating the authentic exhibition experience and cannot substitute for physical museums. In this paper, we report a dual-mode mixed visualization system combining computational photography and binocular stereo vision techniques, and introduce an innovative virtual museum for Sanxingdui bronzes. This approach enables visitors to engage with the artifacts in a multifaceted manner-allowing for navigation, interaction, auditory guidance, and the examination of textural details as if handling the artifacts directly. Further analysis of participant responses in terms of visual cognition and aesthetic appreciation across different settings demonstrates that this dual-mode mixed visualization delivers not only a spatiotemporal experience consistent with the real world but also surreal visual effects. This immersive experience allows audiences to experience Sanxingdui art intimately, offering both high-resolution visuals and cost-effectiveness.

MatheMusical Virtual Museum: Virtual Reality application to explore Math-Music World

Virtual Reality is a promising tool for pedagogy in teaching music, and the MatheMusical Virtual Museum takes this promise to a new level. This study aims to share and describe the project's concept and advancement, including expertise and collected experiences in MatheMusic. Mathemusic is the scientific field that studies the relations between math and music; the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music regroups worldwide researchers in the field. The Mathemusical Virtual Museum is an interactive virtual experience that premiered at the Museum of Design in Atlanta (Moda) in June 2022 (Baroin & de Gérando, 2022). It contains a growing set of interactive models based on the research issued by our society. Mathemusicians have always produced models for understanding, analyzing, or computing music. Visualizing some on paper, theater, or computer screens is expected. Even if it is in a multidimensional space (3D-4D), the viewer ends up with a 2D picture or a movie while displaying these models on a computer screen. Planar projection limits the perception in the era of virtual reality nowadays. This study proposes tools and solutions to apprehend these models better and improve the viewer's immersive experience. Since the beginning of the project, user experiences were collected. Besides desperately unfit users for VR, we noticed that kids are highly engaged and immersed in the learning environment; music learners are not just improving their knowledge but also feeling inspired and hopeful about the future of music education; mathematicians and researchers are feeling like they are finally entering their creation and contributing to improving the project, thereby making significant contributions to their respective fields. Keywords: Virtual Reality, Mathemusic, Visualization, Pedagogy, Learning Strategy Received Date: January 31, 2024Revised Date: March 14 , 2024Accepted Date: April 25, 2024

Design at the Museum

This article emphasises the role of design museums in the contemporary museology. It discusses the permanent exhibition dedicated to Polish design of the 20th and 21st centuries at the National Museum in Kraków launched in 2021, and the plans for a new museum department for design and architecture at the former Cracovia hotel. It also indicates the examples of contemporary design museums in the world and a unique model of their functioning, based on collaboration with designers. Keywords: design promotion, museum, National Museum in Kraków, design museum

From museum to postmuseum. Immersive environment as a metaspace of a polyloge

The article continues the research of the principles of museum design, which was devoted to such phenomenon as “protomuseum – immersion – spectator” and the visual nature of immersiveness and the spatial and sensory experience of its living. At this stage, attention is paid to the following typology of museumified environments: museum-at-the-crossroads (Modern times/ museum-theater, museum without walls, virtual museum, etc.) through the transition from “museum – techno-immersiveness – spectator” to “postmuseum – immersiveness – non-spectator”. The evolution of digital surfing and the construction of interactive strategies, the conflict of technological immersiveness and the cognitive properties of the viewer’s psyche are considered: what happens to him inside and outside the digital environment? Particular attention is paid to the narrative immersiveness and the role of the museum in the implementation of new “ritual” and “game” practices that can compete with the philosophy of downshifting in an attempt to get out of digital reality, return to the viewer the most important sense of “proprioception” and presence in the moment.

The impact of varied correlated color temperatures on visual comfort in museum exhibitions: integrating physiological and subjective assessments

ABSTRACT Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) significantly influences mood, comfort, and potentially overall health. However, its impact on visitors’ visual experience in museum design remains insufficiently explored. This study aims to investigate the effects of different CCT settings (3000 K, 4500 K, 6000 K) on visual comfort within a simulated museum space. Using 3D modeling and physiological recordings, 200 participants assessed visual comfort. Consistent findings support that a CCT of 4500 K provides the highest comfort level, aligning with the observed trend in eye gaze duration. Pupil diameter variability indicates that greater comfort is associated with higher CCT values. While differences in heart rate variability (HRV) were not statistically significant, there is a tendency for HRV to increase with longer fixation durations. These findings challenge literature advocating for lower CCT values in museum lighting, emphasizing the need to balance conservation and visitor experience. This study provides empirical evidence supporting the optimization of visual comfort in museum lighting design through a CCT value of 4500 K, offering valuable insights for practitioners. However, limitations include potential scene disturbance and the simulated environment. Future studies should diversify samples and explore a broader range of CCT values.

Parametric design and multi-objective optimization of daylight performance in gallery skylight systems: A case study on the high museum expansion

In the realm of museum design, the meticulous planning of natural lighting plays a vital role in enhancing energy efficiency, improving the indoor atmosphere, and preserving and showcasing artifacts. A significant challenge is to ensure visitors' visual comfort while minimizing excessive natural light to prevent damage to exhibits. This study takes Renzo Piano's High Museum Expansion as a case study and employs the medium sensitivity exhibit standards from IESNA as the evaluation criteria. During the preliminary design phase, computer modeling was utilized, daylighting simulations were carried out using the Ladybug tool, and the Octopus genetic algorithm plugin was applied to investigate, optimize, and evaluate the performance of the point skylight system in museum interiors. The findings indicate that optimized point skylight systems not only block direct sunlight, reducing indoor glare, but also ensure that the Annual Cumulative Illuminance (ACI) on interior surfaces stays below 480,000 lx, while the annual effective Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI) is increased to 75 %. In terms of design parameters, a skylight height of 0.6 to 0.7 m, combined with a shading panel to horizontal angle of 65 to 70 degrees, is found to be effective in enhancing indoor lighting conditions.

DESIGN OF APPLICATIONS FOR ACCESS TO DIGITAL ART WORKS IN ONLINE MUSEUMS

The purpose. The research aims to explore the integration of digital art with online exhibitions in museums, focusing on the design of application interfaces and museum exhibitions. Methodology. The study uses a mixed approach that combines theoretical research, analysis of scientific research with analysis of practical examples. Results. It has been found that the use of digital art has a significant impact on museum online exhibitions, contributing to more interactive, immersive, and inclusive visitor access. The integration of ICT into the museum sector, while primarily focused on digitization, virtual tours, and increasing visitor engagement through augmented reality and virtual reality technologies, also encompasses important design aspects such as color, typography, and interface design, which play an important role in the overall design of an online museum. Examples of the Central American Museum of Art, the Dunhuang Online Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Bloomberg Connects application are analyzed. The study highlights the importance of narrative design and user-centered approaches in the design of online museums to access digital cultural heritage. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the design principles of the interface of digital applications for visitors' access to the expositions of online museums were further developed in the work. Practical Significance. The results of the study can be implemented in the modern practice of museum design projects, contributing to innovations in the presentation of cultural heritage artifacts.

Pedagogy and Museum Design: Exploring Student Research at the Blackwater Draw Museum

ABSTRACT This article explores collaborative pedagogical approaches to museum exhibit design through a partnership between an anthropology class and the Blackwater Draw Museum at Eastern New Mexico University. This collaboration brought together faculty, staff, undergraduate, and graduate students to showcase the regionally relevant issues of water overuse and the conservation of the Ogallala Aquifer. Students employed anthropological research methods to develop a mini-exhibit in the Blackwater Draw Museum that incorporated data collected from the Portales and Clovis communities concerning water usage patterns of the past and present. Ultimately, this case study seeks to build a bridge between pedagogy and museum studies, showcasing opportunities for collaboration between the social sciences and regional heritage institutions.

Exhibition Space Circulation in Museums from the Perspective of Pedestrian Simulation

Contemporary studies largely concentrate on the physical aspects of architecture, yet within the sphere of design, the gap between user experience and the designer’s intention is an undeniable fact. This gap, illustrating the contrast between the spatial perception and the actual physical space, to some degree, mirrors preferences in human spatial behavior. It accentuates the complex relationship between human cognitive functions and spatial layout, underlining the critical role of spatial perception in architectural design and planning. This prompts the question of whether perceptions of internal traffic flow within buildings also suffer from spatial distortions. Focusing on museums, and by examining circulation paths and spatial features, a virtual museum model is devised. The research employs a holistic and reductionist approach (complex systems theory) to forge a link between circulation components and the spatial experience of architecture. Utilizing agent-based modeling tools for simulating pedestrian movements, it investigates how different circulation patterns and spatial relationships influence pedestrian behavior. The study proposes a museum circulation optimization strategy, grounded in quantifying spatial experience through Anylogic software analysis. This strategy is aimed at enhancing the design of internal traffic flows in future museum projects, offering fresh insights into museum design research, and probing into new possibilities for using pedestrian simulation software.