Notes from meeting with the DIA (May 8, 2009)
Notes from May 8th meeting
Participants: Jess Mitchell, Alison Benjamin, Unknown user, Former user (Deleted)
Context for Alison's June/July time at the DIA
- The Detroit Institute of Arts is abbreviated DIA - just don't try to pronounce it that way. It's the D-I-A!
- Desire by DIA to get up to speed with the Fluid Engage design & development process.
- Need for design/development team to better understand DIA partner: DIA is newly-renovated and has developed a new interpretive framework & philosophy for how visitors can approach the gallery's works. Alison will be able to see how the exhibition design/development process works
- DIA: a re-installation process is occurring. Want to move this to the next level so that visitors can interpret beyond the gallery space.Â
- Logistics: Alison, Jennifer, David leave Toronto on June 24.
- Unsure about return date - Alison's last day - return on July 2 or 10? Alison fine with either Depends on availability of David, Jennifer. July 4th is US long weekend.
- Possibility of doing a 2nd visit later in summer/early fall to follow-up on designs. Purpose could be to do design/prototype reviews & support further iterations.
Brainstorm of possible deliverables
- Accomplish Fluid Engage Design research tasks . These tasks include:
- Benchmarking:
- go-alongs: Exploration & observation of DIA
- inventories (e.g. of the physical space, accessibility, of current IT infrastructure)
- Ethnography:
- use the ethnography toolkit, possibly plan for return/follow-up visit?
- Contextual inquiry:
- Survey:
- Harness existing research about DIA users
- Conducting research about DIA users: Former user (Deleted) - does visitor research. Could bring in friends of the museum, volunteers, other stakeholders.
- Benchmarking:
- Other deliverables:
- Developing a job description for in-house IT staff @ DIA
- Holding participatory design sessions with DIA staff. These could be facilitated meetings w/ gallery staff, volunteers, and/or visitors that produce:
- Use cases or scenarios of Engage designs in the DIA context
- Knowledge sharing about relevant technological information about Engage
- Finding ways that DIA staff can be incorporated into the culture / iterative design and development process (& Vice versa)
- If they are available, testing, analyzing, and making design improvements on early Engage prototypes
- Upon return to Toronto:
- Analysis and dissemination of research & design results
Next steps
- Must clarify the time frame we're working with (logistics)
- Clarify deliverables for DIA visit & prepare for executing them
- Jira tasks for Alison to accomplish:
- more to come...