Background research: what worked and what didn't work
Grabbing at heuristics, design considerations from:
Academic literature/papers
Looking at existing museum content
Existing research done at individual museums
External museum content
Defining our Users
Curators & exhibitions designers
Museum visitors: Students, Families, Adults (What are the primary motivations behind museum visits, and how will that affect design? Exploration, education/learning, dates (couples), entertainment/amusement/play, special interest?)
Museum non-visitors: find out why they don't go, and what might motivate them to go
Educators/teachers who use the museum as part of their teaching/curriculum
User Research
Interviews and Contextual Inquiries with Partner Museums on an on-going/iterative basis
Visit partner museums: McCord in May, DIA in July-ish, MMI in fall
Develop scenarios with local data, check scenarios against core partners (MMI, DIA, McCord, etc.)
Ethnography with Local Museums
Doing on-going ethnographic research with a local museum (in Toronto, Barcelona, and Vancouver) on a weekly basis
Survey with museum goers
Surveys: create our own, and see what museums have done already
Survey design: reaching broad visitor demographic. Online and on paper.
Qualitative research first, to help define the surveys (quantitative research)
On-going design team meeting
Find a time for our team members in Barcelona, Toronto, Vancouver to meet regularly (weekly or more) to meet and discuss
Document meetings well for ourselves and community