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Dr Marco Mason
I am senior lecturer at the School of Design at the Northumbria University UK.
With a Ph.D. in Design Sciences (2012), I am specialized in Design Research for Digital Cultural Heritage. I have been researching and teaching in leading research centres such as Iuav Faculty of Arts and Design ITA, , Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA, School of Museum Studies in Leicester UK, and now Northumbria School of Design UK.
Between 2019-2020, I collaborated in a major AHRC funded project titled “One by One: Building Digital Confident Museums” (led by Professor Ross Parry, School of Museum Studies in Leicester)
In December 2018 I successfully concluded my second Marie Curie project (H2020 Reintegration Grant), titled “Design Thinking for Digital Heritage.” It is a joint project with the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester and the University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum (secondment).
In October 2015 I successfully concluded my first Marie Curie fellowship (International Outgoing Fellowship – FP7), titled “Digital Media for Heritage: Refocusing Design from the Technology to the Visitor Experience.” The research was conjunctly conducted by the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester UK.
Address: Leicester UK
With a Ph.D. in Design Sciences (2012), I am specialized in Design Research for Digital Cultural Heritage. I have been researching and teaching in leading research centres such as Iuav Faculty of Arts and Design ITA, , Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA, School of Museum Studies in Leicester UK, and now Northumbria School of Design UK.
Between 2019-2020, I collaborated in a major AHRC funded project titled “One by One: Building Digital Confident Museums” (led by Professor Ross Parry, School of Museum Studies in Leicester)
In December 2018 I successfully concluded my second Marie Curie project (H2020 Reintegration Grant), titled “Design Thinking for Digital Heritage.” It is a joint project with the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester and the University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum (secondment).
In October 2015 I successfully concluded my first Marie Curie fellowship (International Outgoing Fellowship – FP7), titled “Digital Media for Heritage: Refocusing Design from the Technology to the Visitor Experience.” The research was conjunctly conducted by the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester UK.
Address: Leicester UK
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Human-Centred Design approaches in museums give rise to a new, digital cultural heritage design practice by refocusing design from the (digital) technology on to the (digitally-enhanced) visitor experience and requiring involvement in design from both designers and non-designers. This practice is foregrounded as central within a wider landscape of transformative museum design and innovation. The paper calls for a new research agenda that takes design practice as the unit of analysis and recognizes the uniqueness of each cultural heritage organization and its capacity to deploy digital media and technologies successfully in its own unique ways and as a matter of organizational fit. We outline this agenda through a conceptual framework for the analysis of digital cultural heritage design practice along the dimensions of activity, tool mediation, and knowledge production. The framework acknowledges that the design of digitally-enhanced visitor experiences is catalytically mediated by tools and constitutes powerful ways of knowing-in-designing.
target=10.1080/14606925.2021.1889738
stands in contradiction to the way most designers see themselves.
We’d like to present two case studies where identifying a social relevance became the starting point for a design research before it actually became a project.
One is located in the bay of Venice, the other one in the swiss alps. Preliminary researches were focusing new dynamics emerging from Web-Geo- Information-Systems (WebGis) and Telematics and consequently both projects deal with peoples
needs related to their location they live, work or spend their leisure time in. In one cases the decision was taken to invest time in an observation of a specific social issue in order to identify problems which could be dealt by designing a WebGis. The other
case is based on a strong co-productive approach
since it meets the needs of Venice’s citizens. Important is that both GIS-applications don’t only deal
with the graphic treatment of data but are based on an information architecture developed together with and for the people who are using it.
The contributing authors of this book have carefully investigated the various implications arising from these questions in proposing their interesting perspectives. The museum entrance is “a fundamental aspect of the grammar of the museum” [see chapter ?] that facilitates the transition from the external experience (pre-visit) to the learning experience of the museum visit. These spaces require the creation of an adequate information space to promote the experiential transition “from being a traveller to a visitor” [see chapter 1.2]. They might offer not only services that guide the visitor but are also themselves exhibition spaces that introduce visitors to the museum experience through “artworks in the foyer” [see chapter 2.1]. This information space can be further enhanced with audible-visual aspects that form or arise from an immersive environment [see chapter 2.2] and the visitor experience of the physical space can be expanded through virtual presence such as social media [see chapter 2.3].
From the contributions of the different authors emerges an interesting view that depicts the complexity and richness of these spaces. The intensification of interactions, relationships and experiences fostered by new thresholds (Parry et al, 2014) increases awareness of the challenges that designers have to face when reshaping museum thresholds.
With these considerations in mind, this chapter reflects upon the ways in which the museum threshold may be understood from a ‘design thinking’ perspective – an approach defined by its humancentred mindset, integrative process and crosscollaborative methodology.
This chapter is mindful of the approaches deployed in other sectors and draws from the direct experience gained on the occasion of a design exploration for a hotel information system aiming to enhance the customer experience. It will reflect upon how design thinking offers a crucial approach both to conceptualise the problem of the threshold, and also as a means to improve the visitor experience in these spaces.
Human-Centred Design approaches in museums give rise to a new, digital cultural heritage design practice by refocusing design from the (digital) technology on to the (digitally-enhanced) visitor experience and requiring involvement in design from both designers and non-designers. This practice is foregrounded as central within a wider landscape of transformative museum design and innovation. The paper calls for a new research agenda that takes design practice as the unit of analysis and recognizes the uniqueness of each cultural heritage organization and its capacity to deploy digital media and technologies successfully in its own unique ways and as a matter of organizational fit. We outline this agenda through a conceptual framework for the analysis of digital cultural heritage design practice along the dimensions of activity, tool mediation, and knowledge production. The framework acknowledges that the design of digitally-enhanced visitor experiences is catalytically mediated by tools and constitutes powerful ways of knowing-in-designing.
target=10.1080/14606925.2021.1889738
stands in contradiction to the way most designers see themselves.
We’d like to present two case studies where identifying a social relevance became the starting point for a design research before it actually became a project.
One is located in the bay of Venice, the other one in the swiss alps. Preliminary researches were focusing new dynamics emerging from Web-Geo- Information-Systems (WebGis) and Telematics and consequently both projects deal with peoples
needs related to their location they live, work or spend their leisure time in. In one cases the decision was taken to invest time in an observation of a specific social issue in order to identify problems which could be dealt by designing a WebGis. The other
case is based on a strong co-productive approach
since it meets the needs of Venice’s citizens. Important is that both GIS-applications don’t only deal
with the graphic treatment of data but are based on an information architecture developed together with and for the people who are using it.
The contributing authors of this book have carefully investigated the various implications arising from these questions in proposing their interesting perspectives. The museum entrance is “a fundamental aspect of the grammar of the museum” [see chapter ?] that facilitates the transition from the external experience (pre-visit) to the learning experience of the museum visit. These spaces require the creation of an adequate information space to promote the experiential transition “from being a traveller to a visitor” [see chapter 1.2]. They might offer not only services that guide the visitor but are also themselves exhibition spaces that introduce visitors to the museum experience through “artworks in the foyer” [see chapter 2.1]. This information space can be further enhanced with audible-visual aspects that form or arise from an immersive environment [see chapter 2.2] and the visitor experience of the physical space can be expanded through virtual presence such as social media [see chapter 2.3].
From the contributions of the different authors emerges an interesting view that depicts the complexity and richness of these spaces. The intensification of interactions, relationships and experiences fostered by new thresholds (Parry et al, 2014) increases awareness of the challenges that designers have to face when reshaping museum thresholds.
With these considerations in mind, this chapter reflects upon the ways in which the museum threshold may be understood from a ‘design thinking’ perspective – an approach defined by its humancentred mindset, integrative process and crosscollaborative methodology.
This chapter is mindful of the approaches deployed in other sectors and draws from the direct experience gained on the occasion of a design exploration for a hotel information system aiming to enhance the customer experience. It will reflect upon how design thinking offers a crucial approach both to conceptualise the problem of the threshold, and also as a means to improve the visitor experience in these spaces.