Activating the museum with Design Thinking: Part 1
Stories from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one of the largest encyclopedic museums in the country, began a design thinking process in 2013 to find new ways to enhance visitors’ experiences. Karleen Gardner, Director of Learning Innovation, and Sheila McGuire, Head of School and Teacher Programs, were interviewed about how the MIA has been using design thinking to tackle strategic initiatives across the institution, from the redesign of the lobby to the development of new amenities for families.
Q: How did you start using design thinking at the MIA?
Karleen Gardner (KG): We’re a very audience-centred museum, and we have a strong focus on visitors. We work in cross-functional divisions here at the MIA, and that’s where design thinking comes in. We started exploring the design thinking process about a year and a half ago and kicked it off with two workshops for cross-functional groups of staff led by one of our docents, who also works at the College of Design at the University of Minnesota.
The workshops involved putting staff into cross-functional teams, providing guidelines for questions to ask of visitors, and sending staff into the galleries to conduct “empathy interviews” about comfort, amenities, and wayfinding.
We asked visitors questions like, “What are your motivations for coming to the MIA?” and “What would make your experience here even better?”
At that time, we did not have what I’d call a welcoming, comfortable lobby, and we were about to undertake a project to reimagine and redesign the lobby.
Many of the insights we gained from these visitor interviews were around comfort and space. We reflected on the insights we had gathered, and prototyped solutions for the lobby that focused on things like good coffee, food for kids, and places to sit.
Sheila McGuire (SMG): And the lobby is a totally different space now! We have a new coffee shop, public seating with books, magazines, and iPads, and a new family space. We have transformed the lobby into a “third space” and a “social space.”
Q: What methods from design thinking have made their way into the day-to-day work at the MIA?
KG: A lot of the brainstorming methods, with their emphasis on divergent thinking, have been impactful for us. Plus the use of Post-It notes!
Design thinking has made us realize that we have to go out and talk to our visitors. We can’t make assumptions. Even though many of our assumptions have been confirmed in talking with visitors, empathy is key, and you can’t get that empathy without talking (to visitors).
SMG: And the notion of prototyping has been really important to us too. This notion that we don’t have to have a finished product when we go out into the galleries. This has helped us think about ways we can be more experimental and not have to have final, polished products before we test them.
This is part 1, look out for part 2 in the next newsletter
Thank you for reading.
Shivani from DesignPlayStore.