Experiment and learn together

That was the ambition of the GIFT Action Research where 10 museums from EU and USA made experiments, discussed learning and took part in developing knowledge and methods for the museum sector. The process was managed by researchers from ITU and facilitators from Culture24.

What we did

The GIFT Action Research is part of the GIFT Project that seeks to help museums create deeper personal encounters with cultural heritage for their visitors in physical and digital realms.

At 5 workshops, researchers and museum professionals collaborated to better understand the practical and organisational challenges in undertaking this work.

The museum professionals were supported to run small scale experiments in between workshops. These experiments investigated the challenges further.

 

Recommendations

Through the GIFT Action Research, we developed recommendations on:

  1. Experience Designthese recommendations were developed by testing design approaches as part of making experiments.
  2. Organisational Change – these recommendations were developed as a concluding step in the process, using the ‘How Might We’ method, inspired by Derby Museums’ Handbook on Human-Centred Design.

The recommendations include concrete methods and examples – all developed in close collaboration between researchers and museum professionals.