Search results for ‘improv’

What museums can learn from improv: three principles to make museums more human-centered and empathetic

In improvisational theater, there are some shared principles that the improvisers work from. These principles create a positive and supportive platform upon which the improvisers, or "players," can do their best work. What if the principles that allow improvisers to thrive and excel could be applied to museums? In this post, I consider three principles from improv theater and share my thoughts on how incorporating these principles into museum practice could make museums more human-centered and empathetic institutions.

Using improv games to warm up for user testing and prototyping: part 3 of 3

This is the third of three posts in which I share some of my favorite improv games to use with teams who are learning and using the design thinking process. The first post covered improv games to kick-off a meeting or workshop, the second covered improv games for warming up for brainstorming and embracing failure, and this post considers improv games for warming up for user testing and prototyping.

Using improv games for brainstorming and embracing failure: part 2 of 3

This is the second of three posts in which I’ll share some of my favorite improv games to use with teams who are learning the design thinking process. The first post covered […]

Using improv games to foster creativity and collaboration: part 1 of 3

I’ve been taking improvisational theater classes for years, mostly because I find them energizing and extremely fun, but also because I started noticing that the skills I was practicing in […]

How to write a cultural equity statement as a framing tool for design thinking

A cultural equity statement is a starting point for museums striving to improve and evolve service to their communities. In this post, Sarah Minegar of the National Park Service provides practical advice for steering organizations toward justice, equity, and inclusivity.

This is How a Museum Uses Creativity & Collaboration to Reach 200M Annually

In this interview originally published by IDEO U, Chris Flink, executive director of the Exploratorium, talks about how the museum cultivates creativity with visitors, the broader community, and within the organization.

A design thinker in residence: an interview with Henry Trejo of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Henry Trejo is the design thinker in residence at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In his role, Henry advocates for visitors and works to make the museum welcoming and inclusive.

Minimizing the Einstellung Effect in Design Thinking: How to Arrive at Innovative Solutions by Diminishing Cognitive Bias

The Einstellung Effect—when preexisting knowledge or experience prevents us from considering alternative possibilities to a problem—can seriously impede a team’s innovation capacity. Here are some small steps to mitigate its effects.

Five mistakes of beginning design thinkers (and how to overcome them)

I’ve observed a set of common errors that practitioners new to design thinking often make when implementing the process. By leveraging the learnings of others, you can more successfully champion, utilize, and apply design thinking.

Making the Workplace We Want: 4 Lessons from the Getty

What small strategies can you use to create the workplace you want? This story outlines how staff at the Getty are leveraging human-centered design practices to increase internal digital literacy and build a more joyful and human-centered culture.

Why play is essential to the design thinking process

Play is essential for innovation, creativity, and collaboration, and the most successful design thinkers are the ones who embrace the notion of play. In this post, I share five reasons play is critical to design thinking.

Design sprints for visitor experience advocacy: 5 lessons from the British Museum

This is the second in a two-part series about running design sprints in museums. This post examines how the British Museum is experimenting with design sprints in the Product Development Group.

Managing up design thinking: 5 steps for promoting human-centered design in museums

“How do I get our director/my boss/the curators/my colleagues on board with the design thinking process?” This question touches on one of the most demanding aspects of human-centered design in museums: promoting change. In this post, I share five steps for managing up design thinking in museums.

Daring greatly through human-centered design: an interview with Hannah Fox of Derby Museums

Earlier this summer, I came across the Derby Museums Human-Centred Design Handbook, developed by the Derby Museums Trust in Derby, England. I spoke with Hannah Fox, Project Director, to learn more about the Museums' use of human-centered design methodologies.

Lean and smart human-centered design: three lessons from the Grand Rapids Art Museum

How is design thinking being implemented in smaller museums? Recently I spoke with Jon Carfagno, the Director of Learning and Audience Engagement at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, or GRAM, about how the museum is taking a human-centered approach to the development of everything from strategic planning to in-gallery experiences.

Design thinking on the run: using rapid methods at the Getty Research Institute

This guest post is from Liz McDermott, Managing Editor of Web & Communications at the Getty Research Institute (GRI). This post discusses how, with little time and limited resources, a team at the GRI used rapid methods and tools from the design thinking process to answer the question, "How can we make visitors in our galleries aware that we have a mobile tour available?"

Spreading design thinking throughout an organization: lessons from Atlassian

For this post, I interviewed Karen Cross, the Design Manager at Atlassian, about the internal design thinking program the company has been building up over the past year. Atlassian makes tools for software development, collaboration, and project management, and several museums and nonprofits use their products. Readers may be wondering why I’m featuring an interview with someone from a software company, and the answer is simple: I’ve always looked outside the museum sector for models of new ways of working, thinking, and collaborating. I believe museums can look to the private sector for new models of working, and adapt these processes to make museums smarter, more efficient, and more awesome.

5 critical success factors for organizational innovation: IDEAS

This article was adapted and reposted with permission from Eric W. Stein’s blog. Eric is an Associate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Penn State, and his areas of research and expertise […]

Prototyping exhibition web pages at the Getty: designing for online and onsite visitor needs

In January 2014, a cross-departmental team of designers, producers, editors, curators, and senior staff at the Getty kicked off an intense two-week effort to redesign and re-engineer the Getty’s exhibition web pages. In this guest post, Ahree Lee, Senior User Experience Designer in the Web Group at the J. Paul Getty Trust, covers the process they followed, some of the key findings, and how the project is moving forward.

Design Thinking for Museums: one year and counting

I launched this blog, Design Thinking for Museums, exactly one year ago at the 2013 Museums and the Web conference in Portland. It was an experiment that UX designer and Stanford d.school fellow Molly Wilson and I built in a day at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art cafe, armed with coffee and Wordpress. The blog was developed as a resource for the field and accompanied a paper documenting a partnership between SFMOMA and the Stanford d.school. When the site launched, I wasn't sure how long we would keep it up, if we'd get any readers, and what kind of response we'd receive from the museum community. I'm happy to report that now, one year later, there are small but significant signs of enthusiasm for and adoption of design thinking in the museum sector. I've just returned from the 2014 Museums and the Web conference, where I presented a paper with co-authors from the Getty and the Queensland Museum about how those institutions are using design thinking and prototyping to tackle challenges ranging from designing new digital publications to re-envisioning organizational structures.

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