Analogue 101 2025
2025
Innovative space formats that integrate hybrid interactions for corporate museums.
Why is this project important?
Small corporate museums need to evolve in a global world that is rapidly changing, through the use of a methodology that uses research, conceptualization, resonance testing and expert interviews, this project concluded in finding innovative approaches as recommendations for small corporate museums, that they can use to reach new audiences and expand their presence.
Interaction design (IxD) is a discipline that seeks to create effective relationships between users and the products, systems, or spaces they interact with by designing an optimal experience through technology. It can
be applied to many contexts, including museums and cultural ones. Italy occupies one of the first places in quantity of museums, and with over 2,600 companies that are over 100-years-old and currently active, it occupies the first place of corporate museums in its territory that are getting growing attention in recent years.
There are different initatives taken by museums to innovate and integrate technologies to attract visitors. From phygital, immersive, and digitized experiences, this project seeks to understand the way corporate museums
can keep evolving with a constantly changing world by integrating innovative practices to these spaces.
Tools:
Figma - digital prototyping
Figjam - conducting tests, analysis and notes
Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop - visual assets
Archicad - perspective and space measurements
Responsibilities:
Literary Research
Ethnography research
Expert Interviews (English & Italian)
Resonance Testing (Italian)
Arduino coding
Physical and digital prototyping
Concept development
Insights analysis
The methodology
Inspired by the Framework of Innovation from the Design Council, this methodology is divided into four phases: Observation & Discovery, Defining through resonance testing, Development & testing, and Delivery. The main characteristics of the methodology are the easiness of iterations amongst phases and the confrontation of results of each phase with user validation.
Research question
How can the implementation of interactive hybrid experiences in corporate museum spaces benefit the implicated company’s own brand strategy?
Ferrania Film Museum
Located in the North of Italy, FILM Ferrania was a leading producer of film worldwide that competed with the big companies in the industry and created several partnerships that allowed its expansion. It had an influence in the Golden Italian Cinema era and was acquired by 3M in the 1960’s. In the 2000’s it closed its factory due to the digital era, until in the 2010’s private investors started to have attention towards recovering the production and re-start business.
The museum is dedicated to the company and opened its doors in 2018. It contains several aspects of its history, including the worker’s lives in the factory community, as well as archives of posters, books, films, etc.
1. Observation & Discovery
During this phase, several activities were conducted to start gaining insights of different opportunities to work on, amongst these activities were:
a. Expert interviews in the photography activity
b. Ethnography work by visiting Cairo Montenotte and the museum location
c. Guided tour and interview to museum curator, Alessandro Bechis
2. Defining through Resonance Testing
Ferrania Viva idea Positivo idea Sviluppando Storie idea
After analyzing different insights, some opportunities came to light. Three polarized ideas of what Ferrania Film Museum is today were developed and placed in a resonance testing to see what the needs and expectations of potential visitors or those related with the museum.
The test was conducted to 7 users in total and resulted in a mixed preference of ideas and activities that would merge and define the last solution concept.
The insights consisted of:
- a preference amongst a concept that wanted to re-purpose the museum space as a place to create community
- explored having an external location that approached new audiences and difused the museum and the company.
3. Development & Testing
It is divided into 5 spaces: 4 related to the process of analogue photography from discovering the needed instruments to printing an image with chemical development, a room that invites to join a community and the last one dedicated to a small shop where people can take souvenirs from the experience.
Prototyping
To understand how the different touchpoints could be integrated into the experience, two prototypes (digital and physical) were developed that take place in the third space of the exhibition “Develop what you know” they consist of an enlarger to print images in photosensible paper and a digital screen to develop chemically the image.
For the development of the prototypes tools such as Arduino (for the physical) and Figma (for the digital) were used.
The prototypes were tested and then refined thanks to the insights of the 5 testing users, and after gathering the information the final concept was developed.
4. Delivery
- the projection room for expert talks and film projections,
- a space for photographer exhibitions
- the current library archive to become a space for workshops and learning through practice.
5. Conclusions
As a result of this design research project, we can understand the different opportunities that exist for small corporate museums to integrate innovative formats and technologies into their spaces, keeping relevance in a fast-changing world.
These recommendations result in:
1. Implementing phygital technologies into spaces to connect with physical processes while still innovating.
2. External cultural location formats: to expand their presence to other territories and have more attention from new audiences + connect and create partnerships with host insitutions.
3. Spaces of exchange and interaction: create spaces to incentivize visitor participation in museum locations and create communities through social interactions and learning through practice.