Designing an ergonomic(s) exhibition: Experiences of a museum-university partnership project
Mark S. Young1, Fergus J. Bisset, Laura Grant, Bella Williams, Roger Haslam & Reg Sell
1Senior Lecturer, Human-Centred Design Institute, School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University
m.young@brunel.ac.uk
Keywords: Design Museum, Ergonomics, Evaluation, Public Engagement
‘Ergonomics: Real Design’ was an exhibition showcasing contemporary examples of ergonomics across a range of domains and applications, held at the Design Museum in London from November 2009 to March 2010. The project was sponsored by the EPSRC under its Partnerships for Public Engagement scheme, with the objective of engaging and enthusing practitioners and the public with the field of ergonomics. As such, it realised a unique partnership between the Design Museum and the higher education sector, with Brunel and Loughborough Universities representing the latter. This paper tells the story of the project, from its initiation to delivery of the exhibition, focusing on the process evaluation as a key outcome measure of such projects.
A brief history of ergonomics is presented first to provide the context for the exhibition project, with its most pertinent impetus being the 60th anniversary of professional ergonomics in the UK. The partnership with the Design Museum offered a vehicle to celebrate this milestone for the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, while also furthering more academic objectives of public engagement with science. The fortuitous timing of the EPSRC funding scheme in this regard provided the platform to take the project forward. The development of the funding proposal is described, which in itself was a collaborative process with input from the Director of the Design Museum, as well as other partners who joined the project to provide wider expertise on aspects of the science and project evaluation.
The bulk of the paper reports the outcome of a process evaluation exercise carried out towards the end of the project. This exercise brought to light a wide variety of issues – positive and negative – associated with the partnership. Some of these issues were unforeseen and unavoidable (such as staffing changes at the museum, which affected project progress), while others were more fundamentally associated with the direction and running of the project. Although such differences caused many frustrations on both sides during the project, when viewed retrospectively they offer clear learnings for future initiatives, and it is on these points that the discussion focuses. Moreover, there were also many mutual benefits from working together, with the academics learning a lot about public engagement and a ‘real design’ process, while the Design Museum gained detailed insights to the role of ergonomics as a science in the design process.
Furthermore, the exhibition did launch successfully and attracted international critical acclaim. Outcome evaluations of the project were overwhelmingly positive, and the project certainly met its stated objectives. The paper closes by reflecting on the process and outcome evaluations with a view to making future recommendations about partnerships with museums for public engagement with science.
