SFMOMA Gets New Kiosk Interface System

The San Francisco Metropolitan Museum of Art recently tapped Method to help museum visitors make sense of modern art via a new kiosk system. For SFMOMA, Method solved a long-standing communication problem for the leading art museum and:

- Made complex information comprehensible to mass audiences
- Demonstrated the very latest design trend: an emphasis on interface along with graphics
- Earned one of the design industry's most elusive awards

Over the past several years, SFMOMA curators noticed that visitors were often confused and intimidated by the existing multimedia presentation of the museum's exhibits [in other words, one of the most common characteristics of bad design].

In order to improve the flow of information and visitor satisfaction, SFMOMA enlisted Method to restructure the content to be presented, complete with a new graphic appearance.

Based on its work for such varied clients as Autodesk and Gucci, the team at Method knew that a proper solution required the combination of visual design with a user interface. Without the alliance of the two components, the kiosk system would either look pretty but remain confusing or convey static data without the visual richness expected of an art museum.

In its solution, Method distilled the content-from several digital formats-of thirteen museum programs into an intuitive, beautiful interface containing just three options: Artists, Artworks, and Multimedia Features. Intelligent filtering helps kiosk users obtain information even if they are unsure of artist or artwork names or titles.

According to Peter Samis of SFMOMA, "Though the technical challenges were many, a seamless new interface emerged...a sensory-rich dimension to the mere act of exploring and selecting."

Recognition has come quickly: this summer, the SFMOMA/Method collaboration was included in the Interactive Annual published by Communication Arts magazine. In its award, the jury noted that the kiosk "...opens its audience up to the world of modern art by engaging it in so many ways at once."

Peter Samis summed it up best: "We hope that the upcoming generation of interface designers of search engines and federated databases take note: Resource discovery and finding aids don't have to be dry, they can be as creative and immersive as we can imagine them."

Method: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/6116.html
SFMOMA: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/6117.html

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