Client: New Museum in the Middle East | Location: Middle East
We led multiple rounds of prototyping for a game-based mobile science website for a New Museum in the Middle East using a strategy that equally emphasized insight generation and capacity building.
OVERVIEW
From 2021-22, we partnered with a New Museum in the Middle East to prototype an early iteration of a game-based mobile website for youth. The goal of our work in the first year was to not only test how this target audience used the mobile website and make adjustments as needed, but also to build museum staff’s capacity to integrate evaluation seamlessly into their work. In the second year, we embarked on another round of prototyping, this time with the museum leading evaluation efforts following our model from year one.
APPROACH
Because of the capacity building goal, we designed an onsite study for both rounds where we managed research efforts remotely from the United States. The process involved:
Kera Collective leading the research design and training museum staff remotely
Museum staff coordinating data collection and leading “think-aloud sessions” with students to prototype the mobile website at a local school (with regular check-ins and coaching from Kera Collective between sessions)
Kera Collective analyzing the data to surface trends and actionable insights
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
After both rounds of prototyping, we identified several insights from the think-aloud sessions which positioned the museum to strengthen the mobile website experience to better address youth’s needs while furthering their learning objectives for this target audience. Museum staff also greatly grew their skills and confidence in doing evaluation from year one to year two.
Our process also allowed the museum to seed relationships with local students (and their teachers) that are continuing to grow as they develop the mobile website and other youth-focused initiatives.
