Design Thinking for Museums: Insights from Milan's Museo Popoli e Culture
By Lucrezia Giusti
Small museums often face the challenge of working with equally small budgets to organise exhibitions and events. In this context, Design Thinking offers numerous advantages, as demonstrated by the recent success story of the Museo Popoli e Culture in Milan.
The museum was founded in 1910 by missionaries under the name “Etnographic Indo-Chinese Museum” and has since been dedicated to promoting knowledge of non-European cultures. It houses a diverse collection of artifacts from Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America.
Over the years, the museum has undergone several redesigns, the most recent of which was inaugurated in 2019. This latest iteration offers an excellent combination of interactive multimedia installations and carefully curated objects. It’s a small yet precious museum, with an even smaller space for temporary exhibitions.
In October 2023, the museum's curator, Paola Rampoldi, began working on a new temporary exhibition titled 'Un altro paio di maniche' (literally, 'Another Pair of Sleeves'), focusing on sustainable fashion and fast fashion.
To realise the project innovatively, the museum accepted InvisibleStudio’s proposal to involve students from the Master of Arts in Event and Exhibition Design program at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan. The students dedicated their Design Thinking module, led by Stefania Boiano and Giuliano Gaia, to developing creative ideas for the exhibition.
The initial conditions were clear: the available budget was limited, and the exhibition spaces were so small that a carefully targeted selection of information and physical elements was necessary to capture the visitors' attention.
Through the students' experience—who enthusiastically embraced the challenge—it was fascinating to revisit all five phases of the Design Thinking process. They first engaged with these phases in the classroom and then applied them directly at the museum.
During the Empathy and Definition phases, the teams analyzed the fashion industry and their perceptions of it, gathering useful insights and using some group members to represent extreme users to consider—those with opposing and 'radical' approaches and mindsets regarding the theme under investigation.
Targeted and guided discussions allowed the teams to identify user needs to address and establish the execution strategy for each working group. Through brainstorming, they defined their next steps and developed their final project concept, moving from 'problem to project' (Ideation phase).
In the Prototyping phase, the teams created a series of exhibition project models using paper and similar materials, fostering creativity and collaboration.
The Testing phase involved each group physically creating full-scale 1:1 prototypes of their projects and placing them within the museum. The students presented their ideas and invited participants to personally experience the envisioned exhibition paths.
The proposals were diverse, incorporating elements such as audiovisual panels, displays of second-hand clothing, olfactory and auditory stimuli, visitor questionnaires about purchasing habits, and even artistic installations as innovative spatial solutions.
Following the final presentations, the museum curator, Paola Rampoldi, provided feedback to each group, fostering a space for growth and discussion on improving the proposals. She listened to the students’ reasoning and curatorial choices, creating a dynamic and productive relationship between the students, the museum curator, and the InvisibleStudio instructors. This collaborative triangle resulted in a functional and dynamic design process, leading to valuable outcomes for the museum's temporary exhibition.
The exhibition, inaugurated on March 2, 2024, incorporated several projects inspired by the students' proposals.
Two Polish students involved in the project, Klara Czopik and Natalia Kawa, shared their positive reflections on the experience:
Klara Czopik: “I think the most exciting aspect of this method is that any idea, even one that might seem crazy, not only deserves to be shared but also has a good chance of leading to a valid and concrete prototype.”
Natalia Kawa: “I think it was a project that worked from start to finish, and Design Thinking was a fundamental aspect of it. The process made us feel that our ideas mattered, both during the design phase and in our interactions with the museum. In turn, we cared deeply about the potential opinions and needs of visitors. It was beautiful—I hope this is just the beginning.”
From Prototype to Exhibition: On the left is the prototype, and on the right is the final result showcased in the exhibition.
The curator, Paola Rampoldi, expressed great satisfaction with the project, offering highly positive feedback:"We wanted an engaging and interactive outcome and were curious to see how a group of young people would perceive the topic of sustainable fashion. Since Design Thinking requires a specific goal, we identified one: helping visitors reflect on the theme through interaction. The quality impressed me, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. In some cases, the solutions aligned with hypotheses I had already considered as a curator. It was fascinating to see how our intuitions converged on addressing the topic."
Design Thinking proved to be a valuable tool not only for generating new ideas but also for validating existing ones. Most importantly, it fostered a highly collaborative environment among all team members.
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