A very typical day in the lobby. One of our Visitor Liaisons tries to help stem the tide of questions, but once one person is there asking…more follow.

Testing in the lobby proved to be an incredibly tough spot. In this location, the team was highly visible, but this visibility was confusing because visitors saw them as general information points. And the kind of information visitors were looking for included everything from, “Isn’t there a zoo around here?” (referring to the Prospect Park Zoo) to “I need to sign up for the Bernie Sander’s campaign.” There was so much of this questioning going on, in fact, that it became difficult for the team to actually work and, in some cases, there were delays answering questions coming in via the app because interactions were proving to be too distracting. It should also be said that this working environment also included plenty of noise.

Simply put, this location proved to be too early in a visitor’s trajectory for visitor to be aware that there is an app and who the ASK team is in relation to it. They need to hear about the app from the ticketing transaction and see the team as a second (or even third) point of contact for everything to really gel.

The sheer amount of traffic of pre-visit questions coming to the team necessitated a hack of our “staff workspace” signage. Normally, these signs are used only when desks are not occupied, but here the use has been adapted to help visitors identify what’s going on here.

These findings do not necessarily mean the ASK team won’t eventually end up in the lobby, but they do help us figure out what that presence would need to be more like in order to be more successful. A full marketing plan at the entry could help the awareness factor, so the team becomes a second point of contact even at this early stage. Also, a “glass box” with planned interaction time a la Southbank Center could also work in this location helping allow the team to get their work done. The planned interaction time would become key, though, in keeping with the project’s engagement goals (something Southbank did well through meetups and other scheduled interventions).

One big thing the lobby testing has taught us? Even with traffic patterns that now have much better clarity, the human presence is still something people really crave. We need to do some thinking here about the greeting process especially in light of how to work with our new information desk, which is part of the Situ Studio designed furniture set; our visitors services area is on this one.

We also tested team location in the galleries and some of the findings here have proven interesting. How close should the team be to works of art? How best to handle directional questions? When in the visit is the public most responsive to the team’s presence?—all of these questions are things we’ve been evaluating in this series of moves.

Testing in Connecting Cultures where the team was more embedded in and among the works of art helped show that proximity helped drive conversations about art.

The team was placed in our Connecting Cultures exhibition located on our first floor; this location is post-ticketing, but fairly early in a visit because this is considered an introduction to the Museum’s collection where some visitors begin their visit. Testing here was a little complicated due to construction in the area, which created a considerable amount of noise (the team requested ear plugs at one point). Construction also didn’t help us much because it closed off exits, so many visitors would get in the space and some of the questions they had for the team were directional along the lines of, “Now how do I get out of here?” Interestingly, we don’t get many of these directional queries when people are using the app itself and that’s great, but we ideally want the team in a location that can foster in-person conversations about art. This space proved interesting because once the team was embedded in the exhibition, the conversations about art were on the rise. In the data collected the construction seemed to cause an imbalance of directional questions, but this tide would likely be stemmed once the space was fully restored to its normal state.

Testing in our forth floor elevator lobby where the team presence is a more cohesive unit, there’s proximity to works of art, but the space is also transitional which has its own set of pluses and minuses.

Our next testing (going on now) has involved our elevator lobbies on the fourth and fifth floors. These are small spaces, so the team has a concentrated visible presence. These spaces are used for small exhibitions and/or have works installed, but they are also transitional in that most people passing through them are on their way somewhere. Both spaces are in a direct traffic line to special exhibitions. The fifth floor is unique in that most people start their visit on the fifth floor and start to work their way down the building, so the team in the fifth floor elevator lobby is earlier in a visit. The fourth floor elevator lobby is still in the traffic line, but more of a mid-way point in someone’s visit.

Fourth floor testing showed us that being in the middle of a visit pattern may be very beneficial. In this location, people seem more ready to talk about art and the team’s presence is more recognized because in-building marketing prior to this point helps with the connection. In one recent interaction, I watched as someone stepped off the elevator quickly making her way through the space. She spotted the team and you could see the lightbulb go off—”Oh, you’re the one answering questions in the app? The answers are so great. Thank you so much.” This is exactly the kind of thing we hope to see with the team being so accessible.

We’re still testing these areas more fully, but there are some things we know already that will help us in our quest to find an appropriate home for this team:

• Proximity to art helps drives art-related conversations.
• Discovery of the team mid-visit helps recognition.
• Transition spaces might be a good fit if the team is not overwhelmed with directional questions.
• Directional questions are an inevitable part of being on the floor, so being in a space where it’s easy to give instructions—Bathroom? ….Take the elevator down one flight. Basquiat exhibition? …Right down this hall.—helps put us in a position where we can at least quickly answer with minimal distraction.

During all of this testing, one thing has remained a constant. While the visibility of the ASK Team is important for the engagement goals of the program, their very presence does not seem to change our app’s usage numbers, so seeing the team at work does not necessarily help advertise the program.

As summer closes we’ve got a lot more to work with and we’ll begin some internal discussions about where this team might eventually land. This will, of course, involve many more factors because we have to take the learnings and align them with the most important thing of all—institutional goals.

ASK is a little bit more complicated than an average app launch; we reconfigured the whole entry experience because the ASK team—who work in full view of the public—need to be a part of it. Early testing has shown us that visitors are interested seeing the ASK team work and the knowledge there are real people answering questions has been very compelling. The ASK team working in full view of visitors seem to be vital to the project’s success and this means we’re launching two related, but separate components: an app and a visible human presence within the experience.

There are some days when Sara and I think movable furniture was both the best and worst idea we ever had. Even our director has been seen helping configure our furniture setup at times.

In our case, the moving parts are quite literal. The lobby now consists of movable furniture which will let us configure and reconfigure how the ASK team becomes part of this space. As we continue through the summer, you’ll find us testing the ASK team setup in various locations. When thinking about how to place the ASK team, we are considering both the visibility and working process of the team—are they visible, is the space too distracting to get work done, are visitors able to approach the team while also being mindful of the work they are doing? The physical space is a consideration—are there enough power outlets for their desks, does traffic flow work in our favor? There are also practical considerations, too, like how much we have to move furniture to make a location feasible.

Our original setup with the ASK team working in the glass pavilion didn’t work so well with visitors more interested in getting to ticketing than engaging with the team.

We spent two weeks testing in our glass pavilion. The team was located just before the brick piers and they were on view as people entered the building; power benches were also located in the same area. Visitors were more interested in getting inside the main lobby to get to ticketing and they would breeze by the team quickly often not reading signs or even noticing their presence.

Visitors loved the benches in the pavilion setup, but they felt disjointed from the ASK team.

In this location, visitors would sit on the benches to charge their devices, but often they were at the end of their visit past the point at which the app would be useful. Limited availability of power outlets in the pavilion also meant that the benches and the hubs—the ASK team desks—could not work together as visual components and the setup felt disjointed. The pavilion also proved to be further complicated by the sheer number of events in the space that required moving the furniture almost daily. In the end, this location proved to have little traction and the result was our lowest use rates since launch.

Our second location test began when we moved the team to the area just off the lobby beyond the “art” doors. As part of the ticketing process, admissions staff would ask visitors if they had an iphone and, if so, they were given a special admission tag. Our visitor liaisons would see the special tags as people entered the “art” doors and could begin the greeting process, introducing the team, and helping visitors get started with their download.

Our second round of testing moved the ASK team to an area just beyond the “art” doors. This worked well when traffic patterns were in our favor.

This setup worked exceedingly well for a couple of weeks because the natural traffic flow of the building worked in our favor. After most visitors received their ticket, they proceeded through the “art” doors to begin their visit where they would see the team and be greeted by our liaisons. However, once our special exhibitions—Sneakers and Faile—opened on July 10, many visitors began using the elevator on the opposite side of lobby, bypassing the team totally.

The setup just beyond the “art” doors allowed the ASK team a room of their own, which had its benefits.

Unlike the pavilion, the area off the lobby provided ample room for signage and integrated seating. Our visitor liaisons had a natural place to greet visitors as they came through the “art” doors. Even with our temporary set up, the area felt unified—it was clear this was a space dedicated to ASK where our staff were working and visitors were lounging. However, once the traffic flow changed, it was clear the benefits of the space couldn’t outweigh the lack of visibility.

Our next steps will be to move the team out into the lobby and into various galleries where their presence is feasible. On a logistical level, these locations are tough—that careful balance of team in the space, but not in the way…combined with endless moving of furniture controlled by the location of the nearest power outlet—makes for complicated puzzle. The trick is knowing just because the furniture is movable, doesn’t always mean it should move. During testing, we’ll need be disciplined to set things up and try a location fully before moving the parts around, so we can get an accurate read on what’s working (or not).

We adored this in concept; taking inspiration from old desk calendars, the signage could be “flipped” to switch to various signs.

Then we reconvened to see scale prototypes. All I have to say is thank goodness for prototyping because once we saw this solution in the space, we quickly realized it wouldn’t work. It was simply too small in scale. We were focused on the furniture and the need for mobility that we neglected to see the bigger role graphics needed to play in the reconfigured space.

Prototyping revealed that as much as we loved the concept, the reality was too small to see from across a busy lobby.

This reality check caused us all to pause and take a look at the entry experience with fresh eyes. How could graphics help make choices clearer? How could they help us be more welcoming? How could they help fill the space? MTWTF went back to the drawing board with this bigger picture in mind came back with more layered approach.

Large messaging at our entrance identifies where you are. We are using the existing canopy for the additional signage, seen here in a prototype.

Beginning with large messaging at our entrance that says Brooklyn Museum (we didn’t say this anywhere on the exterior previously) and a large “welcome” banner hanging high in the brick arcade. This pairing nicely echoes the welcome sign we have at the north entrance and does a number of things: it confirms that you’re in the right place, adds a nice splash of color to the exterior and for the arcade banners in particular, sends a nice message that doubles as a visual cue to help pull visitors to the center of the arcade {link to traffic post} and through into the lobby.

A welcome sign running throughout the brick piers helps guide you toward ticketing area in the main lobby.

In the lobby, we needed a way make the tall ceilings feel comfortable as opposed to cavernous, so MTWTF proposed hanging large banners from the second floor mezzanine advertising our special exhibitions. These banners, working in conjunction with a painted wall treatment, will draw attention to the south wall, where ticketing will be located, and visually fill the space. A dedicated banner (and ticketing bar) for Membership gives them a larger presence as part of the entry experience.

A ticketing area is defined with large exhibition banners and a blue wall to help draw you across the main lobby.

At the more human scale, an updated approach to wayfinding and signs stays true to our need for flexibility and mobility, but provides clearer choices for our visitors. The graphic treatment for shop/art/eat was moved from the wall to the doors in order to help ameliorate confusion around entry points into the rest of the building.

Signage for “art,” “eat,” and “shop” has been moved to the doors for better wayfinding. We also used two color vinyl so the signs will be visible in both day and night situations.

Signs for various ticketing scenarios stacked on stands provide flexibility to change out messaging based on need. Point size for the typeface was selected only after seeing scale print outs in the lobby, so the layers of messaging are clear at the right moments. For example, “Admissions” will be visible for most visitors from the arcade. As they walk closer, the admissions price becomes legible, about the center of the lobby, right at the spot before having to commit to standing in line.

Prototyping included text sizes for admissions signs, seen here.

Finally, we’re working on a new museum directory so that visitors can see all their options at once. The directory itself will be rather large and prominently placed so that it’s purpose is clear from afar, however the listing of what’s on view will require visitors to approach more closely.

A new directory will show visitors all of their options just as before they enter through the “art” doors.

We have left ourselves some flexibility (no surprise there) in that we have the option for larger messaging on the directory as well in order to advertise programs like Target First Saturdays, Thursday Late Nights, and, of course, Bloomberg Connects.

The team at Arup would help us evaluate our current traffic patterns, look at the proposed changes and flexible furniture coming in, and help think about pedestrian traffic as part of the project. The goal was to intelligently place the various components and their associated functions—ticketing, security, ASK team hubs—to help visitors navigate the space and understand their options. As we’ve talked about before, exactly how these components work together for the best possible visitor experience is something we need to determine through testing. Arup’s recommended placements are the first set we will test.

In an early pilot, we tracked visitor traffic patterns in our lobby using pencils and photocopies.

We had a feel for the general traffic pattern in the lobby because one of our early pilot projects involved tracking and timing visitors in the lobby to see what a typical entry sequence was like—where visitors stopped to speak with staff, what path most people take through the space, popular gathering points, etc. Happily, our conclusions matched up pretty well to Arup’s assessment of our existing patterns (score BKM).

Arup’s version after their own analysis was very similar to what we had found during the pilot.

As I mentioned in my last post, while we were originally aiming to test placement of each component, we ended up having to “fix” the location of ticketing in order to proceed with design. Naturally, this decision also affected traffic planning by limiting the number of variables. Arup was able to focus on how best to move people through the space to ticketing using the info desk, security desk, hubs, and benches as guides.

Info and security desk placement will help guide visitors to the center of the brick arcade, so they are lined up with ticketing when they enter the lobby.

A key component of a good visitor experience is clear choices; it’s important for people to see and understand their options. Think of all the questions you ask yourself when entering a museum for the first time–where are the restrooms, where do I get tickets and how much are they, what can I see, etc. Ideally architecture, furniture, and wayfinding, all work together to help visitors understand their options at key decision points. Our architecture is such that there is little (or no) line-of-sight from the main entrance into the lobby. This means visitors have two moments of orientation: one when the enter the revolving doors and one once they pass through the brick arcade. To help with this, Arup focused on clear pathways using security and info desks centered on the brick arcade to draw visitors over. Info is placed ahead of ticketing in case visitors have any questions before they commit to purchasing a ticket. The info and security desks are centered with the goal of drawing people to the center of the arcade so that they enter the lobby through the middle of the space. Once inside the lobby, ticketing is straight ahead.

Movable furniture in the form of power benches and hubs can help further direct traffic. Circles show areas of gathering spaces.

After ticket purchase the next decision point is what to see, so we are placing a new museum directory at a natural gathering spot beyond the point of sale. In another effort to make choices clearer, we moved our previous SHOP/ART/EAT graphic to the doors as we noticed some confusion around which door led to which, particularly since there are two entrance to the galleries. This is one way we’re using graphics to help communicate options; I’ll discuss this a bit more in a future post.

New graphics and adjustments to existing graphics help guide visitors. In the case shown here, our old “art,” “shop,” and “eat” are being moved from walls to the actual doorways. Additionally, they are reoriented higher so they are visible over people’s heads.

A big challenge for us is the fluctuating nature of the space—not only does traffic vary based on exhibition season, time, and day of the week, but we are constantly holding programs, performances, special events, and even film shoots in the pavilion and lobby. We have to be able to adjust set-up based on our needs of the day, but still help visitors navigate the space and this is really where Arup’s insight has been most useful. They have offered us several placement scenarios: a typical day, a busy lobby day (long queuing needs), a busy pavilion day (event), and Target First Saturdays.

Traffic patterns differ when we need more room for ticketing lines like on busy days or at Target First Saturday. The benches toward the brick piers are the key move here so we can create more room in the lobby proper.

Interestingly, the maximum number of hubs Arup ever recommends placing in the lobby is four, not the full six. Instead, they recommend deploying two hubs elsewhere in the building to take advantage of traffic patterns to special exhibitions and/or other gathering areas in the building for the purpose of reminding visitors about this “thing” they saw in the lobby. This got Shelley’s and my attention since we’ve always wondered a bit if the lobby is too early in the entry experience for really engaging visitors around ASK.

We’ll definitely try Arup’s route—two or four at a time—and see how it goes, but as I said, this is only a first set of placements to try out. We’ll need to adjust as we go and take time to land on the set that works for our varied needs.

Our heavily used plaza serves as a front porch for the community.

If you looked at our entry experience today, I think you’d find it lacks focus. We have an amazingly beautiful building and an enormously successful front plaza that draws people acting as a front porch for our community. We see people, especially now in the incredibly nice weather, using it to lounge, gather, and play. We offer free wifi in case you want to sit and work, but have you noticed something missing? There’s no art. Arguably, our fountain is designed by WET, so we could consider that an artful experience, but while many museums have art installed before you enter, we don’t.

Connecting Cultures provides the introduction to our collection, but located after ticketing makes it the “third click” in your visit.

As you move into the lobby proper, we’ve got a similar issue going on. There are some works on view in our lobby—notably our collection of Rodin sculptures, our American owls and lion, and The Rebel Angels. But, overall, when you come into our main lobby your experience is overwhelmingly one about “transaction.” Our current visitor desk is the biggest and most powerful symbol in the entry experience of the museum and we started to question what kind of message that was sending. Our incredibly successful introductory exhibition, Connecting Cultures, only begins after you pass the threshold of ticketing and then pretty far into the building itself. I’ve often used this analogy in my own industry…our entry experience is a little like “three clicks to the art” and if the museum’s primary function is the display of art, that’s a big issue—simply put, we think you should experience art much more quickly in your experience because that is the primary function of why you come here.

The front desk is the overwhelming experience of the lobby; it’s circular form confuses traffic patterns and the fixed nature of the desk is limiting.

When we looked around, it was clear that we needed to rethink that central desk. Installed during our 2004 renovation, the round desk was meant to service visitors from our south and north entrances equally, but in practice it became confusing to visitors who didn’t know how to orient themselves. Also, it became clear that because we couldn’t move it or change the configuration, we couldn’t easily accommodate more art—the desk became the elephant in the room.

As part of this project, we are replacing the current desk with ticket bars designed by Situ Studio. At our June start, we’ll be anchoring the ticket bars to our back wall, so we can pair it with large wayfinding signage, but the key is we can pretty easily change that configuration if it’s not working; something the fixed desk never afforded us. This means we can also now incorporate more art and do so in a way that makes it more central to the visitor experience.

There are so many factors when it comes to putting art in our lobby.  For this, I’m turning to Kevin Stayton, our Chief Curator:

Bringing art and people together is why we are here. Art can astonish and amuse; it can be stimulating and it can be moving. We think you should encounter art as soon as you enter the building. However, we have to balance the presentation of art in the lobby with a number of other factors: Will the artwork get in the way of traffic flow or, perhaps, be in danger because of it? Will it infringe on our ability to offer programs in the space, or to use the space for events like movie shoots? And, perhaps most important, does the space provide the right environment for the art? Will the work of art look good in such a large space and will it be safe from damage with the amount of light and the temperature fluctuations of a lobby environment? These are complicated questions that we are committed to tackling in order to make the experience of art an immediate one when you arrive. We think ALONG THE WAY, a monumental sculpture by the artist KAWS will be a perfect introduction to the Brooklyn Museum, and when you see it we hope you will too.

KAWS (American, b. 1974). ALONG THE WAY, 2013. Wood, 216 x 176 x 120 in. (548.6 x 447 x 304.8 cm) overall. Brooklyn Museum; Gift in honor of Arnold Lehman, TL2015.27a‒b. (Photo: Adam Reich, courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery, New York)

When you come into our lobby in June, you’ll find an exhibition by KAWS, which includes two paintings in addition to this enormous sculpture, to greet you. We’re now much closer to “one click to the art” and can’t wait to see how art in all its forms changes the visitor experience from the get go.

When the team was first brought on board, we created an impromptu work space for them on our second floor mezzanine—a space that is adjacent to the construction area of the second floor galleries and currently off-limits to visitors. If you saw our LaToya Ruby Frazier or GO exhibitions, you’ve been in this space. A little sterile at first, they made it their own with posters, working note boards, and the like, jokingly referring to it as the “command center.” Generally, the space worked well and gave the team a place to gather and gave us a place to hold discussions after app testing sessions.

The ASK team fielding questions using our second floor mezzanine as a temporary office space.

As we approach soft launch of the app and the arrival of the new furniture, the team has relocated to a public area just inside the Great Hall on the first floor. This area is a main thoroughfare for most foot traffic (hence it’s internal nickname “42nd Street”), which admittedly makes it a challenging work environment, but that’s kind of the point. The team will eventually be in the lobby, which can be quite chaotic, so we wanted to give them a transition period in a busier space to start getting used to such distractions. Mainly though, we wanted to make the working process more visible and transparent in order to drum up excitement and anticipation on the part of our visitors. And we’re not the first ones to try this. Southbank Centre did this for their website redesign, though in an even more formal fashion. In true Brooklyn Museum fashion, ours is a little scrappier.

The ASK team has relocated to “42nd Street” to help acclimate them to working in a busy space before their lobby move in June.

Taking a cue from our colleagues across the pond, we are also advertising our testing sessions and visibly sharing feedback, though for us it’s in the form of sticky notes on the wall,on  which we invite testers to write down the one thing we should know from their testing experience. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with sticky notes, as I’ve shared before, but their appeal is undeniable. Testers jump at the opportunity to leave us their thoughts in this way, and the notes have been useful for the team to read as most of them are quite positive and a total morale booster.

What’s the one takeaway we should know from your experience using our ASK app?

It’s interesting to see how quickly this is working. Most visitors walking by automatically slow down a bit to figure out what’s going on and read our sign, even more so during really active periods when the team is answering incoming queries during testing sessions or using the conference table for feedback discussions. I hope this continues to drum up visitor interest and helps acclimate our team to working in a hectic environment.

A series of furniture designed by Situ that we could use in a modular and reconfigurable fashion. The design of the components helps differentiate function.

There were several parameters we knew going into the design process:

• We need to be able to clear the lobby and pavilion of furniture for programming or special events on a fairly regular basis, but have no good place to store the furniture elsewhere in the building.
• Security is a required part of the entry experience, but we wanted to somehow make it more inviting, more integrated.
• We have need for a separate information desk, particularly during busy times when admissions staff is focused on ticketing and don’t have as much time to devote to answering general queries.
• The furniture components themselves needed to help communicate that there are different services going on, i.e. the ticketing desks need to look different from the Audience Engagement team “hubs” to help underscore the different functions.

Seeing prototypes in the space has been incredibly helpful.

Throughout the design process, there was much back-and-forth as we hammered out the particulars. As we discussed traffic flow (more in a future post about this) and began to really delve into our needs for the space, we were able to narrow down the components and their functions.

However, finalization of the design only happened after we made the decision to place the ticketing bars in a row against the south wall. This placement was based on previous configurations of the lobby (pre-circular desk) and in consultation with the traffic folks. Turns out that modularity and flexibility only get you so far in planning. You have to put a stake in the ground for that flexible solution to anchor to or there’s no consistency. The ticketing bars themselves are still moveable, but as you’ll see in a future post, we’re centering messaging and traffic flow decisions around this location so while we could move them, we hope they work there.

The ASK team is working using a temporary setup, but we’ve found that being together as a team has been important. Often, they need to lean over and ask each other questions.

Unfortunately, what we are finding now is that in at least one instance, the furniture is suffering from the same agile fail that Shelley just wrote about. By necessity, furniture design had to progress ahead of staff hiring, which means the hubs as designed may not meet the needs we are now seeing. We envisioned the hubs as individual desks for ultimate flexibility in placement, which means the Audience Engagement team members work individually at their desks. But now that we have the team in place, what we’re seeing is that they work as just that—a team. They are currently at a table together and so far during our app testing sessions, they speak with each other and in some cases crowd-source the answer from among the team members. This will be difficult to do with the current hubs. What’s more, this team process is fascinating to watch. And since one of the main goals of placing the team in the lobby to begin with is drumming up interest in ASK, we can’t ignore the draw of the team’s working process.

The hub design, the place where the ASK team will be working in the lobby, had to be finalized prior staff hiring. The design is reflective of one person working on their own when the reality is they are working as a group.

All is not lost, however, and we are working with the traffic consultants to see how and if we can group the hubs together in a way that works. At the very least we can pair the hubs so team members are always partnered. And although the team works a certain way now, as we continue to test the app, see how visitors use it, and where they are interested in engaging with us around it (might not be in the lobby), the individual hubs may end up being exactly what we need.

SITU Studio transformed our Great Hall in 2012 for their reOrder exhibition. Photo by Keith Sirchio

You may remember SITU Studio from their previous installation here, reOrder.

If you’ve ever visited us, you know that the Glass Pavilion and Lobby are beautiful architectural spaces with greater potential to make things more welcoming, better utilize the space, and provide modern options like seating with integrated outlets where you could take a load off and charge your phone at the same time. Together with SITU Studios, we we aim to fulfill that potential and introduce something new.

Our current lobby has its challenges.

The success of our ASK app hinges on people—namely the staff we hire to answer visitor questions and we see them as a key part of our entry experience. This audience engagement team will be stationed in a visible “hub,” so they can speak with visitors in person, explain the app, invite participation, help download it, and get them on their way. The hub also functions as the home base for this team; essentially, they’ll be working out in the open answering questions that come in via the app. We think the hub should be one of the first things you see when you walk into the Museum; someplace like the Pavilion or Lobby—we think. 

Working closely with SITU, we enumerated the challenges we were seeing, which they show clearly in this diagram of the space. Courtesy SITU Studio.

There is still a lot we’re unsure about, including at what point in the visitor experience people will be ready to download the app. We think, at the very least, visitors will need to be introduced to the idea as part of the entry experience, but we’re not sure how it will relate to the admissions process, for example. So, like the rest of Bloomberg Connects, we need to be able to test, evaluate, and iterate and to do that, we need a clean slate and a flexible design solution. 

Early, schematic design drawings of some of the components under consideration. Courtesy SITU Studio.

In the coming months you will see lots of changes when you come into the Museum. The existing admissions desk will be removed and replaced with mobile furniture that we can reconfigure in a myriad of ways to find out what organization makes the most sense. Some of the new elements we are envisioning include comfortable seating; clearer messaging so that visitors can better understand who we are, where to go, and what to do; new ticketing and membership desks; and the “hub” where our Bloomberg Connects staff will be stationed.

Modular components mean we can test placement, watch traffic, and change accordingly to better serve you when you come through the door.