As the debate continue over technology for children, like what the right age is for a child’s first smartphone, the Cleveland Museum of Art is exploring ways to use digital interactive experiences to facilitate learning and play. By focusing on technology as a platform rather than technology for technology’s sake, we have attempted to most past the screen-time debate into kinesthetic and action-based experiences. The new Studio Play is a manifestation of human-centered design, focusing on ways that screens can become irrelevant as users employ technology to further their creativity and curiosity. Explore how the CMA team, working with Design I/O, attempted to consider the intricacies of designing interactives that feel relevant for a broad range of audiences, from school age children, to teens, to adults. Consider the ways that the team placed the needs of the visitor at the of the design process. Finally, understand how the space was developed to offer visitors variety, from small motor and large motor activities, from knowledge-based games to creativity-based experiences, from close-looking activities to exploratory virtual art-making. The final product, an experience that places the visitor into the position of actor, can convince even the most screen-critical visitors that technology, screen-based or not, can truly enhance the museum-going experience. Come learn about how the CMA found that balance in the latest iteration of Studio Play.

1. Not All Screen Time is Created Equal:
Developing Interactives that Transcend Technology
JANE ALEXANDER, CHIEF INFORMATION/DIGITAL OFFICER, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
SEEMA RAO, DIRECTOR OF INTERGENERATIONAL LEARNING, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

2. Jane Alexander
Chief Information/Digital Officer
Seema Rao
Director of Intergenerational Learning

3. GALLERY ONE
“People come to museums for
storytelling and engagement…
and technology needs to facilitate that”
The New York Times (2013)

4. Studio Play: The First Iteration
(Opened 12/12/2012)

5. IN THE BEGINNING…
Initial Goals for Studio Play
• Build a space for families
and children
• Facilitate creative
interaction with art
• Propel visitors into the rest
of Gallery One and the
primary galleries
• Develop and galvanize
visitor interest

6. What Worked
• Space especially for families with young
kids
• High-touch and non-digital interactives
• Place for parents to decompress, relax
while kids (5 and under) played in safe
environment
What Didn’t
• Not fully intergenerational
• Not engaging for older kids, 5+
• Not totally fulfilling mission of Gallery One
• “Playroom feeling” of the space deterred
visitors and families without young children
from exploring Gallery One

7. “[CMA Visitors] have high expectations of what
the museum will offer them… and want an
experience that they cannot find elsewhere”
Elizabeth Bolander, CMA Director of Research and Evaluation

8. Evaluations and the Decision to Renovate
• Hands-on interactives were perceived
more negatively if visitors saw them as
something that could be found in other
bookstores, libraries, at home
• Parents wanted a stronger connection
between Studio Play and the artwork on
view
• Not perceived as accessible and exciting
for elementary, middle schoolers and up
• “The two existing technology interactives,
Line and Shape and Matching and
Sorting, were positively received…many
participants, even those visiting without
children, enjoyed the creative process”

9. What Had to Change in Studio Play 2.0
• Strengthen Studio Play’s relationship
with the museum collections
• Emphasize connections between
interactives and art
• Allow visitors more avenues to
exercise creativity
• Enhance digital components
• Expand the line-and-shape
interactive
• Remain welcoming for families to
enjoy privacy and downtime
• Eliminate games that are broken or
seldom used

10. New Goals for
Studio Play
• Utilize barrier-free
technology that allows for
virtually hands-free
interaction
• Create a space for
intergenerational learning,
ages 5 and up rather than
5 and below
• Inspire gallery exploration
with greater understanding
and enthusiasm
• Connect what visitors do in
Studio Play with what they
see in the museum

11. Greenlight
• Excitement about:
• New cross-collaborative team:
Digital/Tech, Education, Curatorial,
Collections
• Sponsorships from Christie
Microtile and Microsoft
• Hiring an interactive, immersive,
and cutting-edge design firm:
Design I/O
• What could go wrong?
Instagram Ready!

12. …not everyone likes changes

13. Some Problems with Communication…
• Closing vs. renovating
• Many thought Studio Play was
being completely shut down
• Perceptions of “screen-time”
• “Where all are the toys? You
used to be CREATIVE and use
your IMAGINATION! Now it’s just
SCREENS!!”
• Worried that Gallery One would
no longer be family friendly
• “It feels like CMA would prefer to
not have children in the
museum”

14. INTRODUCING…
STUDIO PLAY 2.0

15. Studio Play
Cleveland Museum of Art on YouTube

16. Looking Closer at
Studio Play
• The Create Gallery
Stations: Paint Play,
Pottery Wheel, Collage
and Portrait Maker
• Memory, Matching
and Sorting
• Line and Shape
• Reveal and Zoom

17. • Allows visitors to creatively explore
and play with different mediums
and connect to the museum
collections
• Encourages more playful
techniques and uses touch-free
technology to add a new
dimension to the experience
Create Gallery: Paint
Play and Pottery
Wheel

18. • Connects visitors to the
museum using
artworks and artifacts
from the collection as
the raw materials to
create their own
artwork
• Created content is sent
to the Studio Play
Tumblr or to oneself
Collage Maker and
Portrait Maker

19. Memory, Matching and
Sorting Interactives
• Supports visual and verbal
literacy within the context of
art
• Fosters further
understanding of artworks
while providing a
connection to the
museum’s collection
• Look closely at elements
within works and match or
sort based on constituent
elements of artworks

20. Line and Shape
• Centerpiece of Studio Play 2.0
• Self-initiated exploration for visitors
to examine the museum’s collection
using their own lines and shapes
• Focuses on details within artworks
and objects

21. Reveal and Zoom
• Using movement to explore art
• Allow visitors to dynamically
reveal paintings, drawings, and
objects from the museum
collection using body motion
• Dramatic movement reveals the
content in a looser, abstract way
• Smaller movements resolve the
content in more detail
• Zoom: magnifies the artwork using
body movement, explores details
and techniques

22. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

23. Summative Research on New Studio Play, 2016
Overall Experience: 66% rated excellent (5/5),
87% rated 4/5 or 5/5
Elizabeth Bolander
Favorite Aspects of Studio Play:
• “Allowing children a space to use gross motor skills within the
museum”
• “Interactive technology”
• “Kids recognized pieces in Studio Play we had seen on this visit”
• “The art is responsive”
• “Hands free for mom. Nothing to clean up”
• However, families with children under 3 still desire a reflective and
private space during their visit

24. Success of Studio
Play 2.0 interactives
and feedback
informed design for
new Gallery One 2.0
Open June 2017
• Visitors introduced to interactives
through artwork, rather than the
other way around
• Zero barriers to entry: intuitive and
dynamic design, NO TOUCH
SCREENS!
• Interactives build on lessons of
each other
• Incentivizes continued, thoughtful
engagement
• Art history thematic groupings:
purpose, symbols, composition,
personal taste

25. Potion Design
Gallery One 2.0 Video

26. Thank You
@jalexander
@artlust