Period Rooms Touchscreen, New York, NY, 2009

Small Design Firm was initially engaged to create a master plan for technology use in the American Wing. This led to the development of a number of project concepts: Period Room interactives, Elevator display, and the re-design of all printed signs and labels in the new wing.

The Period Rooms tour in the American Wing offers visitors to the Met a way to view decorative arts in their original context. These rooms are meticulously researched and reconstructed, but limitations in space did not allow for traditional printed signage . In response to the curatorial need for explanatory signage, Small Design Firm developed a railing-mounted touchscreen interactive to display a wealth of information about the rooms and the objects within them.

The screens present visitors with the provenance of the room, a brief history of the people who lived in it, curatorial information on the furnishings and objects in the room, and an explanation of how the room was moved from its original location and reconstructed within the museum. The interface is simple and can be used by visitors of all ages. Content is arranged as a horizontal scroll; sliding a finger across the screen slides this content forward and back. In addition, a three dimensional silhouette of each object in the room can be touched to bring up its object label. Users can zoom in on specific images, play videos, and flip certain cards to show more detailed content.

In the New York Times' review of the renovated American Wing, they made special mention of these interactives:

"Also new, and well worth a try, are some of the best digital displays I’ve seen in any museum. With a brush of the finger on a touch screen you get information about the room’s original location, about the people who lived in it and about the history of its display at the Met, along with data about individual objects on view."

From ‘Made in U.S.A.’ Shines After Makeover by Holland Cotter published May 22, 2009.

We are currently at about the halfway mark and will install further signs and interactive displays as the painting galleries are renovated and reopen in about two years.

Project Details

Wayshowing and Elevator Display, New York, NY, 2009

Small Design Firm was initially engaged to create a master plan for technology in the American Wing. This led to the development of a number of project concepts: Period Room interactives, Elevator display, and the re-design of all printed signs and labels in the new wing.

A central element of the renovation of the American Wing is a striking glass elevator. Four unique visitor experiences are organized around this elevator. They include the Period Rooms tour, the Paintings and Sculpture Galleries, the Courtyard Balconies, and Visible Storage. Small Design Firm developed a series of digital and physical signs in and around this glass elevator to explain these unique experiences and offer visitors a clear way of moving through the space.

Hallway screens outside the elevator use graphic animations, along with images and text, to present visitors with an overview of the wing and how they might move through it. A separate screen gives a more detailed description of the Period Rooms and supporting galleries. Inside the elevator cab, a three dimensional model of the wing moves synchronously with the elevator, giving the visitor an X-ray view into each floor.

A master three-dimensional map was designed to be used on both the physical and digital signage. Axonometric and plan versions of the map are used on physical maps to describe each floor and experiential section. The same axonometric map is used on the digital signs flanking the elevator to describe possible paths through each experience. A persistent table of contents is always visible on the left hand cab screen to aid visitors as they choose which floor to begin on.

Project Details

Wayshowing System, New York, NY, 2009

Small Design Firm was initially engaged to create a master plan for technology use in the American Wing. This led to the development of a number of project concepts: Period Room interactives, Elevator display, and the re-design of all printed signs and labels in the new wing.

Small Design Firm led the design and implementation of a comprehensive wayshowing system for the recently renovated American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This system defines the organization of signage in the wing at all scales and gives the entire wing a consistent way of displaying information to the visitor. A single set of layout standards and design rules apply to both printed labels and digital and interactive screens. This system was developed with Timon Botez, César Sesio and Juliette Cezzar, and is flexible enough to handle a wide variety of curatorial content. The signs are divided into three primary categories: object labels, overview panels, and navigational signs. Steel or aluminum channels accept printed labels that can be easily replaced. The seamless transition between printed and digital signage helps to unify content within the wing and eliminates typical barriers between old and new technologies.

We are currently at about the halfway mark and will install further signs and interactive displays as the painting galleries are renovated and reopen in 2011.

Project Details