Deutsches Museum
Munich, Germany
In a project of enormous scale, Deutsches Museum in Munich is modernising. The museum of science and technology is the largest of its kind in the world, encompassing more than 30 different exhibitions in a vast building which is located on its own island in the centre of the Bavarian capital.
Deutsches Museum is in one word, MASSIVE. Its ambitious modern makeover started in 2006 and will be completed in two phases: part one in 2022, part two in 2028. The museum signed YIPP to design and develop its multimedia installations for phase one. Divided over some 25,000 m2 of exhibition space, we created 33 interactives for 10 permanent areas. Themes range from agriculture to atom physics, health, optics, and even airspace.
Collaborating with specialists
Each game or interactive is linked to its own curator, who had final say from the museum’s perspective. This meant working together with around 30 different museum curators, all of whom participated from start to finish. To enable curators to change content, most of the interactives are linked to a backend CMS.
Large-scale international project in the midst of a global pandemic
The project was unusually large-scale, which led us to produce our interactives in batches. Of course, having a global pandemic break out in the midst of a project didn’t help either. This meant that large swaths of the design and production phases were under close scrutiny and strict corona protocols, such as a travel ban.
We came up with many creative solutions, such as digital presentations to the curatorial team. We also set up a user testing facility inside the museum, featuring computers and screens resembling the final hardware. Remote access allowed us to demonstrate digital prototypes while Zoom helped us give demos, and the München-based team tested the prototypes in the testing environment.
To top it off, a delay in building work meant this project will span a total of three years (from tender to delivery). Being agile while keeping velocity…challenge accepted.
Want to know more about the Deutsches Museum or have a similar project in mind? Reach out to Anna Heimbrock (anna.heimbrock@yipp.nl).