The ethnographic museum in Zagreb is an institution dating back to 1919, when it was founded by the Zagreb industrialist Salmon Berger, textile trader. In its hundred years of work, the museum collected impressive materials and knowledge about the culture of a nation.
In this, 21st century, the museum is facing a problem how to make their materials closer and more interesting to new groups of visitors who are used to interactivity, creativity and multimedia brought by new technologies. In today’s turbulent times, it is necessary to significantly improve understanding and serving the end user of the museum service to achieve competitiveness.
Before we dived into a completely new industry, we read several books and research papers, we studied good and bad museum practices in the country and abroad, and, of course, interviewed in-depth a large number of process stakeholders (employees, visitors, connected institutions, etc.).
We synthetized collected data into meaningful clusters. A map of museum challenges arose from them, sore points were detected, and a number of various visitor personas was created.
Synthetized information was then applied in the preparation of brainstorming workshops the goal of which was to produce as many ideas as possible. Each of several groups of participants created ideas for a different visitor persona.
From the large number of obtained ideas, out several hybrid ideas stood out, one of which was chosen for elaboration into a concrete business case. The prototype of interactive museum experience was developed. After testing, based on interviews with a focus group, the prototype was perfected and adapted to the needs of the audience.
In cooperation with the museum, we organized an interactive event inspired by the 1920s which contained museum gamification (treasure hunt), role-play program, dance and music.
The long-term strategic goal of the museum is constant innovation that is expressed through continuous listening and observation of visitors. Innovation does not necessarily mean new technology; it can be represented by a modified story about an object or a different manner of communication aimed at an audience to whom conventional museum offer is not sufficient. One of the first innovations of this kind is a series of events in the museum space linking creative industries with the business sector.