Envisioning & Evaluating Out-of- Storage

The paper will provide an account of a number of design discussions surrounding the electronic augmentation of a specific room in a new museum, namely the "Out-of-Storage" room in the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, Dublin. The authors were involved in the specifications for audio-visual and multimedia support for this space, and in the assessment of tenders for the work. Ultimately, interactive media were installed in the room, but in ways that were not always according to the original specifications. The authors subsequently conducted a usability study of the extant interactive media in the room, and discuss a number of issues that emerged in the evaluation. Implications of these findings are also drawn.