WWI Museum Visit

My initial reaction to the museum had been that it was not a successful design experience, but the more I thought about it the more I realized I was wrong. The way that each part of the museum is set up leads you from one exhibit to the next. The amount of examples or artifacts may have been small in the number, but given the amount of space that the museum takes up, ratio of artifact to space available was perfect. There was the right number of segments to help guide you throughout the museum. The aspect that I think worked the best was the ability to be interactive with history.

In relation to interactive history, as well as personal preference what I thought as the most important and interesting aspect was the ability to create your own propaganda poster.  For as long as I can remember propaganda posters have always caught my attention; somewhere in the combination of phrases, image, and composition that am attracted to. So, I really enjoyed how you could choose an image that was in one of the propaganda posters and add your own text, essentially making your own poster and placing you as a propaganda designer. I know that the process of making those posters is different now than it was during the war, I still felt like I had some connection to the production itself.

In order for anything to be a successful piece of design, one must capture the attention of a wide range of audience; which the museum itself does. Through a use of war artifacts, recreations, reenactments, poetry, touchscreen tables, movies, images, info graphics, and placed information; the museum is able to attract the attention of elementary school children through elderly adults. Every part of the audience’ attention is captured by allowing each to choose how and where to interact with history according to their interests.