Involving the museum visitor community in designing exhibits

Museum and other cultural heritage practice increasingly recognizes the value and importance of involving local communities in the design and delivery of the cultural services they access. Commonly, where exhibits are concerned, museums and other organisations will make use of expert panels drawn from particular demographics to evaluate exhibits in structured moderated sessions. This paper considers how the design and evaluation might be done in a more integrated participatory fashion and presents some experiences of protoyping sessions conducted on the museum floor. Our findings lead us to argue for more consideration of the value of co-design workshops on the museum of gallery floor with visitors.