Pushing the Limits of Design: How a unique, design-focused museum is using digital technology to further its mission

The Design Museum of Chicago believes “design has the fundamental capacity to improve the human condition.” With a mission dedicated to “inspiring, educating and innovating through design,” this specialty museum is a local cultural institution that opens the door for conversations about design that span a variety of different points of view. While their primary focus is on the curation, setup, and execution of these physical displays, the museum recently identified the need for an innovative way to share their mission and engage with audiences digitally.

When Lauren Boegen, Executive Director of Operations and Collections, started her job at the Design Museum, she was concerned that the museum was not providing the increasing number of digitally-focused visitors the right tools to connect with the museum and its content. The Design Museum mainly used their website and Instagram to reach potential visitors online. They wanted to improve both the strength of their web presence and the depth of their content to encourage more engagement.

After speaking with a representative from VAMONDE, Lauren decided to create content on her exhibit “Keep Moving” which shared information on bicycle design and its effect on Chicago through various lenses. Her goal was to connect the information in her exhibit to the places and spaces that were of importance to the subject across the city of Chicago.

Lauren was introduced to VAMONDE by starting with a 30-minute demo and spent some time navigating the platform before making her decision to commit. Lauren decided quickly to move forward because she was impressed with the structure and simplicity. She said the following on her views on the platform:

“The platform is excellent and the interface is easy to use. Once you learn how much content to enter and how it will appear on mobile, the rest is just plugging content in to create visually appealing stories.”

More Than A Digital Archive — Preserving the Experience

With VAMONDE, Lauren was able to create content for her exhibit on Chicago Bicycle Culture and have it serve as a resource for people interested in learning more about the exhibit when it was open. Since there were no tour guides, Lauren’s digital experience allowed visitors to interact with the exhibit on a deeper level.

Once the exhibit closed, Lauren discovered that the other benefit of placing her content on VAMONDE was that it provided a way to record the exhibit for posterity without the physical display. She can continue to promote her content on Instagram and other social media even though the exhibit is now closed.

Design Museum uses digital experiences and stories to engage with visitors, cultural institutions and the city of Chicago

With the closing of “Keep Moving”, Lauren’s evergreen digital content serves as a testament to the physical exhibition and allows users to keep engaging with the information no longer available physically at the museum. With over 100 views per week, the Design Museum is spreading their reach and sharing their mission with users in the Chicago area and beyond. The value of this technology is further articulated by Tanner Woodford, Founder and Executive Director of the Design Museum of Chicago:

“VAMONDE allows us to focus on important things like story, content and narrative, while they worry about technical implementation, marketing, and user experience. The process for creating a tour couldn’t be simpler, and the app has added a ton of value to the Design Museum.” — Tanner Woodford

The future is bright for the Design Museum as Lauren focuses on putting together new exhibitions and events. Her goal is to leverage the opportunity that VAMONDE presents to create design-focused and design cultural history content surrounding their next exhibit: Intersection of Chicago Theatres and Design. This exhibit will help the museum connect with theatre companies, theatre associations, and larger city institutions, and allow it to further integrate itself with the Chicago cultural community.

Learn more about VAMONDE, a digital experience platform for museums. Visit solutions.vamonde.com to learn more.