The Housing Authority Exhibition Centre

Thanks everyone who came along to Housing Authority Exhibition Centre.  As I said, it is a great way to learn more about the history of Hong Kong and her people and it is one of the only physical spaces in the world that reflects all the possibilities of a Flash application or a web site.  They have elements that include almost every known form of media and with the addition of the new interactive table they even have a bit of a mini-game.  (Wouldn't it be great to create a game for four to eight people on that space!)  That is a completely new element and they have tightened up many of the design elements within the space.

The nine people who did not go really missed an interesting and inspiring exhibition of information.  ( I am sure that you were working hard on finishing your assignment so I cannot wait to see the results)

I did not bring the hand-outs but we will discuss Location, Alphabet, Time, Category and Hierarchy in our next class.  With the huge model of Hong Kong in the middle of the center there appears to be a strong emphasis on location, but that serves mostly as decoration as it does not integrate with the rest of the information in the space.  The real organizing principle is time as it dictates the sequence of the information panels, the building models, the flats from the past and the kitchen and bathroom displays.  The opening video gives a nice overview of the Housing Authority and the physical space gives the history and current state of the organization.  The new interactive elements certainly got the most attention which seems to say there needs to be more opportunities for interaction in other parts of the centre.  I will show you some pictures from the centre in the past so you can see some of the possible changes.  Then we will talk about LATCH and do an information organizing exercise next week.

Thanks to Phoenix, Katherine, Zoyo, Mounir and Jason for adding the Science Museum to the trip.  In comparison to the HA the Science Museum was really disorganized.  It is a larger space and there are more displays but even in the very clearly themed exhibits there is a lack of organization, i.e. the body exhibit was spread all around the ground floor and it didn't seem to have much of a connecting thread even though the various information areas had the same color, type and layout.  You jumped from the eye to the mouth to Chinese medicine and then gestalt perception principles.  This space is screaming for more storytelling and organization.  Here are the questions I am left with from the Science Museum: Why is the Luofeng dinosaur in the middle of the human body area?  Why is the mirror display, which is reasonably well organized, designed using traditional chinese images?  Why does that beautiful ship model sit in that huge pool of water on the second floor under the Cathay Pacific DC-3 aircraft?  I know it's about transportation but what does the boat actually do or mean?  Anyway, the Science Museum left me a bit disappointed but anyone can learn about the need for organization, the need for a clear connection between the space design and the content design, and the fact that independent cool exhibits and/or experiences do not make a great learning or entertainment experience.

The Housing Authority Exhibition Centre has the advantage of complete focus on one topic while the Science Museum is trying to cover a wide range of topics for a very broad audience.

We will talk more next Wednesday...