A playful approach linking an exhibition with digital

Digital paths, life literacy and games within the app allow for narrative structures which can be created and shared with other users. In short the app is a digital layer extending and altering the physical space of the MAK DESIGN LAB.

What we did

• Concept
• Digital Design
• Interaction Design
• Frontend Development
• Backend Development
• Web App Development

Pattern lock

The basis for navigating through the app is the pattern lock. It’s a system most people are familiar with – easy to use, intuitive and a playful, tactile experience which creates human involvement. The beauty of this system lies in appropriating something very simple and low-threshold and adapting it to our needs. Different combinations within the 9 point matrix of the pattern lock provide more than 360.000 unique possibilities for heavy content linking.

Digital Life Literacy

Digital Life Literacy is used to convey knowledge of essential terms for shaping the future of digital modernity in an exciting and clear way. The terms are linked to the objects in the permanent exhibition and to the MAK Design Lab Paths and themes. Martina Mara, robot psychologist, University of Art and Design Linz, was commissioned to provide content on the topics of digitalization; IDRV, Institute of Design Research Vienna, on the topics of climate change and sustainability; and Katharina Mader, heterodox economist, Vienna University of Economics and Business, on the topic of care work. The curators of the MAK DESIGN LAB were also significantly involved in the content of the app.

Design Lab Paths

Under Design Lab Paths, digital tours of the MAK DESIGN LAB have been created on various thematic focal points. This allows content to be read in a focused way under selected aspects. A total of 16 paths of varying length, complexity and linguistic style were created.

Games for Change

With GAMES FOR CHANGE, the MAK is pursuing a cooperative and at the same time complementary approach. The aim is to combine digital learning methods with the museum space and to offer personally supervised workshops.

The game MIX MAK was drawn by the author and illustrator Sigrid Eyb-Green and is a kind of digital picture book. It was created as part of the Citizen Science workshop “Brave new skills and values – learning from animals for our future”. Three body parts of the animals can be mixed and swapped. The young users are asked to look for objects in the MAK DESIGN LAB that match the animal strategies.

Three game ideas from the Citizen Science process “Our Digital Trails” were merged into the digital game “WorldWideWunderland”. Developed by LWZ, Lost in the Garden, and MAK’s New Learning Concepts department, it features unicorns and giants. Unicorns, joyful and free, learn, chat, and create, while giants seek to control them. Players aim to free unicorns and aid in their defense against the giants.

MAK Design Lab

Across approximately 2 000 square meters, the MAK Design Lab demonstrates the many ways design can contribute to positive change. Contemporary projects by designers, artists, architects, programmers, activists, and idealists that react to the challenges of the 21st century and visualize problems, suggest alternatives, or offer solutions are contextualized in complex ways with historical approaches from the MAK collection.

Architecture: mischer’traxler
Design, Illustration & Animation: LWZ

With: Sebastian Pataki

Creative Lead: LWZ, Huangart, Sebastian Pataki Concept: LWZ, Huangart, Sebastian Pataki, Janina Falkner Design: Huangart, LWZ, Sebastian Pataki Development: Huangart Illustration: LWZ, Sebastian Pataki, Sigrid Eyb-Green Text: Janina Falkner, Viktoria Heinrich, Marlies Wirth, mischer’traxler, Martina Mara, Katharina Mader Photography: Jakob Gsöllpointner, MAK/Stefan Lux