Application & Interactions – Week 12: Outcome & Ambition

Week 12 Lecture & Resources

Week 12 lecture notes.

Science Museum Brief – Final Design Solution

Updated kit design

The “Make your own Cyanotype” kit will include:

  • A set of 10 sheets of pre-treated photosensitive cyanotype paper, enclosed in a light-proof bag
  • A printed A6 booklet insert with information and instructions (see details below)

The kit packaging (pictured above) is a letterbox-sized cardboard box with a printed design that can easily be recycled or reused.

Booklet insert for the cyanotype kit

This is an A6 sized booklet, which is included in the “Make your own cyanotype” kit, and contains instructions along with information about Anna Atkins and the cyanotype process. It also encourages people using the kit to share the images they make afterwards.

To view the cyanotype kit booklet spreads
seen above as a (flat) PDF, click here.

Service Design

An overview of the user journey:

  1. A visitor to the Science Museum picks up one of the
    Make your own Cyanotype kits from the gift shop, or
    orders one online via the website.
  2. They take the kit home, or receive it in the post.
  3. The user makes their own prints using the cyanotype
    process, following the instructions in the kit.
  4. When they have finished making the prints, the
    user can then go to a dedicated page on the Science
    Museum website to learn more about Anna Atkins,
    cyanotypes, the history & science of photography.
    and also to upload the images they have made.
  5. The user’s images will be shared on a virtual gallery (see mockup image below).
  6. Optional: users can also share their prints on
    social media, for example on Instagram, using the
    #InspiredByAnnaAtkins hashtag.
Rough design for the virtual gallery page on the Science Museum website.

Workshop Challenge

A reflection on the Science Museum project as a whole

  • Making cyanotype prints myself was really useful and gave me a much clearer sense of the skill involved in creating work of the calibre that Anna Atkins produced, as well as an insight into how they are made, which made the process of designing the kit much easier.
  • Recording my process – taking photographs of the different stages of making a cyanotype proved to be a worthwhile exercise as I used several of these images for the kit design, as well as being able to show my experimental cyanotype prints as a demonstration/example of what you can make with it.
  • The user testing was extremely useful. If possible, it would have been even better if I had a wider pool of people in the target audience age range to ask for feedback.
  • Ideally I would like to have done more user testing with the final stage of designs, but unfortunately ran out of time.

Evaluation Video

My evaluation video can also be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/659724900

References

JEFFREY, Ian. 2000. The Photography Book. London: Phaidon.

Schaaf, Larry J. 2018. Sun Gardens: Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins. New York: The New York Public Library.