The Joods Monument wall in the Jewish Historical Museum represents 6,700 Jewish families murdered during the German occupation. A digital representation the monument was designed as a social media site, www.jhm.nl, giving each family member their own profile and the opportunity for their stories to go beyond a name on a wall. The most difficult design challenge of the site was creating a welcoming atmosphere that encouraged story-seeking and story-sharing with such somber subject matter. Careful consideration was taken on making the ancestry linking minimal in clicks while promoting accuracy. Additionally, any interactive flow choices made on the website needed to be reflected on its companion real-world application, the IkPod.
The ikPod, a specially adapted iPod, links the names on the wall to the Digital Monument website. UX/UI design of the app had to pull as much information and elements as the website, but smaller and quicker. Emphasis was also put on the location as users could track any profile’s stories by walking around Amsterdam. The entire project was a great success, resulting in Joods Monument IkPod being 2011 Spin Award winner for Best Mobile Concept and Best Crossmedia Concept.
To celebrate the unveiling of the National Historisch Museum, a customized “automatiek” was installed in the Amsterdam location. It features the classic, self-serve vending machines (which are still wildly popular in the Netherlands) dispensing historical Dutch objects instead of fried foods.
This exhibit required extensive interactive design and testing to make sure each user went through all the steps (of which there are seven from card → object → video). On average, this process took 2 minutes including watching the video, and almost each user completed the process without hesitation. There were exceptions: Hackers in the form of Dutch grannies had discovered the tea towels in the Automatiek vending machine were euros cheaper than in stores. They often raided the Automatiek without completing the process, but they brought their friends so it was at least enjoyed by a broader public.
The aim of the RFID Hacker Camp is to realize engaging interactive installations, wearables, spaces and places for the visitors of the outstanding high-profile conference, PICNIC. Each installation explores various recent technologies like RFID, physical computing and social networking but also looks into aspects of interaction design and interactive processes.
Various visual concepts and signage were created to accompany these three dimensional works from the design of the IkWin social popularity elevators, to the costumes of the IkPoll roaming voting stations.