We have developed an instrument for designers based on the APEX framework that can be used to set a priori design goals and to directly assess whether or not the exhibit met these design goals. The instrument is a simple worksheet that prompts designers to indicate how much time their “ideal” user group would spend exhibiting each type of engagement in the APEX framework. Designers are also prompted to circle the three types of engagement that are of highest priority to their team. Design teams can then compare this completed form to the results from the final APEX evaluation of their exhibit in order to evaluate their exhibit according to the team’s specific set of a priori goals. Free response questions on the worksheet prompt design teams to reflect on why their goals were or were not met.
This will enable teams to clearly assess whether their design goals were met in addition to highlighting surprising or unexpected results. This could potentially be useful for clearly communicating results with supervisors or funding agencies. We plan to use this tool in our future work when we are seeking to directly compare exhibit iterations or evaluate an exhibit against a “gold standard” benchmark. We also plan to continue to use APEX as a more open-ended/exploratory tool when we are looking to identify emergent patterns.
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