RETOLD: Report on a Working Prototype

The RETOLD project is beginning to show its first technological results. Through close collaboration between RETOLD partners UAB and Nuwa Digital Media and under leadership from EXARC, a working prototype of our digital documentation tool for open-air museums is being built.

During a software development process, UX designers work closely with developers to communicate the vision behind wireframes, prototypes, and design systems, ensuring that technical decisions enhance usability. They advocate for a user-centered approach, providing insights on how design choices impact user interaction, accessibility, and engagement. 

In the first phase of designing a digital interface for the data collection forms created by the museum partners, Nuwa’s UX researcher and designer acted as essential liaison between the museums, articulating their requirements to the developer at UAB. 

In turn, UAB’s software developer was able to iterate quickly, so that we were able to test the overall structure of the prototype with users early on. The information gained during early usability testing in turn provided the partners at the museums with information about a user-friendly structure for their data collection forms.

Founded on documentation design by RETOLD partners Museumsdorf Düppel (DE) and Complexul National Muzeal ASTRA (RO) and user experience (UX) research by Nüwa Digital Media Content Production Studios Ltd (IE), the tool is a mobile application designed to help museums capture annual documentation data easily, making it accessible for use within the museums themselves, but also for researchers in the European open-air museum context.

The application will be part of a web-based archive specifically tailored to the types of material present in open-air museums, including intangible knowledge such as craft skills and educational experience. To help represent the different types of knowledge created in open-air museums, the archive can accommodate documentation forms, but also visual material like video, images and 3D models.

At the RETOLD meeting at ASTRA, Sibiu, a first functional version of the app will be presented to the project partners for testing and feedback, before we will make the prototype available to the wider EXARC community.