Interface Design Assessment of Museum Permanent Exhibition at the National Museum of Malaysia

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue V, May 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Interface Design Assessment of Museum Permanent Exhibition at the National Museum of Malaysia

Norfadilah Kamaruddin

Faculty of Art & Design, University Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract:- At a museum, the interface design between the visitor and the museum is devoted to the exhibition. In this sense, the exhibition works as a medium with an effective interface design for the museum collections and researches. Moreover, a visit to an exhibition counts as a good use of leisure time, however some exhibitions are almost overrun with visitors. Thus, this paper describes what is interface design meaning from the design perspectives and the museum professionals view. Consisting of four different types of interface design, this paper presents the results of a broad validation study on the literature, as well as Malaysian National Museum specific documents. The paper concludes with a discussion of what types of interface design currently be applied on the permanent exhibition at Malaysian National Museum and how the future interface design can be improve towards the presentation of museum-collections and future aims to strengthening and refining the quality of interface design for use by museum professionals.

Key Words: Interface Design, Museum Experience.

I. INTRODUCTION

Public normally were recognized the museum as a place where old materials be stored. Nonetheless this traditional view has been increasingly changing as the UNESCO has prearranged a new definition for the museum. Thus, nowadays the museum is defined as a non-profit institution and it should always open to the public for the purpose of research and education. Within this, museum should museums prided themselves on the quality of the artefacts they housed and drawing visitors experience and knowledge from collections that were organized into fixed categories to add meaning.
Philosophically, museums have a dual role. From the perspective traditional, museum needs to be functional as a social learning centre. It is including an activity such as collecting, researching, translating, documenting, preserving, and exhibiting. Nevertheless, as technology rapidly changing, the role of the museum has changed considerably in this modern era. Moreover, museum concept also changed from Object Oriented that focusing more on services pleasure, to Information Delivery that concentrating more on enjoyment or edutainment of the visitors. Consequently, both functions are having the same goals where placing a great emphasis on communication and experience. This scenario moreover is something that public commonly have experienced as a museum visitor and is likely quite common. As stated by Weil (1999) the focus of contemporary museums is not so much on what they do, but for whom they do it. Hence, every museum visit must be meaningful and valuable for each visitor.

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