“This is a nice example of a collections interactive that doesn’t try to do everything at once. The focus is on ten individual works, their context in terms of time and place, and other related works and artists. A lot of information simply conveyed.”—juror Allegra Burnette

“It would have been easy for this to be a stuffy piece, but it’s not. The user is compelled to explore and it successfully conveys the museum feel without ever overdoing it.”—juror Grace Stanat

Overview: The world’s first museum in an airport annex. Visitors can view approximately ten works in a sleek, modern design. Information is concise and contextual, perfect for a quick visit.

• Snippets of information for travelers with limited time
• Presented on a kiosk platform using flatscreen monitors with a mouse interface
• 3 weeks, 6 people

Comments by Hans van Dijk: 
“Our mission was to engage twenty-first century air travelers in seventeenth-century art.

“This was our first job for the Rijksmuseum. Their exhibition center at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport was, and still is, the world’s first museum at an airport. While waiting for flights, travelers can see ten works by masters from the Dutch Golden Age, all selected from the world-famous collection of the Rijksmuseum.

“The exhibition is surrounded by four kiosk screens. Of course we always design with the target audience in mind, but in this case that was the hard part; some travelers have ample time to spare, while others may only have five minutes. And, they come from all over the world, with varying levels of education and interest.

“Working closely with the client, we made an application with various levels of depth. On the surface it looks like a familiar desktop; users can browse through the paintings or click on thumbnails to see the full painting, read something about it and zoom in on some interesting details. When visitors have time, we hope to draw them to information at deeper levels: related works, more about the artist, the time and place of creation, etc.

“Although the technology wasn’t difficult (it’s a Flash-based application that runs full-screen), it was somewhat challenging to make it easy to use without interfering with the greatest artwork of all time.”