In recent years, design museums, design in museums, and museum design are all topics that have attracted growing interest from scholars and professionals: on the one hand, the issues related to the musealisation of design and to design museums, on the other hand the issues raised by exhibition design and by the use of design as a conceptual and practical tool to design museum and museum experience.
In this last sense, it is noteworthy to mention an article written by Alice Lake-Hammond, free lance designer, and Noel Waite, University of Otago (New Zealand): Exhibition Design: Bridging the Knowledge Gap, published in the latest issue of “The Design Journal” (edited by Paul Atkinson, vol. 13, n. 1, pp. 77-98).
As the abstract reads, in this article the authors consider «the changing role of exhibition design and its contribution to the interpretation in the increasingly audience-centred museum environment». To do so, they investigate the case study of the Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa, its new design and strategy, as a good example of how designers were involved at different stages – exhibitions concept plan, architecture, exhibition design etc. – and did contribute in developing the museum experience, finally helping to «bridge the gap» between expert knowledge and visitors. No surprise, Ralph Appelbaum, the award winning designer and a leader in the field of interpretive museum design, was involved in this project.
Not only do Lake-Hammond and Waite examine the case study, but they trace an historical framework about the development of exhibition design and the changing role of designers in museums, providing good references to existing literature both of museum studies and design studies.
Moreover, they conclude the paper with «a preliminary map of the key interpretive design considerations of concepts, contexts and narratives as a guide to the exhibition design process in contemporary museums», in order to enhance the dialogue between designers and curators and the involvement and participation of designers in the concept and contents development.
The design process model they advance – which is also illustrated via diagrams – regards concepts, contexts and narratives as three major aspects that should be considered to develop a strong interpretive design and where designers can help curators and museum professionals.
In the very last sentence the authors state that in «an information-saturated world, there is a growing need for articulate communicators to help us understand our past, integrate new knowledge and inspire new ways of seeing our future, and we would argue that the field of exhibition design is one place they can reliably be found».
Indeed they are right. What would be interesting to ponder about additionally, however, is whether and to what extent design curators and design museums have reached this kind of awareness. If one looks at the museum world as a whole and at the advancements in museum studies, it is true that in general «[w]here once the curator was the sole keeper of expert knowledge, the contemporary exhibition process has become a collaborative effort involving curators, designers, educators, technicians and, increasingly the audience themselves».
Yet, this truth seems to turn into an exception when one looks at some design museums and design exhibitions, where, to use Eilean Hooper-Greehnill’s words, it seems the modernist transmission model of communication still prevails.[1]

Note
[1] Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, Changing Values in the Art Museum. Rethinking Communication and Learning, in Museum Studies. An Anthology of Contexts, ed. by Bettina Messias Carbonell, Malden, MA, Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 556-575.