Hasta La Ideas

In anticipation of the upcoming IxDA Interaction12 Conference taking place in Dublin, Ireland February 1–4, Core77 will be bringing you a preview of this year’s event. Follow us as we chat with keynote speakers, presenters and workshop leaders to give you a sneak peek at some of the ideas and issues to be addressed at this year’s conference. Come by and say hello to us at the Coroflot Connects recruiting event and don’t miss out on our live coverage as we report from the ground in Dublin!

For the second installment of our series of interviews with Interaction12 presenters, we had a quick chat with Tom O’Rahilly, Director of the National Leprechaun Museum in Dublin. As unorthodox as it may seem at first blush, O’Rahilly—a designer by training and trade—explains how storytelling is the essence of interaction design.

Photo by Ros Kavanagh

Core77: I know that the National Leprechaun Museum had an initial wave of press when the museum first opened in March 2010. Any news to report since then? What kind of response or feedback have you received, and has that met or exceeded your expectations?

Tom O’Rahilly: Yes, we got great coverage when we opened. The Leprechaun was a somewhat derided character in Ireland, and the fact that we opened a museum about them was something unusual. As a project dealing with folklore and mythology, subjects that are not regarded as mainstream, it got a great deal of interest, which has continued right up to today. At launch there were no other museums anywhere directed at folklore and mythology. The Leprechaun is an easy way in to the labyrinth of Irish myths and legends.

We regard the museum as a project which continues to evolve, our primary aim is to engage with the audience. The better the engagement, the more we can communicate. The reactions have been great: we grew our audience significantly this year and we continue to interact with users long after they have left the museum.

We regularly run special events and add to our online presence in order to attract and engage people in different aspects of the Irish imagination.

The Tunnel – An Uaimh; Photo by Ros Kavanagh

Founding a cultural institution might seem like an unexpected direction for someone who spent over a decade in design. How has the experience been similar to and different from product design?

Culture and design go hand in hand. The physical product we can hold in our hand has a cultural backstory. It can be compared to an iceberg where the tangible product is part of a larger tacit element under the water and out of sight. A bigger cultural, out-of-sight part makes for more meaningful engagement.

One of the biggest differences is the way people own their experiences. This is much more explicit and social than I am used to.

Photo by Ros Kavanagh

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