Overview

The partner of this challenge, the City of Munich, wants to get more people interested in art, history and the city itself and wishes to find new ways to present those areas to its citizens. It would like to make it possible for people to access culture from anywhere. As the challenge was presented to the student team during the time of the coronavirus lockdown, the necessity of finding innovations in this field became even clearer, as museums and art galleries had to close down during the lockdown and people weren’t allowed anymore to experience culture in the traditional way of attending events physically.

Problem

Even in a culturally rich city like Munich, there are still obstacles that prevent the cultural offer from being accessible to everyone, be it personal reasons like permanent sickness, financial reasons or the consequences of the virus. The questions that therefore built the base of the group's work and that they wanted to answer during the solution-finding-process were the following:

• How can we make the cultural offers of the City of Munich accessible to all groups that might be interested in it but can, for different reasons, not enjoy it?
• How can we create an interesting offer for people who do not have the time or money to attend cultural events?

Approach

To tackle the problem, Mr. Schmidt, the representative of the City of Munich, expressed and explained the problem in detail and defined the goals for the project from the City’s side. Inspired by his words, the team used the innovation method “Working-Backwards” and created a possible solution for the future. During the process they received help from Lars Schmitz of Amazon Web Services (AWS). With the help of the innovation method, the students analysed and understood the needs of the final client properly and visualised the idea for a solution in several documents, such as an empathy map and a storyboard. The solution that the team suggested was an online platform that would host exhibitions of all of Munich's museums. The prototype of the platform was designed by the team in the next step.

Prototype

To create the prototype, the team used the website creator wix.com. It gave them the freedom to create and design a website that would be perfectly tailored to their needs. They focused on making the website easily accessible and so that the user would get a good overview of all the important information in the end. On the website the user can easily access exhibitions of different museums in Munich and choose the one he is most interested in. On the main page current exhibitions and upcoming events are shown as well as some more information. Different sections are showing the price options and are giving more insights into the museums. The website is held in a simple but elegant style that appears attractive to its user.

Next Steps

The proposal could be quickly turned into reality if the City of Munich decides to continue the work. The next steps recommended to the City are to choose a technology that meets their needs, to create the website as well as content for it in form of exhibition recordings and to put everything online.

About the Co-Innovation Lab

This challenge was carried out as a joint project between the DTLab and the Co-Innovation-Lab of the Munich University of Applied Sciences. The Co-Innovation-Lab is a comprehensive concept for innovation projects between students and companies. Temporary innovation partnerships - in the form of projects - are created between companies, students and lecturers. Initiated by Prof. Holger Günzel and Prof. Lars Brehm (both Munich University of Applied Sciences), more than 25 innovation projects are currently carried out each year, often on an interdisciplinary basis. The Co-Innovation Lab is structured as an open community. Interested lecturers can use the concept of the Co-Innovation Lab in their courses and are welcome to actively participate in its further development.