The Physical Environment – The Interface We Move Through

The most consistently interactive experience we have in the modern world is moving through space, making choices about where we look, what we do, and how we interact with people around us. In designing retail spaces, museums, and other public places I am constantly struck by the sense that the environment being created sets a mood/feel and then acts as an interface that allows the user to make informed choices and act at the appropriate moments. Three rooms accessible from a center room vs. three rooms accessed sequentially very simply illustrates how space arrangement can act as an in-terface that affects experience. In retail design we frequently talk about how customers experience things at 100, 15, and 2 feet – and how the appropriate information and choices vary at each distance. In this forum we will look at how the design of physical environments with their inherently extreme bandwidth can be looked at through the lens of the language of interface. We will also investigate how the broad interface of the physical environment affects increasingly pervasive computer interfaces and vice versa.

Presenter(s)

Matthew Moore, Principal, Hipbone Design

As a generalist in the realm of communicating ideas and emotions and a specialist in the design of built environments, Matthew Moore has worked over 20 years with leadership in major cultural institutions, Fortune 500 companies, as well as leading architects, engi-neers, and designers creating projects ranging from new museums to sign spectaculars in Times Square to big box retail to outdoor site installations.

He lead the environmental design department as well as sat on the executive strategy team during his 15 year tenure at ESI Design Incorporated (www.esidesign.com), one of the leading experience design firms in the country. While there, he was either the principal or the lead environmental designer on 40+ projects including the recently opened College Basketball Experience and National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City - a new from the ground up facility that is rede-fining what a Hall of Fame might be as well as being an entertainment destination in its own right. Other recent work includes working closely with senior management at Best Buy to develop new store concepts including the store prototype to be rolled out this summer. In both these projects besides wearing a traditional design "hat," Matthew worked with marketing and business teams to develop the overall strategies that these projects would fit into. Other major work includes being the project designer for the all the interpretive elements in the Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts last major reno-vation, the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington DC, the Reuters Sign in Times Square, and the AMerican Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island in New York.

He is now the principal of Hipbone Design LLC (www.hipbonedesign.com) a company specializing in the creation of dynamic public experiences in the museum, re-tail, and corporate markets. Through this work and through teaching exhibit design at Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology (both in New York City) Matthew has continued to develop overarching ideas of connecting people in public places, the effect of cumulative details, and design functionality (including aesthetic, emotional, and inspirational functionality). His training was in scenic design for the theater - under-graduate studies at the State University of New York at Purchase and graduate studies at the Yale School of Drama.