#metkids
#metkids is a new feature on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website made for, with, and by kids. The project began with the prompt to develop the illustrated Family Map of the Museum, drawn by John Kershbaum, into an interactive experience that could serve as a homebase for kids on the museum’s site. Each object in the illustration was identified and its location plotted, allowing users to travel seamlessly between time periods and Museum departments, giving a true sense of the enormity of the collection.
The “Time Machine” comprises a set of filters—time periods, geography, and big ideas—that are applied to the collection objects plotted on the map. Selecting at least one filter “activates” the Time Machine; selecting more than one category futher narrows the results set.
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Each of the three filters has an animation that begins when an option in that category is selected.
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The “Don’t Touch” button kicks off an animation that causes the Time Machine go haywire and explore, resulting in a single, randomly selected work of art from the map with a unique, jumbled, URL.
And lastly, the “Videos” section collects all sorts of moving image content from around the site in one place, including stop-motion pieces made my kids, features on works of art or galleries in the Museum, and even an interview of the director, Tom Campbell, done by a few MetKids.
