This introductory chapter contextualises and reflects critically on the emerging trends characterising the evolving social role advocated by museums in society, with an emphasis on museum experiences as vehicles for change or transformation. It looks at transformation by adopting a systemic perspective, anchored in the transformative potential of the experiences that museums offer to visitors, and then zooming out to turn attention towards the way recent changes in the socio-political and cultural context reverberated in structural and functional changes inside the museum and connected institutions and communities. The chapter is structured along a series of questions, starting by unpacking a rationale for transformative experiences and why they are worthy of attention at this particular moment (Why), then focusing on what we mean by transformative experiences in the context of museums (What), on particularities of design approaches and supporting technologies for crafting transformative experiences (How), and closing with reflections on the meaning and significance of it all, for the museum, the visitor, diverse audience groups and society as a whole (For whom and For what). The final part of the Introduction then reviews these themes once again, narrating how they are woven in the book narrative.

The museum world is rapidly changing from being collection-centred to being community-centred and for the public. Apart from broadening access to collections through, for example, digitisation initiatives, new ways of involving the public more meaningfully and at various levels have emerged. Experiences inside museums have become more engaging, by extending the experience beyond the physical visit, or by involving the public in various forms of crowdsourced stewardship of collections. In this book, we explore the design implications that go along with these developments, all concerned with diversifying and making the engagement of the public in museum experiences more rewarding. We focus on the design implications associated with museums reaching out to crowds beyond their local communities, on experimenting with novel technologies and on conceiving experiences embedded in connected museum systems and large institutional ecosystems. By looking at and reflecting on trends, we attempt to sketch a picture of how future museums will change and, particularly, how they will relate to their public as a result of responding to or embracing these trends.

A general trend of museums and cultural heritage institutions besides digitizing their collections is to involve the public more and at various levels. Technology plays an increasingly important role in this involvement. Developments we have observed in museum experience design, include trends towards 1) dialogical engagement of the public; 2) addressing crowds as audiences; 3) the use of Internet of Things (IoT) and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) technology in museums; and 4) designing for museum systems and institutional ecologies instead of for individual museums only. In this one-day workshop we especially focus on exploring the implications of museums reaching out to crowds beyond their local communities, and of museums increasingly becoming part of connected museum systems and large institutional ecosystems. By means of a tangible game we will brainstorm about future opportunities and challenges, cluster and evaluate them, and suggest future work.