Edinburgh Napier University

  Creating engaging artefacts is a key objective for anyone involved in the design and implementation of interactive media. This is particularly true for those artefacts that comprise, complement and enliven modern museums. While recognising that engagement can take a number of different forms, appropriation appears to be the most pertinent here. By appropriation we mean people making an artefact their own, an observation we illustrate with details from an ethnographic study conducted at the Public (http://www.thepublic.com/). We conclude by observing that by empowering people to make artefacts their own is not merely an effective means of creating engaging artefacts but lies at the heart of user-centred design.