Crucial Interactions

April 12, 2013 by Taylor Studios in Design & Planning

One of the challenges of designing and building exhibits is the interactive. Visitors learn more when they can interact with an exhibit, and if your audience is from an elementary school, having a hands-on experience is required. Kids are tough on exhibits, and they are very tough on interactives. Ideally, we would design every physical interactive (no electricity required) as if it were a piece of playground equipment rated for 150 lbs. However, most clients want the playground equipment left outside, so we design interactives for their exhibits that look better and teach more than playground equipment. And then, after an install, we get client photos of schoolchildren climbing all over what we built. If they could have climbed onto the top of the exhibit wall, they would have.

Audio-visual interactives have a different set of challenges. Fewer moving parts, but much more expensive components. Consumer electronics manufacturers change what models they offer monthly, so the monitor we showed in the design eight months ago may have vanished from the market by the time we need to buy it. Three years after it was installed? You might find it refurbished on eBay. We used to have video interactives play segments from DVDs on an ‘industrial grade’ DVD player costing $800. Now our videos play off of a flash memory card in a digital video player smaller than a paperback book. We’re always seeking out smaller, more dependable equipment. It’s a series of small steps, but when we look back at an exhibit that’s ten years old, I just shake my head at the technology we used. It’s like watching somebody use a portable CD player. Sure, I had one, but the current tech is so much better!

Digital photo frames are very popular, and they seem to be such an obvious idea. We use them more as a graphic that can change than as an interactive, since you can’t trigger them. Unfortunately, they are built better than they are programmed. Our exhibit designers think the frames are capable of much more than they are, so the search is on for a frame that lets the client easily manipulate what is shown. Have you had a good experience with a particular brand of photo frame? Believe me, I’m taking suggestions!