Deliver Us from Touch Screens

October 6, 2011 by Taylor Studios in Design & Planning

I will likely never be a wise man.

I will likely never be a wise man because I lack the moderation of thought that most wise people seem to possess. For much of my life, I thought William Blake’s sentiments in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, perceptive:

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.

But as I matured, expanded my reading, and conversed with people whom I respect, I realized that many of the people I considered wisest, where living lives closer to Aristotle’s moderation than Blake’s excess.

So, as I consider the seeming overuse of exhibit touch screens, the imbalanced impulse in me wants to condemn them all. However, I refrain, recalling conversations with one of our Senior Exhibit Designers who continually reminds me that “There is a time and a place for all design elements.” So I started thinking about when and where touch screens provide the most suitable media choice for interpretive content.

In Paul Orselli’s very useful and informative blog , he asks if screens are killing interactive experiences museums (). To support his opinion that they may, he compiled a top ten list named: A Screed Against Screens. He notes:

I don’t care how you slice it up, screens are not a sustainable design technology.

The biggest gateway to “cheesiness” in the museum business.

Didn’t forcing people to sit through a boring movie before they get to the “fun stuff” die out with the 1964 World’s Fair?

Somehow the technology that looked so cool in the Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report” has landed inside museums. Proof that bigger is not always better.

Screens hypnotize, not socialize.

But poorly.

Since visitors will stare at a screen, even if nothing is on it, screen-based technologies often become our default design choice.

Screens often become a dumping ground for huge volumes of text that we would never dare stick onto a printed label.

Screen-based technologies and techniques become dated very quickly, but unfortunately don’t seem to get replaced as quickly.

Orselli’s list is one of the few sources I have found that addresses some of the reservations I have concerning the explosion of touch screen requests from clients.

I share many of his thoughts regarding screen technology; however, I want to focus specifically on the overuse of touch screens specifically.

In my experience, touch screens are requested or required in our exhibit designs generally, for three reasons: 1) To include “extra” text and images that would otherwise not make the cut; 2) To provide a high-tech option for for an arbitrary exhibit technology threshold; and 3) Because today’s kids expect and demand them. These three reasons correspond to several of Orselli’s list above.

When confronted with one or more of the justifications above, we ask the following questions: Do we think visitors are going to stand at a touch screen and drill down for additional information on a touch screen? With the general public’s access to smart phones and therefore instant access to the internet, does a touch screen offer something that the phone in their pockets do not? Will kids, accustomed to Wii and Xbox at home find a touch screen engaging at all?

Throughout design, it benefits both contractor and client to continually ask difficult questions similar to the above.

I have seen touch screens work perfectly well in two circumstances.

First, as a visitor interface which controls a larger exhibit experience. For instance, a touch screen can provide a menu of visitor choices that controls interpretive options. Imagine a visitor standing before a wetland diorama, where a touch screen encourages the visitor to interact, perhaps by initiating the calls of shorebirds, or generating an approaching storm. The visitor would be designing her experience—the touch screen would be enhancing her larger experience.

Second, as an updateable exhibit component that requires frequent updates. For instance, if a touch screen is linked to something like a database or website that is being updated hourly or so, i.e. temperature at the top of a mountain that a visitor is about to climb. Using a touch screen as an interface to this content within the exhibit allows us as the design firm to avoid recreating the wheel.

Of course, design balance and effectiveness takes each individual circumstance into account, thus custom exhibit design and fabrication. It would be interesting to hear if anyone out there has seen effective use of touch screens for applications not mentioned above. It would expand my perspective and prove to me “There is a time and a place for all design elements.”