Open Forum

Hi AAM community,

I am working on a digital exhibit for the Owensboro Museum of Science and History history gallery where visitors explore content on a large touch screen. We want to survey visitors about their experience and compile their responses to inform our follow-up design and programming reactions (Weber Group designed the UI, programmed the software, and developed content). 

I have searched past discussion posts and found plenty of resources and papers online pertaining to interactive exhibits and museums, but I am struggling to find questions specifically aimed at interactive touch screens.What sorts of questions need to be asked? Are there any questions to be avoided? Should the survey be included in the touch table, or kept separate?

I appreciate all your thoughts!
Thanks,

------------------------------
Sarah Daley
Creative Designer | Weber Group Inc.
Louisville, KY
------------------------------

Sarah:

May I suggest you take a step back & look first at the book: Alter, Adam. 2017. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technologies and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. New York: Penguin Press.

In my view, essential questions to ask yourself & your team first are:

1. Why employ a digital exhibit on-site in the history gallery that will--by design--suck attention away from museum collections of real objects on display?
2. Why not do this digital project on-line instead? 
3. Should museum bricks & mortar venues not supply a digital device respite space rather than add to the behavioural addiction already rampant in modern society (Alter 2017)?

If you want to follow up, you may be interested in my 17 January 2018 blog post "Get Noses Pressed Up to Vitrines, Not Devices" at Get Noses Pressed up to Vitrines, not Devices

Critical Museology Miscellanea		remove preview
Get Noses Pressed up to Vitrines, not Devices This post argues that device apps employed as interpretation strategies in museum galleries actually undermine the quality & extent of direct experience with museum collections on exhibit. Communication technology apps are designed to monopolise the user's attention. Smartphones are observably, experientially, & demonstrably through research behaviourally addictive. View this on Critical Museology Miscellanea >

  . 
This opinion piece has been reprinted in InterpNews, July-August 2018, Vol. 7 # 4, pp. 41-15 at https://issuu.com/interpnews/docs/in_-_july-aug_2018_frog_cover.compr .

Your survey questions might include:

• Do you prefer interacting with objects on display or the touchscreens?
• How many exhibited objects did you examine as a result of seeing this digital exhibit?

Thanks for thinking about this.

Respectfully yours

Paul C. Thistle

------------------------------
Paul C.Thistle
Director/Curator (retired)
Stratford, Ontario
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-11-2018 05:10 PM
From: Sarah Daley
Subject: Visitor Survey for Touch Screen Exhibit

Hi AAM community,

I am working on a digital exhibit for the Owensboro Museum of Science and History history gallery where visitors explore content on a large touch screen. We want to survey visitors about their experience and compile their responses to inform our follow-up design and programming reactions (Weber Group designed the UI, programmed the software, and developed content).

I have searched past discussion posts and found plenty of resources and papers online pertaining to interactive exhibits and museums, but I am struggling to find questions specifically aimed at interactive touch screens.What sorts of questions need to be asked? Are there any questions to be avoided? Should the survey be included in the touch table, or kept separate?

I appreciate all your thoughts!
Thanks,

------------------------------
Sarah Daley
Creative Designer | Weber Group Inc.
Louisville, KY
------------------------------

Hi Paul,

The points you raise are familiar ones; our team carefully weighed the pros and cons of using technology as an element in this gallery, and came to the conclusion that it brings more knowledge and learning opportunities to the visitor than detracting from their experience and appreciation of the artifacts. It isn't feasible to display every artifact in the museum's collection, and the tables give the visitors an opportunity to digitally peer into the collections while being surrounded by physical artifacts. For this reason among others, we chose to use interactive touch tables. 

Certainly the conversation should always be had about the merits of vitrines vs. devices, and in our case we've decided to employ both. I'm not sure asking visitors if they prefer interacting with objects on display is relevant, since none of the artifacts can be handled by the general public, but asking visitors if they took a closer look at objects on display after using the touch screens is definitely an interesting question.

Thank you for the suggestions!


------------------------------
Sarah Daley
Creative Designer | Weber Group Inc.
Louisville, KY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-12-2018 11:27 AM
From: Paul Thistle
Subject: Visitor Survey for Touch Screen Exhibit

Sarah:

May I suggest you take a step back & look first at the book: Alter, Adam. 2017. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technologies and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. New York: Penguin Press.

In my view, essential questions to ask yourself & your team first are:

1. Why employ a digital exhibit on-site in the history gallery that will--by design--suck attention away from museum collections of real objects on display?
2. Why not do this digital project on-line instead? 
3. Should museum bricks & mortar venues not supply a digital device respite space rather than add to the behavioural addiction already rampant in modern society (Alter 2017)?

If you want to follow up, you may be interested in my 17 January 2018 blog post "Get Noses Pressed Up to Vitrines, Not Devices" at Get Noses Pressed up to Vitrines, not Devices

Critical Museology Miscellanea		remove preview
Get Noses Pressed up to Vitrines, not Devices This post argues that device apps employed as interpretation strategies in museum galleries actually undermine the quality & extent of direct experience with museum collections on exhibit. Communication technology apps are designed to monopolise the user's attention. Smartphones are observably, experientially, & demonstrably through research behaviourally addictive. View this on Critical Museology Miscellanea >

  .
This opinion piece has been reprinted in InterpNews, July-August 2018, Vol. 7 # 4, pp. 41-15 at https://issuu.com/interpnews/docs/in_-_july-aug_2018_frog_cover.compr .

Your survey questions might include:

• Do you prefer interacting with objects on display or the touchscreens?
• How many exhibited objects did you examine as a result of seeing this digital exhibit?

Thanks for thinking about this.

Respectfully yours

Paul C. Thistle

------------------------------
Paul C.Thistle
Director/Curator (retired)
Stratford, Ontario

Original Message:
Sent: 12-11-2018 05:10 PM
From: Sarah Daley
Subject: Visitor Survey for Touch Screen Exhibit

Hi AAM community,

I am working on a digital exhibit for the Owensboro Museum of Science and History history gallery where visitors explore content on a large touch screen. We want to survey visitors about their experience and compile their responses to inform our follow-up design and programming reactions (Weber Group designed the UI, programmed the software, and developed content).

I have searched past discussion posts and found plenty of resources and papers online pertaining to interactive exhibits and museums, but I am struggling to find questions specifically aimed at interactive touch screens.What sorts of questions need to be asked? Are there any questions to be avoided? Should the survey be included in the touch table, or kept separate?

I appreciate all your thoughts!
Thanks,

------------------------------
Sarah Daley
Creative Designer | Weber Group Inc.
Louisville, KY
------------------------------

Hi Sarah:

I've evaluated several touch screen exhibits. What works well for me are "think aloud" interviews, which are a common method in the UX field. What sorts of questions need to be asked of the visitor really depend on what sort of questions your design and programming team have, and what they need to know to make changes for the next iteration of the exhibit.

I'd be happy to chat more and talk instruments off-list if you're interested.

------------------------------
Kari Nelson
karirossnelson.weebly.com
kari.ross.nelson@gmail.com
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-11-2018 05:10 PM
From: Sarah Daley
Subject: Visitor Survey for Touch Screen Exhibit

Hi AAM community,

I am working on a digital exhibit for the Owensboro Museum of Science and History history gallery where visitors explore content on a large touch screen. We want to survey visitors about their experience and compile their responses to inform our follow-up design and programming reactions (Weber Group designed the UI, programmed the software, and developed content).

I have searched past discussion posts and found plenty of resources and papers online pertaining to interactive exhibits and museums, but I am struggling to find questions specifically aimed at interactive touch screens.What sorts of questions need to be asked? Are there any questions to be avoided? Should the survey be included in the touch table, or kept separate?

I appreciate all your thoughts!
Thanks,

------------------------------
Sarah Daley
Creative Designer | Weber Group Inc.
Louisville, KY
------------------------------