Please keep the keyboard!.
Or, at a minimum some other physical interface beside a button or a touchscreen. People come to our institutions to do/see something they can't do at home on their own black mirrors. As a profession we keep falling into this idea that to be relevant, it has to be on a screen, and I totally disagree with this practice.
If the content of the exhibit has a musical connection, keep the keyboard.( or a xylephone, marimba bongos, something) If it is more about discovery, than you could go with small sculptural birds lined up on a fence, tap the bird's beak to hear its call, something tactile. - also good for vistors with low vision.
Have a look at the Makey Makey Boards, they are limited in the number of inputs but the idea is that they can turn almost any object into a "button" - might help you think about how the interface relates to the topic.
In my work, the visitor experience is at least as important as the content. Cognitively, pushing a series of round buttons is nowhere near the experience of playing a keyboard full of bird songs.
Bart
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Barton Hays
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey CA
Original Message:
Sent: 11-26-2016 03:09 PM
From: Kathleen McNeece
Subject: Updating a popular interactive
Greetings, all!
I'm looking for input on redesigning a popular exhibit in our Discovery Center. It's a birdsong piano that plays bird calls when you press the keys on a keyboard (just your basic keyboard with an old-fashioned sound board attached). On the wall above the keyboard is a panel of bird pictures which light up with a picture of the bird that matches the call. It's been an absolute workhorse, but needs an update badly - it's close to 20 years old. The current debate is whether we should stick with the keyboard/piano format or change it to a format where a button is pressed instead of using a keyboard.
Does anyone with any experience with sound interactives have any word of wisdom or know about any studies that have been done on this sort of thing? Thank you!
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Kathleen McNeece
Smead Discovery Center
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Cleveland OH
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