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  • 1.  types of tablets for kiosks

    Posted 02-14-2022 08:37 AM
    Hi folks,

    What sort of tablets do you use on the museum floor for locked in place kiosks? Are there any particular considerations you took into account when deciding what to use?

    We've had lots of requests from museums to provide one of our web resources in a kiosk mode for tablets. Sites want to provide the resource to visitors but lock it down so that only the interactive is accessible. As a result, we're developing a progressive web app to support sites. Because these resources are funded by NASA and available for free to any place that would like them, we can't require particular hardware or software. We want to obtain actual hardware for upcoming testing, but I first want to grab some anecdotal info on what different types of tablets museums are using for kiosks and why.

    Tim Rhue II

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    Timothy Rhue II
    Principal Informal Education Specialist
    Space Telescope Science Institute
    Baltimore MD
    He/Him/His
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 2.  RE: types of tablets for kiosks

    Posted 02-15-2022 12:12 PM
    Hi Tim!

    I'm a software developer and I specialize in writing progressive web apps. I've worked on quite a few different kiosk applications for different museums and this is what I've found:

    1. iPads - pretty standard and reliable, and not too hard to put into kiosk mode, but I don't use them very often because I'm not an iOS developer
    2. Androids - The quality can be all over the place.  If you get the cheap ones, they tend not to last very long and really can't handle a museum environment where they get left on for 8+ hours per day and get banged on.  I've also found that they aren't very easy to lock down.
    3. Microsoft Surfaces - Surprisingly, I've had the best luck with these.  They tend to hold up well, and it's very easy to set up a Kiosk User in Windows and it doesn't take the purchase of additional software.  They tend to last a long time, and when I've seen them go on the fritz it just took a Windows re-install to get it working again.

    I hope that helps!!

    --
    Simone Seagle
    Web and Educational Software Developer



    Original Message
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 3.  RE: types of tablets for kiosks

    Posted 02-15-2022 01:11 PM
    Hi Timothy,
    Your project sounds fantastic and I hope you'll share your results here when you're on the other side of the iterations (or even throughout the iterations?).

    Like Simone, I've had a lot of good luck with iPads, but unlike Simone I haven't had behind-the-scenes experience with much else. That said, I did chat briefly with a guy (pre-pandemic, sorry I don't recall him name) at the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco, CA) about their kiosks. They were in the midst of migrating from one system to another so they would be great to reach out to. They can tell you what they liked and didn't like and how the new system is fairing two years on. They were really quite responsive. I left a message on the main line with my question and a technician got back to me only a couple of days later.

    About 5 years ago I saw a kiosk at the San Diego Museum of Art. It looked liked they employed a generic screen and there was a backend running the data to them. Again, not much help, sorry, but maybe a lead to follow via phone.

    Best of luck on your porject!
    Matt

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    Matthew Isble
    Exhibit Designer & Founder of MuseumTrade.org
    misble@crockerartmuseum.org
    Crocker Art Museum
    Sacramento CA
    misble@crockerartmuseum.org
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


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