Open Forum

Our Museum is purchasing an all-in-one touchscreen and stand. Does anyone have experience with software to create graphics like Intuiface? Any suggestions for other software packages?

Thanks,

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------

Mark,

I have been experimenting with intuiface for the past 6 months. I am by no means an interactive expert but I have found that intuiface has ample support and are very quick to reply to questions and issues during the learning process. We have been trying to expand the accessibility of our exhibitions so I have been developing a digital version using that software and one of the coolest features is being able to export package lists from TMS in Excel form, creating a relative file path to the corresponding images, and dropping it into intuiface where it populates an interactive experience automatically. 

I've found the downfall to be the price of the licenses and the fact that you need to buy a license for the Composer and the Player software. But I recommend playing with it through the free license before committing. 

Hope this helps.

------------------------------
Ryan Farrell
Exhibitions & Collections Manager
Stark Museum of Art
Orange TX
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-07-2019 09:36 AM
From: Mary Delaney
Subject: Design software for kiosks

Our Museum is purchasing an all-in-one touchscreen and stand. Does anyone have experience with software to create graphics like Intuiface? Any suggestions for other software packages?

Thanks,

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------

Hi Mary,

If you have access to a competent web designer, you should already have what you need on hand.

To me, the need to buy expensive equipment and hire a company to produce a proprietary (i.e. dependent on them alone) small scale project is unnecessary. I certainly don't mean to disparage the many companies that produce high quality projects, and whose proprietary elements take their work and service well above and beyond the baseline. But for smaller scale exhibits and displays, one of the easiest solutions to building an interactive kiosk is a simple "website design" approach.

I've produced a number of website-based interactive displays (aka: sites) for the USS Midway Museum.
One is hosted on a $100 tablet computer
One is hosted on a Windows mini-computer with a 22" touchscreen display
Two are hosted on Raspberry Pi micro-computers with 55" touchscreen displays

All of the sites are:
- Fairly basic designs (using minimal Javascript)
- Open source, no license, non-proprietary
- Based on current web standards, and thus universal and expandable for the future
- Platform / OS independent (display hardware / Windows, Android, Apple OSs)
- Will run on any current mainstream web browser
Cost factors include the hardware, which can be consumer-grade vs. commercial grade (although lifespan can be an issue). Plug and play capability helps, as does having a staff member who who can perform basic computer set-up and configuration (like a home user).

The key ingredient is a competent web designer who is well versed in current web standards. While a designer who hand codes or uses a professional web design tool (like Adobe Dreamweaver) will likely have the skills, someone who only uses a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress or Drupal, or whose experience is limited to populating a "social media site", is less likely to have them.

In any case though, if you don't already a competent web designer on staff (or your current one is already overworked), you can find freelancers, or possibly set up internships with your local educational institutions. A lot of the kids in school have more advanced skills than I do! The key though REMAINS competentcy and consistent use of current web standards.

If you'd like, you can take a look some of the sites I built for the Midway at:


The interactive "website" displays are: "Midway - Interactive Decoration Display" and "Midway - Vol Wall Redux". I've provided some background on how the projects were built, but would be happy to answer any additional questions you might have.

Randy

------------------------------
Randal Powell
Multimedia Artist/Developer
San Diego CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-07-2019 09:36 AM
From: Mary Delaney
Subject: Design software for kiosks

Our Museum is purchasing an all-in-one touchscreen and stand. Does anyone have experience with software to create graphics like Intuiface? Any suggestions for other software packages?

Thanks,

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------

Thanks, everyone! These are very helpful. Randy-those are amazing graphics that you've designed. I am a designer and use WordPress for our website but using Javascript for anything would be a little beyond my capabilities and time. The idea of getting a student is a good one though. I also like Ryan's suggestion for Intuiface. I've downloaded the free version and will play with that. 

Any other suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks again!
Mary

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-08-2019 06:33 PM
From: Randal Powell
Subject: Design software for kiosks

Hi Mary,

If you have access to a competent web designer, you should already have what you need on hand.

To me, the need to buy expensive equipment and hire a company to produce a proprietary (i.e. dependent on them alone) small scale project is unnecessary. I certainly don't mean to disparage the many companies that produce high quality projects, and whose proprietary elements take their work and service well above and beyond the baseline. But for smaller scale exhibits and displays, one of the easiest solutions to building an interactive kiosk is a simple "website design" approach.

I've produced a number of website-based interactive displays (aka: sites) for the USS Midway Museum.
One is hosted on a $100 tablet computer
One is hosted on a Windows mini-computer with a 22" touchscreen display
Two are hosted on Raspberry Pi micro-computers with 55" touchscreen displays

All of the sites are:
- Fairly basic designs (using minimal Javascript)
- Open source, no license, non-proprietary
- Based on current web standards, and thus universal and expandable for the future
- Platform / OS independent (display hardware / Windows, Android, Apple OSs)
- Will run on any current mainstream web browser

- But are optimized for Google Chromium (Google's development browser)

- Are run in the browser's "Kiosk mode"

- Are separate closed-loop displays (i.e. NOT connected to the web or vulnerable to hacking)

- Are updated on a separate computer, then the updates are transferred via thumb drive

- In a museum with an IT department, they could be networked for easier updating

- ALL of this is accomplished "in-house"

Cost factors include the hardware, which can be consumer-grade vs. commercial grade (although lifespan can be an issue). Plug and play capability helps, as does having a staff member who who can perform basic computer set-up and configuration (like a home user).

The key ingredient is a competent web designer who is well versed in current web standards. While a designer who hand codes or uses a professional web design tool (like Adobe Dreamweaver) will likely have the skills, someone who only uses a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress or Drupal, or whose experience is limited to populating a "social media site", is less likely to have them.

In any case though, if you don't already a competent web designer on staff (or your current one is already overworked), you can find freelancers, or possibly set up internships with your local educational institutions. A lot of the kids in school have more advanced skills than I do! The key though REMAINS competentcy and consistent use of current web standards.

If you'd like, you can take a look some of the sites I built for the Midway at:

https://www.behance.net/rpowell

The interactive "website" displays are: "Midway - Interactive Decoration Display" and "Midway - Vol Wall Redux". I've provided some background on how the projects were built, but would be happy to answer any additional questions you might have.

Randy

------------------------------
Randal Powell
Multimedia Artist/Developer
San Diego CA

Original Message:
Sent: 05-07-2019 09:36 AM
From: Mary Delaney
Subject: Design software for kiosks

Our Museum is purchasing an all-in-one touchscreen and stand. Does anyone have experience with software to create graphics like Intuiface? Any suggestions for other software packages?

Thanks,

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------

We've spent about $750-1000/year to have our kiosk updated for our exhibits with our web designer. That number may seem high, but we're low on staff resources and don't have the staff on hand with those particular talents. Instead of me fuddling around and wasting hours, it was money well spent for a high-quality visitor experience.

We work from an iPad and have it installed on Museum Rails.

We also use Adobe Spark and put our exhibits online with the link to the interactive. Feel free to check it out at www.7gables.org.

------------------------------
Julie Arrison-Bishop
Special Projects Manger
The House of the Seven Gables
Salem, Mass.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-07-2019 09:36 AM
From: Mary Delaney
Subject: Design software for kiosks

Our Museum is purchasing an all-in-one touchscreen and stand. Does anyone have experience with software to create graphics like Intuiface? Any suggestions for other software packages?

Thanks,

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------

Thanks, Julie. We certainly may end up going that route. It looks like it's going to be pretty time consuming for our small staff. And thanks for sharing your interactive designs--they're great!

Mary

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-09-2019 07:54 AM
From: Julie Arrison-Bishop
Subject: Design software for kiosks

We've spent about $750-1000/year to have our kiosk updated for our exhibits with our web designer. That number may seem high, but we're low on staff resources and don't have the staff on hand with those particular talents. Instead of me fuddling around and wasting hours, it was money well spent for a high-quality visitor experience.

We work from an iPad and have it installed on Museum Rails.

We also use Adobe Spark and put our exhibits online with the link to the interactive. Feel free to check it out at www.7gables.org.

------------------------------
Julie Arrison-Bishop
Special Projects Manger
The House of the Seven Gables
Salem, Mass.

Original Message:
Sent: 05-07-2019 09:36 AM
From: Mary Delaney
Subject: Design software for kiosks

Our Museum is purchasing an all-in-one touchscreen and stand. Does anyone have experience with software to create graphics like Intuiface? Any suggestions for other software packages?

Thanks,

------------------------------
Mary Delaney
Marketing Director
Museum of Russian Icons
Clinton MA
------------------------------