Storytelling Kiosk
Burke Museum, University of Washington
Seattle, WA
A Sick Intro Bro
Not sure what to put here but I'll think of something. Also why the hell is this thing wrapping so funny Test this on your giant computer later.
Not sure what to put here but I'll think of something. Also why the hell is this thing wrapping so funny Test this on your giant computer later.
My team and I came up with the idea for the kiosk, in which museumgoers could write stories in response to exhibits within the museum.
The Storytelling Kiosk was a prototype for an interactive kiosk for the new Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington. This project was part of the “Removing Barriers” directed research group led by Tyler Fox at the University of Washington. The Burke Museum is currently in the process of trying to relocate to a new building, and wanted some recommendations for technology to augment their new space. After doing some user research, my team and I came up with the idea for the kiosk, in which museumgoers could write stories in response to exhibits within the museum, and read stories written by others to start a dialogue about artifacts within the museum, particularly ones with cultural significance.
Mention that this project is short, and comprises a proposal.
The idea behind the Storytelling Kiosk arose from the museum staff’s desire for a “two-way dialogue” between the museum and the museumgoer. The kiosk itself was envisioned to be a standalone object in each exhibit, with a touch screen interface about the size of an iPad—so that if the Museum chose, they could replace physical kiosks with mounted iPads, which may be cheaper and easier to adopt into the space. This interface allows museumgoers to tell stories about objects they have encountered in the exhibit, or to read others’ stories. We prototyped it using Adobe XD.
The project took place between January – June 2018, and consisted of four major milestones: Ideation, Design, Evaluation, and Refinement Phases.
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Our team started with semi-structured interviews with some of the museum staff at the Burke Museum. From the interviews gathered by the teams in our directed research group, we were able to get a sense of the wants and needs of the museum staff in terms of technology and museumgoer engagement. We then used this information to ideate and brainstorm different technological solutions for the Burke Museum space.
From this we gathered these goals for the design. The solution should:
Increase engagement with the exhibit by creating a "dialogue"
Museum staff expressed the wish for users to be able to "converse" with the exhibits in the museum
Respect cultural artifacts
Remember that many of these are cultural artifacts, and we want to preserve the feeling of respect that is due
Be easy to implement
The design solution shouldn't be a large ordeal to install, and also shouldn't compete with the exhibits already present
Blend with the current branding
Whatever we propose should look like a part of the Burke Museum family
Whatever shall I put here. Also how do we allow people to speak freely but also to monitor for crazy-people comments?
I was in charge of the design portion of the project, which included the overall look of the interface. During this phase, I made use of the Burke Museum’s current branding scheme to ensure that the kiosk would fit in with the Burke Museum’s aesthetic, and created a common style guide for my other group members to follow. This way, my group and I had a common understanding of our goals in terms of the design moving forward. My group and I worked together to create a functional layout that is both user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing. I also looked over the interface designs, editing for quality and consistency, and eventually I added the interactive element to the final prototype.
We presented our final prototype to the Burke Museum staff and the public at an open house event. For this, we used a Microsoft Surface to present the interactive prototype above.
What did I like about it, which of the goals did we achieve from above
User interviews with museumgoers, time to test the prototype. I would have also liked to work on the specific prompts for the tablet. I want more time baby. Also would like to expand on what happens to the stories afterwards-- could do better about increasing engagement. This was just the beginning!