State-of-the-art analysis: Interactive touchscreens at Swedish Museum of Natural History

My state-of-the-art analysis is about an interactive installation that is currently in use at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. I will start by presenting the installation and discussing its perks and problems as a product and as a part of the exhibitions. I will also reflect on how well the Swedish Museum of Natural History is suited for our target group, how well the museum we have chosen to work for (Fotografiska) is suited for our target group and how this difference in suitability might affect how we can use the result of this analysis in our design process.

The product (or products, I might say) is a series of touchscreens, placed along the natural path that you would take through the exhibitions in the museum. The touchscreens are placed in a black box, which rest on a pillar at hips height of a grown person (see picture 1). What is shown on these screens may vary, but most of them offer some extended information about the part of the exhibitions it stands in front of, and then it asks you to play a game and answer some questions about the information that you've just read. Sometimes you can press a button and a sound will play. For example, when you stand in front of some stuffed birds, you can press a picture of them on the screen and the sound of the specific bird will play.

Picture 1. Source: http://aeark.se/content.php?t=132

The first problem that immediately comes to mind when using the screens is that they give a very “worn” feeling. Sometimes you have to touch the screen multiple times before it recognizes your interactions. This leads to people, especially children, pressing harder and more times which in turn leads to faster wearing of the screen. Many times this leads to users not having the patience to finish the tasks that they are given. The next person to approach the screen then finds the information or game in mid-session and might not understand the intention of the screen at all.

The games are very simple. You might for example be asked to identify the footprint of a specific animal and be presented with four pictures as alternatives. The kids play the games but often seem surprised that they end so soon and don’t demand more interaction than one simple touch of the screen. This isn’t surprising if you think about the way children today use similar products such as smartphones or tablets. They are used to playing interactive games in a way that no generation before them has been.

The screens provide a natural stopping point along the path of the exhibition and encourage the users to look more closely at the piece presented next to the screen. They also give the users opportunity to actively take part in the exhibition, rather than just looking at it. Especially for children this is the extra entertainment they need to be able to maintain their concentration a little longer.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History writes on the website that they aim to be a knowledge center and a natural meeting point for both the public and experts. However, when visiting the museum it became clear to me that at least most part of the museum was very adapted for children. Except for the touchscreens, there were buttons that you could push that made some of the animals move and blink their eyes, or made something light up. Parts of the exhibition felt very “plastic” in a way that children don’t really notice but that wouldn’t satisfy most adults. Fotografiska, on the other hand, is absolutely more of a museum for adults. It’s more of a quite environment where you are supposed to look but not touch, and be entertained a long time by still pictures. Our interviews confirmed this.

Since the museums are so different, there are some things I would like to point out. First of all, the touchscreens are quite big. They take up a lot of room and also “steal” some attention from the actual exhibition. This would definitely be a problem at Fotografiska, since the photographs are supposed to be what you focus on. The touchscreens also have a tendency to make many people gather around them, and while interacting with it together some people raised their voices quite a bit. Again, I didn’t feel like that was a problem at the Natural History museum since it’s more of a playful environment, but it would most certainly disturb the other visitors at a place like Fotografiska. The children also have a tendency to just run from one interactive screen to another. In aiming to make it easier to experience art with your children, I think we should try to find a way of encouraging a more steady pace while moving through the museum.