Who Should Control a Large Group Interactive?
For exhibitions that will be busy, we don’t like interactives only meant for one visitor at a time.
Why? Because single-visitor experiences can’t serve enough people to be efficient. And single-person interactivity is kinda what we all do … all day … um, anyway?
So then we plan for the total opposite: large group interactivity. But now there is another big question: who should control a large group interactive?
There isn’t just one answer. Here are three possibilities. Pick what works for you.
A. Large Group Experience, but Single Person Control
For example: a huge media wall with a single control console. But single control should never be total control. A jukebox is one approach: pick a option you’d like to see, and when it comes up, everyone sees it.
B. Large Group Experience, with Small Group Control
For example: a touch table with a single flowing visual across it. But in actuality it’s divided into 4, 8, or 12 zones controlled separately. For every user, 2 or 3 more look on. This has many advantages.
C. Large Group Experience, and Large Group Control
For example: a dance floor that reacts to any footstep with light. The more dancers, the more lights. Just make sure it’s also fun somehow when there is only one person there.
Here’s the thing:
Who should control a large group interactive? Choosing your answer in advance will save you a lot of backtracking.
Warmly,
Jonathan
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MtM Word of the Day:
Front-end evaluation. Visitor studies done in the earliest stages of planning an exhibition. The project team finds out what the target audience already knows about the subject, their misconceptions, and what they find especially relevant. (More on the other three evaluation stages soon.)
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Going to MAAM Building Museums this week?
I’ll be in St. Louis starting tomorrow and I’ll be part of the first keynote on Thursday morning. If you’ll be there, drop me a line, I’d love to meet up IRL.
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Final Deadline!
Have you worked on a great exhibition or experience design project recently? The SEGD Global Design Awards final deadline is next week, on March 15. “Since 1987, the SEGD Global Design Awards have set the standard of excellence for experiential design, honoring work that connects people to place.” (And I’m not just saying that because I’m the Jury Chair this year.)
(Yeah, there sure are a lot of footers in MtM emails these days. Don’t worry, it won’t last!)
