Designing CLIO with the MUSETECH Model

Overview

The MUSETECH Model posits that in order for museums to successfully utilize technologies, there are three stakeholder perspectives that must be considered. Throughout all stages of a museum technology project, these perspectives offer views that complement and inform the others in a way that can build institutional synergy. This model also states that there are four primary stages or constituents of a museum technology project. These quartiles contain evaluation criteria per perspective, grouped by thematic categories, which allows for a granular overview of the considerations throughout each stage of the technology project.

As a team, we used our monthly workshops to consider each of the 121 Evaluation Criteria and our answers to these questions helped form the foundation of the project. As the scope of the project changed and new design proposals were considered, these evaluation criteria were re-visited and re-assessed. This continually evolving process guided our research, design and evaluation. By building upon the strengths of previous design proposals and workshopping the weaknesses, we were able to adequately assess each criteria. We have provided a brief overview for each quartile cluster.

Read More: The MUSETECH Model

Design Quartile

(D1) Design and product ideation

When considering how technologies were utilized, we decided specifically to pursue open-source web technologies. These technologies provide a versatility and portability that many other technologies did not, allowing them to be used on numerous devices. These technologies have matured with the internet and there are active projects with growing documentation. The use of web technologies also allowed us match the kiosk to the Burke's established brand and design language.

D1Pb. Integration with the exhibition

With CLIO, we wanted to create an interactive experience that acted as a contextualizing part of the exhibit without overshadowing it. The POP kiosk was available to provide additional or related information to the objects physically on the table through interactive activities, but it wasn’t meant to detract from the tangible exhibit. In fact, the hope was that it could lure their eyes towards objects that they had just learned about through the kiosk.

D1Pd. Balance of physical with digital

The kiosk had no speakers and didn’t make noise or auto-play media. When inactive for a configurable amount of time, it would return to a screen illustrating the activities that were available with visual and textual instructions to interact. There would be a card on the exhibit table talking about the Kiosk and how to use it. The goal was to help self-facilitate learners through the exhibit by interesting them with the objects, draw their attention to an activity before they left the table.

(D2) Experience design and narratives

We wanted a kiosk that would integrate into the exhibit we were creating, while providing additional context or content, without being intrusive. This required creating an interactive with a straight forward interaction paradigm. A kiosk system similar to the Many Voices project, where the user interacted with physical books, could create an interaction experience that greatly detracted from the BurkeMobile pop-up exhibit. Initial BurkeBox prototypes allowed visitors to hold an object to a scanner to load information about the object, but we felt doing this in a pop-up exhibit would draw too much attention to the technology and risk visitors taking the pieces in error.

We opted for a small capacitive touchscreen with a one-finger navigable interface designed primarily for accessibility. This provided a familiar interaction paradigm to a cellphone or other touchscreen interface. The kiosk allowed for device specific configuration so educational facilitators could change how the kiosk integrated with their exhibit.

We chose to use interactive activities for CLIO instead of static object pages, more similar to the BurkeBox project. By designing a framework to create interactive activity templates, we could create new interaction metaphors that could more effectively communicate the points we were trying to make. An interactive and looping slideshow could more effectively communicate the cyclical lifecycle of salmon than a static block of text. With the initial release of the toolkit, there were fifteen activity templates. The different experiences allow variety and unique experience within an interface that will work in an expected fashion.

The activities provided an educational, interactive and hopefully enjoyable experience. Making these unique activities allowed us to tailor the experience more closely to the educational goals we were trying to achieve by using simple or familiar interaction paradigms, such as timelines, annotated images and card matching games. We aimed to make activities that could draw a impactful connection with subjects the student already knew, such as people, animals, or places. By keeping most of the interactive content regional, such as related to the Sockeye Salmon or Hanford Reach, we could provide a personal connection to the interactive.

Each activity was meant to provide an experience that required differing levels of attention from the visitor. Many activities were meant to engage and intrigue without requiring deep focus. The content was designed to be easily digestible text with accompanying visual components. Activities would only provide as much information as the visitor desired, by hiding additional information behind intentional user action, such as clicking a button or navigating. We aimed to make content that was relevant to the objects on the table, to provide added value if desired, but it was not required to enjoy the physical nature of the exhibit and the pre-existing kinetic activities, such as arranging blocks.

We wanted the ability to categorize activities by audiences, allowing the facilitators to tailor the content and experience for their exhibit on the fly. Occasionally, the BurkeMobile would need to create condensed exhibits due to space concerns. This would allow them to merge exhibits together as needed. We discussed the possibility of creating the same activity for different age groups, such as children, teenagers, adults and mixed age groups. For example, activities designed for mixed age groups could provide questions to indirectly facilitate questions within the group.

Primary Considerations: D2Pa, D2Pb, D2Pc, D2Pd, D2Pe, D2Ma, D2Mb, D2Mc, D2Vc, D2Vd, D2Ve, D2Vf, D2Vg, D2Vh

(D3) Interactions, affordances, and interaction metaphors

BurkeMobile events were already loud and crowded so we chose to limit the sensory stimulation output by the kiosk. POP did not contain any speakers or haptics and we hoped this would prompt visitors to interact with exhibit objects for sensory information. This choice, however, made auditory experiences and accessibility features impossible initially.

We chose to design the interface with a simplistic menu and content system. We used established iconography and interface conventions so that visitors didn't feel like they were required to learn a completely new interface to get the full exhibit experience. We followed design guidelines from Apple, Google and Microsoft. During the prototyping phase, JavaScript became the primary language for the CLIO web applications because it was found be more responsive to user input. We designed to interface to only require one finger to fully operate, with multitouch interactive layered on top of those. Overall, the interface is purposefully minimalist to avoid extraneous visual information from the kiosk.

We refrained from animations if possible because they could cause problems for kiosk users with various impairments. The exhibit home screen was slightly animated with bright colors to draw attention, however, and this was a concession to provide some motion and visual sense of interactivity. There would be a card on the table detailing activities on the kiosk that were related to an object.

Primary Considerations: D3Pa, D3Pb, D3Pc, D3Pd, D3Pe, D3Pf, D3Ma, D3Mb, D3Va, D3Vb, D3Vc, D3Vd, D3Ve, D3Vf, D3Vg

(D4) Aesthetics, look and feel and visceral qualities

It was important that the POP kiosk followed the brand and design language of the BurkeMobile exhibits so that it could better blend in without being intrusive. The default CLIO interface is also customizable to allow the Burke to make the interface meet their design style guidelines. We wanted to keep the interaction with the kiosk pleasant, through the use of a quality multitouch glass touch screen. The kiosk case was printed in black with a protective bumper printed using the BurkeMobile design colors for the pop-up exhibit it was being included in.

Primary Considerations: D4Pa, D4Ma, D4Va

Content Quartile

(C1) Content creation

We needed the digital activities for CLIO to be easy to reproduce because we wanted to make it accessible to those without coding experience. To do this, we would be creating a collection of activities and interaction experiences that could be templated, allowing the creation of similar activities with different content or media. The templated data, which was used to populate the activity templates, was stored using JSON because it was more human-readable than XML, faster to transfer, more efficient to parse and had innate JavaScript support. During the interim design and development stages, this was an important factor because CLIO Create had not been created, meaning templating data for activities required a human to edit the configuration files.

Creating activities for CLIO as a team was a multi-step process, involving as many people as necessary, and the responsibilities were We created a rich text format template for drafting CLIO content that was given to educators to allow them to draft content while the software was still under active development. These templates were made accessible through the cloud which allowed educators to update the draft template at any time so it could be integrated into the POP and online portal prototypes. This process made it possible for software and content development to happen concurrently while still informing the other. Once the draft templates for each activity type were completed, it was simple for the Education team to propose activity ideas and begin drafting their concept of future activities.

Primary Considerations: C1Pa, C1Pb, C1Pc, C1Pd, C1Pe, C1Pf, C1Pg, C1Ma, C1Mb, C1Va

(C2) Content maintenance

In the case of the Burke Museum, many technology exhibits and projects were outsourced to design exhibit firms who often maintained them, as well. With CLIO, we wanted to set up the Education department to be able to update the content on their kiosks as they needed without relying on an out-of-house professional. While activities can't be edited in the field, they can be updated through the development machine at the institution. The same kiosk can also be re-used for multiple exhibits or demonstrations by creating and loading new content. Documentation for CLIO was considered imperative for it's success and was maintained throughout the project.

CLIO is based on web technologies, allowing for the integration of these activities into educational lesson plans that are available online. This allows institutions to extend the lifecycle of the content they create, allowing it to exist online as part of an archive, online exhibit or lesson plan. Activities can be displayed simultaneously in-person and online, or made available online after an in-person exhibit closes.

Primary Considerations: C2Pa, C2Pb, C2Ma, C2Mb, C2Va

Compliance Quartile

(MP1) Health, safety and accessibility

Accessibly is a core ideal of this project. Using web-based technologies – such as HTML, CSS and JS – enabled us to refer to established literature for the accessibility of web-based content, such as the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guide. These guidelines often include tests the quantify and score accessibility in a range of categories.

CLIO has an accessibility menu always accessible that can provide customizations to the content to make it more accessible, such as font face, text size and contrast modes. Activities also audiences enabling facilitators to use exhibit content that is better suited for their setup location or audience.

A glass screen made it easier to use disinfectant wipes on the screen and around the printed protective bumper. The only noted safety concern was the glass screen, which prompted the inclusion of a padded bumper and screen protector to mitigate potential harm caused by a cracked screen. Under heavy and continuous usage, POP kiosks can get warm to the touch but not uncomfortably so.

Primary Considerations: MP1Pa, MP1Pb, MP1Pc, MP1Ma, MP1Mb, MP1Mc, MP1Md, MP1Va, MP1Vb, MP1Vc

(MP2) Logging and monitoring

User and system logging and monitoring is possible with CLIO, but it was purposefully steered away from as it is outside of the context of this application. Because CLIO is web-based and uses a descriptive URL, web-based analytics software could be used to monitor activity access metrics.

Primary Considerations: MP2Pa, MP2Ma, MP2Va, MP2Vb

MP3. Ethics and legal issues

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Operation Quartile

(O1) Deployment and setting-up

CLIO is a suite of web applications that is designed to run on almost any computer system by using a web browser. This allows institutions to repurpose old computers for new exhibit kiosks. All of the content within CLIO is also easily updated, meaning that the same kiosk systems can be used throughout multiple exhibits. If the exhibit is portable, you can even bring it with you to outreach programs outside of your institution and set it up without any internet access.

With CLIO, we created a black box system that restricts that actions that a user can accomplish with a kiosk system. Users and facilitators are restricted to the CLIO interface with all access to the underlying systems completely disabled, making it more difficult for the system to be used incorrectly. Kiosk systems will automatically start into the CLIO web application without any interaction necessary. If there is ever a problem, simply restarting the kiosk will fix most problems. It is possible for the institution to edit the kiosk operating system to change configuration settings or create entirely new kiosk clones.

We wanted to create a kiosk and content creation system that could be handled by in-house personnel with access to the kiosks, applicable guides and minimal computer experience. This ecosystem was kept simple, with access to the inner workings of CLIO still accessible for those who did have coding experience. Once an activity is created for CLIO and placed on the kiosk, it will work without the need for any technical knowledge.

While working with the BurkeMobile, we monitored a facilitated event, as well as their setup and breakdown procedures. They were often working against a clock; needing to set up before a program, or needing to break down quickly to get to the next one. We needed CLIO to work as seamlessly and simply as possible, only requiring the facilitators to setup the kiosk and hit the power button to get it ready to add to an exhibit. Depending on their schedule or audience, they could reload their last exhibit or set up a new one with the activities on the kiosk. They could also configure the kiosk for specific event parameters, like turning on dark mode in a dark room. At the end of an event, they could unplug the kiosk without needing to power it down and pack it away safely for transport. By creating padded bumpers, they were easier to stack without damaging the screen. A hard screen cover was also considered.

Primary Considerations: O1Pa, O1Pc, O1Pd, O1Pe, O1Ma, O1Mb, O1Mc, O1Md, O1Va

(O2) Robustness and maintenance

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Untreated PLA is recyclable through properly equipped Waste management. Damaged or defective electronics can be disposed of responsibly.

(O3) Power and energy

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(O4) Costs

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Kiosks can even be made FROM recycled computers or filament.

(O5) Additional Resources

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