Thursday, March 28, 2013

What's New with NUI?



NUI is an acronym for Natural User Interface, and NUI designers are changing the world and the way people interact and experience things through projects and products (like exhibits!)

Recently I went to a great MeetUp program entitled "An Evening of Gesture" that focused on gesture-based aspects of NUI.

Besides gestures, NUI can use voice control, voice recognition, facial recognition, eye tracking, motion capture, emotional response, sensors, and artificial intelligence as the means to control apps, devices, and systems in cool new ways.

It was great to have a forum to knock ideas about NUI and HCI (Human Computer Interface) around with like-minded people.  If you live in the New York Metropolitan Area, you should definitely check out the free monthly NUI Central MeetUp group.

The two organizers of the NUI MeetUp, Debra Benkler and Ken Lonyai from ScreenPlay InterActive, were also kind enough to provide links to some cool videos that show some of the possibilities for gesture-based NUI projects: 

 
LG Finger Gesture control


Introducing the Leap Motion


Painter® Freestyle™ beta powered by Leap Motion


SpaceTop 


A World of 3D Sensing by PrimeSense

 
MYO - Wearable Gesture Control from Thalmic Labs



What do you think about the different possibilities for using NUI in your own designs?  Working on any new NUI projects?  Let us know your thoughts in the Comments Section below!



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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Fun with Diagrams: draw.io



Draw.io  is a free online tool to create diagrams (like the simple one above.)

That's it.  Online tools (like exhibit components) are often at their best when they do just one thing well.

Draw.io is fun and easy to use, and a great way to create mockups for screen-based interfaces or other lable-y and prototype-y things.

Check it out at the draw.io website and start playing around with the varied and extensive tool sets.

Happy diagramming!



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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Do you subscribe to ExhibiTricks with Google Reader?

As you may have heard, Google is killing off Google Reader on July 1, 2013.

Since over 700 of you subscribe to ExhibiTricks via Google Reader, I'd really like you to consider switching to another way of subscribing to my blog.

If you are a person who doesn't subscribe to ExhibiTricks using Google Reader, the rest of this post may not interest you much.  So check out these Cute Animal Pictures instead!

But here's a simple solution for Google Reader users who are loyal ExhibiTricks readers as well: Subscribe via your email address!  Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog and you'll be presented with an option to subscribe via email.  It's just that simple. 

I guarantee you I will never use your email address for anything other than sending you your subscription to ExhibiTricks.  Basically, you'll get every new ExhibiTricks post direct to your email box approximately once a week.

But what if you subscribe to other blogs and websites using Google Reader?  There's lots of great information about your options for switching from Google Reader (including ways to grab all your Google Reader data before July 1st) in this post from the "copyblogger" blog.

So take some time to grab your Google Reader data, and switch your ExhibiTricks subscription before they disappear. 

Thanks for your continued interest and support of my blog!


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Thursday, March 7, 2013

Many Ways To Say Thanks


Most donor recognition installations in museums are really ways to say thanks.  And who could argue with that?

But you can thank someone with the equivalent of a cheap mass-produced card you grabbed on your way home, or with the donor recognition version of a homemade loaf of bread accompanied by a carefully chosen book inscribed to the recipient.

Last month I asked museum folks for images of interesting and thoughtful examples of donor recognition.  I received an avalanche of images --- many more than I'll include in this post, so I've gathered all the images that I've received into a free PDF available for download from the POW! website.

Just click on the "Free Exhibit Resources" link near the center-top of any page on the website, and you'll see an entire collection of free goodies, including the newly added link called "Donor Recognition Examples."  Once you click on the link you'll get the PDF of images. (Be patient --- it's a BIG file.)

So what sorts of images and examples of donor recognition did I receive?  They fell into several larger categories, namely:

• Frames and Plaques

• Walls and Floors

• Genre Specific

• Mechanical/Interactive

• Interesting Materials

• Digital Donor Devices

So let's take each of the six categories and show a few examples of each.


FRAMES and PLAQUES

I'm sure you've seen lots of bad examples of this donor recognition approach, but there is a lot to be said for the simplicity (and creative twists!) that can be employed using this technique.

The image at the top of this post is a nice example of "helping hands" (but still essentially plaques) in this category from the Chicago Children's Museum.

I like the use of colors and the physical arrangements in the following two examples. The first pair of images comes from the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh (with bonus colored shadows!)







The next is a sert of back-lit elements designed by Skolnick A+D Partnership for the Children's Museum of Virginia --- The entire unit is essentially one big lightbox!





Light is also used as a strong element in the image below from Macalester College.  The folks from Blasted Art used Rosco's Lite Pad product to create the glowing text.





Lastly, I like this simple example from the MonDak Heritage Center.  Just frames, but it does the job nicely.






WALLS and FLOORS

Sometimes donor recognition wants to be BIG, in an architectural sense, so interior or exterior walls are used  --- and sometimes even floors!

Here are two exterior wall examples that stood out.  The first from the Creative Discovery Museum





And the second from the Oakland Museum.  They are both colorful and animate nicely what would otherwise be a big blank wall. 





 Here's a nice interior wall from Discovery Gateway, in Salt Lake City



Each of the pieces is back-laminated graphics on acrylic.  (Here's a detail.)






Of course, even the best-laid donor recognition plans can get circumvented by operational issues!





And lastly, here's a floor example from The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.  It's the Periodic Table with donors in each element.







GENRE SPECIFIC

Several people sent examples of genre specific donor recognition designs.  A popular motif is to use collection objects or images, especially in the case of Natural History Museums.

Here is the Specimen Wall from the California Academy of Sciences.  It's an elegant  low-tech solution that features specimen reproductions encased in laminated glass. The wall was conceived by Kit Hinrichs and realized in collaboration with Kate Keating Associates, with fabrication by Martinelli Environmental Graphics and glass by Ostrom Glassworks.






Here's a clever use of old school tabletop jukeboxes to recognize donors to radio station WXPN put together by Metcalfe Architecture & Design in Philadelphia.





MECHANICAL / INTERACTIVE 

In the same way that interactive exhibits are fun and memorable, donor recognition can be too!

Gears are a popular motif in this regard.  The first image (Grateful Gears) is from an installation at the Kentucky Science Center, while the second is from the Madison Children's Museum.










INTERESTING MATERIALS

Sometimes the design element that gets people to stop and actually read the donor names are the unusual materials that the donor recognition piece is made of. If the materials relate to the institution itself, so much the better!


This first image comes from the San Francisco Food Bank







The next is from the Museum Center at 5ive Points, in Cleveland Tennessee which has a strong history of copper mining.  So this intricate donor recognition piece is made from copper!






I love this clever use of miniature doors and windows at the Kohl Children's Museum.  You can open doors and windows to reveal additional information about donors.






The last entry from this section is the truly striking three-dimensional "Donor Tree" from the Eureka Children's Museum in the UK.





DIGITAL DONOR DEVICES

As with all museum installations, digital technology plays an increasing role --- even in Donor Devices.

One unit that stood out was this digital donor recognition device at the National  Historic Trails Center that solicits donations in real-time and puts up digital "rocks" on the rock wall screen of different sizes --- depending on the size of your donation, of course!  A really neat idea that beats a dusty old donation box,  hands down.




As I mentioned earlier, these images are really the tip of the iceberg.  So please check out the entire PDF of all the images I received by heading over to the "Free Exhibit Resources" section of my website.

Also, if you have some other really good examples of donor recognition installations or devices, feel free to contact me and email them along, and I can share them in future ExhibiTricks posts.



Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)