Three Chatbots Walk Into a Museum...

If you've been following museum tech trends lately, you've probably noticed AI chatbots popping up everywhere. Instead of just reading about them, I decided to roll up my (digital) sleeves and build a few exhibit-focused chatbots to see what all the fuss is about.

Spoiler alert: It's pretty fun, surprisingly educational, and maybe even useful for museums!

Why Museum Chatbots?

Visitors come to museums with wildly different questions, interests, and attention spans. Some want the quick Wikipedia version, others want to dive deep into primary sources, and still others just want to know where the bathrooms are (Pro Tip: chatbots are *terrible* at that last one).

But what if you could give visitors a way to have an actual conversation with a historical figure or topic expert? Not in a creepy uncanny valley way, but in a "here's another tool in your interpretive toolkit" kind of way.

Three Chatbots Walk Into a Museum...

I created three different chatbot experiments, each with a different personality and purpose:

1. George Washington: First President, First Chatbot

This was my first attempt, and I went straight for the big guy himself. The George Washington chatbot is designed to answer visitor questions about his life, Mount Vernon, and 18th-century America—all while staying in character and citing actual historical sources.

Want to know about his dentures? His relationship with enslaved people at Mount Vernon? His thoughts on political parties? George (or at least this digital version) will chat with you about it. The key here was making sure responses were historically grounded and included source citations, so visitors know this isn't just making stuff up.

2. Ivan Vazov: Bulgaria's Literary Lion

Okay, this one's a bit more niche, but hear me out! Ivan Vazov is Bulgaria's national poet, and I created this chatbot to help English-speaking visitors engage with Bulgarian literary history. 

This bot can discuss Vazov's works, the Bulgarian National Revival period, and even translate some of his poetry. It's a great example of how chatbots can make culturally specific content more accessible to international audiences without oversimplifying it.

3. Paul Orselli: Yes, I Made One of Myself! 

In the spirit of full transparency, and maybe a little ego, I created a chatbot version of myself to answer questions about museum exhibit design, visitor engagement, and the ExhibiTricks blog. 

This one's less about historical accuracy and more about sharing professional expertise in a conversational format. It's like having a museum consultant available 24/7, except this one never gets tired of explaining why hands-on exhibits shouldn't be overly complicated.

What I Learned

The Good:

• Creating these chatbots was surprisingly quick and iterative. You can test, refine, and improve the personality and accuracy pretty easily.

• They're genuinely useful for handling the "long tail" of visitor questions that traditional labels can't address.

• The ability to cite sources means visitors can dig deeper if they want to verify information.

The Not-So-Good:

• You need to be really thoughtful about accuracy and bias. These tools can confidently state incorrect information if you're not careful.

• They're not a replacement for well-designed exhibits or human interpretation—they're a supplement.

• Accessibility is still a work in progress (think: screen reader compatibility, multilingual support).

Should Your Museum Make a Chatbot?

Maybe! Here are some questions to ask first:

• Do your visitors have questions that go beyond what your labels can address?

• Do you have good primary source material or expertise to draw from?

• Are you comfortable with AI as an interpretive tool, with all its limitations?

• Can you commit to maintaining and updating it over time?

If you answered yes to most of these, it might be worth experimenting. Start small, test with real visitors, and don't be afraid to iterate.

Try Them Out!

All three chatbots mentioned above are live and ready to chat. Click the links above, ask them questions, and see what you think. Are they useful? Gimmicky? Somewhere in between? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

The "Forever Ready" Exhibit

We’ve all seen it. You walk up to a fascinating-looking interactive exhibit, ready to dive in, only to find it in a state of chaos. Pieces are scattered everywhere, the "start" state is unrecognizable, or worse, the previous visitor left it in a "game over" condition that you can't figure out how to undo. (If I see one more already solved “ecosystem puzzle” exhibit at a Nature Center again, I’ll scream!)

In the world of interactive exhibits, the “Reset” is everything.

The "Reset" is one of the most critical (yet often overlooked) aspects of interactive exhibit design. 

If an exhibit isn't ready for the next visitor immediately after the previous one leaves, it's “broken.”

If an exhibit requires a staff member to tidy it up every ten minutes, it’s not an exhibit; it’s a chore. <cough> mini-supermarket exhibits at Children's Museums <cough> 

The Holy Grail of interactive design is creating experiences that naturally return to a "visitor-ready" state the moment the first user walks away. 

Here are three different types of exhibit elements that handle their own housekeeping, ensuring every visitor gets a fresh experience:

1. Gravity to the Rescue!

You can’t beat gravity as a free source of energy (and cleanup). The classic Tennis Ball Launcher is a great example of reset.  The visitor pulls a rope to raise a bowling ball inside a close-fitting acrylic tube. When the ball drops, a stream of air rushes through a smaller connected tube containing a tennis ball. 

Whoosh! The constrained air sends the tennis ball flying! 

When the tennis ball reaches its apogee? Gravity takes over and returns the tennis ball to its original position, ready for the next user.

• Why it works: It uses physics, not staff, to clean up.

• See examples of CW Shaw’s Tennis Ball Launcher here

2. The Magnetic Gear Wall

"Loose parts" exhibits are engagement gold, but they are also a "reset" nightmare. If you have a bucket of small pieces, they can end up in pockets, on the floor, or in the wrong exhibit entirely.

The Magnetic Gear Wall solves this by turning the entire vertical surface into a storage unit. The gears stick where you leave them. While the pattern changes, the functionality never breaks. The next visitor doesn't encounter a pile of junk; they encounter a collaborative work-in-progress that is instantly playable.

• Why it works: The "mess" is the exhibit. There is no "wrong" state.

• See an example: Magnetic Gear Wall at the Discovery Museum in Acton, MA

(Notice how the gears are always presented effectively, whether arranged in a line or a chaotic cluster.)

3. "Phygital" (Physical/Digital) Exhibits

Sometimes you want the tactile joy of a giant "Lite-Brite" but without the agony of picking up hundreds of little plastic pegs.

The Everbright is a giant grid of dials that change color as you twist them. It satisfies that tactile itch but offers a massive maintenance advantage: Auto-Erase. You can program it to wipe the screen clean with a satisfying ripple of light after a period of inactivity. It’s always a fresh canvas for the next artist.

• Why it works: It mimics a mechanical experience while clever engineering handles the reset instantly.

• See an example: The Everbright

(Their site specifically highlights the "self-resetting" feature as a major perk for staff-less spaces.)

The Takeaway

When prototyping your next interactive, ask yourself: "What’s the Reset?"

If the answer involves a staff member constantly picking up loose pieces or a confused visitor pressing buttons randomly, keep iterating!

 

Have a favorite "auto-reset" exhibit example? Share it in the Comments Section below!

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.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"