ROM Kiosks - Physical & interaction designs

The following are pictures we took at our visit to the ROM. Key points: all the kiosks had speakers and some audio or video components and were in some kind of aluminum like or glass casing. The kiosks with video components (see images 2, 3, and 5) acted as interpretives for artifacts. There were options to play or pause a video and to turn a caption on or off. The most significant accessibility issue was to do with sole reliance on touch screens, preventing use by blind visitors. See: Notes from chat with blind user about museum experience for more details.

1. This kiosk appeared in the ground floor of the ROM.

when you touch the touch screen a cursor representing the mouse appears

2. This kiosk was in a natural history section. The visitor is meant to press a touch screen to begin and then they are presented with a grid of videos to watch. By pressing on a still representing a video, the visitor activates the video.

one of the shorter kiosks with a speaker in the natural history part of the ROM

3. Another view of the kiosk in #2.

James standing next to the shorter kiosk an image which gives perspective on its height relative to that of a standing person

4. This is the large, glass-encased kiosk found on the first floor. Its purpose is to inform visitors about various donors to the ROM. Using your finger you click on a title or theme to view a video about a particular donor.

This is a large glass encasing for a kiosk we found near the entrance to the rom. this kiosk played videos and there is a speaker on top

5. Here is a kiosk we found tucked away in a hallway, near the entrance to galleries with First Nations artifacts. This kiosk's function was very simple: to play a video that provided interpretive/didactic information about a totem pole. A visitor touches anywhere on the glass screen and the video begins to play.

we found this kiosk which is acting as an interpretive to a totem pole and this picture shows that the kiosk would be difficult to approach with a wheelchair because of its height and awkward location