Interactive Tables in the Wild – A Study
When we launched our Canada’s Arctic gallery in 2009 we wanted to learn from our two multi-touch tables. As near as we could see no one had done any studies on unattended tables in ultra-high traffic galleries.
The InnoVis Group, Interactions Lab at the University of Calgary were very interested in our offer to come down and study visitor interactions with our tables. Using extensive observation video and surveys they pulled together some really worthwhile insights.
In short, the tables met the needs of our visitors which means they definitely have a role in our plans for the future.
When we first rolled the tables out, we were often questioned about being too simplistic in our use of the tables. We were told people would just play with the pictures and there wasn’t enough information attached. But we designed for that level of engagement knowing that the rest of the exhibit would deliver more in depth information.
It was very gratifying to see that the tables supported our overall content design like we thought they would. We hoped that one would amplify the other and this turned out to be the case.
As the study shows, not everything was a success with the tables, but they are, overall, successful. Our lessons learned from the development of the tables with Ideum and the study and our subsequent observations are incredibly valuable to us. I highly recommend a read of this study.
by Jeff heywood 
on January 24, 2011
