2009 - Multitouch table Abbaye of Fontevraud

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CONTEXT

During a 6 months internship, I worked in the digital agency: Mazedia. The purposes of this internship were :

- Use academic knowledges and methods learned during the year.

- Establish design hypotheses for the conception of a multitouch table for the museum of the Abbey of Fontevraud.

My scope of intervention was both in the design of the object and the design of the interface it was supposed to display.

RESEARCH

Because of my lack of knowledge about museography and technologies, my first task was to write a document that reflects the state of art in the fields concerned.

Then I made observations of people visiting museums and/or interacting with different types of multitouch tables. I made these observations in three different places:

- The museum and heritage show in London

- iBar in London

- Eana museum in Normandy

During observations, I focused on different variables such as:

- The number of people interacting with the same device

- The posture of people interacting with a multitouch table

- The duration of each interaction

- The shape and size of each device

- The type of activity that users were invited to be done on these tables

Based on these observations I made the following design hypotheses:

1/ Size and shape of the table has impacts on the number of people interacting with a device. The smaller the table is, the less the number of person is interacting with it.

2/ The height of the table has an impact on the duration of the use of the table. The lower the table is, the shorter the interaction is.

3/ If the table is supposed to be used by many people at the same time, the interface should display mutliple UI controls. So everyone can interact with the device, without disturbing his neighbor.

Multitouch table in EANA museum

Museum table in Museum and heritage show

LAB TESTING

After having delivered the hypotheses, I decided to try them by performing tests lab testing. On different tables (with various size and height), I asked a group of person to achieve a collaborative puzzle solving task.