Science Station Kiosks
October 15th, 2006
Skills: Flash 8, ActionScript 2, XML, Final Cut Pro, Project Management, Multimedia Storytelling
Total Number of Kiosks: 2
The Science Stations are two 32” touch screen kiosks adjacent to the indoor Giant Panda viewing at the National Zoo.
The huge, vertically mounted screens invite visitors behind the scenes with three Giant Panda-based stories of Zoo science: veterinary medicine, reproductive science and animal management.
Designed for families, the Science Station kiosks have layers of information and interactivity. The three interactives are chocked full of video, photographs and a very interactive mating game, in addition to the basic science stories.
“A Day At The Doctor” has a video of the head veterinarian at the National Zoo explaining the importance of preventive veterinary medicine and lets visitors “perform” four procedures. Selecting a procedure shows video of the procedure being performed on Mei Xian, the adult female Giant Panda at the Zoo.
“Pandadate.com,” has a video of a Zoo scientist explaining the importance of selectively choosing captive panda breeding pairs. Visitors take the advice of the scientist and try their hand at choosing female partners for a series of fictional captive male pandas. The key is to remember the “three A’s:” age, access and ancestors.
“Keeper Stories” has video of the Giant Panda curator and three panda keepers talking about their favorite moments with the pandas. The fun interviews incorporate B-roll of the moments.
My role in the exhibit included project management, information architecture design, Flash and ActionScript development, videography for some video and producer for the other shoots, all video editing and co-wrote/developed the exhibit.
I also specified the touch screen, LCD and computer for the indoor kiosks. My paper on building outdoor multimedia exhibits contains some details relevant to the hardware design and decisions that went into hardware selection for this exhibit.
