Exhibit prototyping

With the opening of the Welcome Building coming up seemingly faster than ever, the team is working hard to put together all the content needed for each exhibit that will be in the brand new interpretation room. With 11 exhibits, each with intricate, content rich information, it’s no mean feat!

The past few months have been object collecting, photo collating, archive searching, text writing, audio editing, filming, storyboarding and design development: all to produce a fantastic new interpretation space for you to discover more about Westonbirt and the wider world of trees.

The most recent development has been to ‘user-test’ two of the digital interactive exhibits. One of these is a touchscreen, used to navigate the Westonbirt map. However, it’s a map with a difference: each grid square that makes up the map is full of photos. We have turned it into a map mosaic, on which people can use photos of the site to discover information about different parts of the arboretum. For example, navigate to Acer Glade to see photos of and information on Acer Glade!

The other exhibit which we was tested is entitled: What Would You Do? It’s an opinion exhibit designed to provoke discussion on what elements need to be considered when making certain decisions about how to manage the collection.

Over two days, visitors, members, volunteers, and staff not involved in the project were able to have a play with these exhibits and offer their feedback. Our main aim was to test how user-friendly these two exhibits are, and we found that although there are indeed areas to improve on, the concepts were generally well received! Phew!

So, onwards and upwards: the designs are taken ‘back to the lab’, and discussions on how we can improve them are going ahead. Meanwhile…back to my storyboarding…