Here is a snippet of my thought process regarding the experience I believed would fit the project needs:

• To draw people in to the spacecraft and the kiosk, if the kiosk has had no interaction for an amount of time, I want to use a screen saver mode with video from the mission to further engage the visitor so they approach with interest.
• The visitor should feel immersed in the material, so I want the images and videos to be big and fill the screen as much as possible.
• We should meet the goals defined during the needs analysis. Visitors should on average leave the museum with a better understanding of the mission and fulfill their own questions and intests, so information should be grouped up into categories and easy to find and navigate.
• We should break the on-screen text into what is most important and then additional details, so those that want to skim or read a little can learn quickly, then, for those that want to keep reading or want additional detail, can continue as they like.
• The navigation should be simplistic and out of the way. It should let the user know where they are and where they might go if they are looking for something specific. If the navigation was across the top, it would be the first thing visitors would look at. With a bottom based navigation, the visitors would first see the project information. It is also easier to reach if the visitor is a child or if they are in a wheelchair.
• Each visitor should feel free to view anything they wanted at any time through an open navigation scheme.
• The background should be dark. A white background might cause unessesary light on the capsule and might draw your eye away from the physical spacecraft.
• The title “Gemini VIII” should be on screen at all times and prominent enough to act as a visible title for the exhibit, as the spacecraft itself doesn’t have a clearly marked mission title.

3D Development

Tony worked with me to develop the 3D animation used to visualize the emergency. Greg, from the museum, provided a detailed description of the emergency, the orientation of the spacecraft as it rolled out of control, and even snippets from the Gemini manual to help with our accuracy.  We used 3D Studio Max to output the animation and then Adobe After Effects to edit and handle color correction.

Because I did not live far from the museum, I occasionally stopped by for face-to-face meetings with the museum staff. My trips had several goals:

1. Better familiarize myself with the current exhibit and how visitors interact with it.
2. Take photos of the outside and inside of the spacecraft to be used within the kiosk so we can label key features and components.
3. Brainstorm ideas with the staff and make real-time revisions to the kiosk information.
4. Test the project on the kiosk, once it was available, to make sure it was secure and works with the software.
5. Hang out at the museum because it’s awesome and I could keep learning about Armstrong and the space program (bonus!).

I have so far created the design. So I know what this is going to look like and have all the content written. Now I need to develop it. 

I chose to develop this in Articulate Storyline, because:

• I am very familiar with Storyline, its advantages and limitations.
• The end result should be available on the kiosk, the web, and through mobile devices, which Storyline can publish to.

I had to be inventive about how to structure this project in Storyline. Here are a few things that are somewhat novel in this project:

• The title and menu should be available at all times, so I put them on a Master Slide Layer and have a trigger to show the layer whenever a variable changes. Then I change the variable whenever the user changes slides and when new layers are shown. This pops that layer on top of everything. Storyline does not have an “always on top” option, and this works flawlessly.
• The menu within the “Flight” section is unique and engaging as it expands and immerses the user in each topic. This is done through multiple layers and motion guides.
• I create a user-based touch and drag 3D rotation by putting every image we had rendered in 3D into a separate state, and when the user moves a slider, the correct image loads based on where the slider’s variable is.

I will be creating a few videos showing how I created elements of this project in Storyline. Stay tuned!

The museum staff is always talking to their visitors and gathering information on their museum experience. This allows them to understand where they were engaged and their increase in knowledge. The kiosk has had great results from visitors and even special guests, such as Mark Armstrong, Neil Armstrong’s son, who has approved!

As the museum has just enabled WiFi that reaches this location in the museum, we will begin to gather data on what screens/information everyone interacts with so we can expand on the most used areas.

I have also had the opportunity to people watch at the museum. Kids and adults confidently walk up to the kiosk and began interacting. I saw kids using it by themselves and then peering into the spacecraft. I saw parents reading to their kids what they discovered (some pretending they knew all this information before). I saw adults spend a substantial amount of time reading and watching videos on the kiosk then looking up at the spacecraft, back down at the kiosk, back up to the spacecraft…I could have watched it all day. I am grateful to have had this opportunity to provide this educational experience covering such an interesting and amazing episode in our space program.

And the kiosk just won a Brandon Hall Award for eLearning Excellence – Best Advance in Custom Content! More on this soon.