Article

Going ape over kiosks

Non-profit World Wildlife Fund is using kiosk for the first time as part of a traveling show on the planet's biodiversity.

April 25, 2002

It is called Biodiversity 911: Saving Life on Earth, and by using science, humor and creativity, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) uses the exhibit to tell the story of biodiversity -- the interconnected web of life on the planet.

The 2,300-square-foot exhibit, which stands 10 feet high, consists of numerous innovative hands-on pieces, including electronic kiosks, which break down what might otherwise be an incredibly complex topic into a series of visitor friendly concepts, which define biodiversity, why it is important, why it appears to be declining, and how ordinary people can help protect it.

Developed by the Washington, D.C.-based WWF, with major funding from the National Science Foundation and the Mars Foundation, Biodiversity 911 is the organization's first traveling exhibit. Launched in the summer of 2001, the exhibit is expected to welcome 500,000 visitors annually, according to the WWF's 2001 annual report.

Biodiversity 911 is also distinctive because it is the first time the 40-year-old non-profit environmental group has used electronic kiosks to tell its story.

Promising an "educational and fun adventure" for families, the exhibit, which takes four days to tear down and reassemble, allows visitors to crawl through a coral reef, peer at the layers of life in a giant tropical tree, select the sustainably harvested catch of the day at a fish market, and other activities.

"This exhibit is designed to make biodiversity come alive for visitors," said Judy Braus, WWF director of education. "It tells the story of biodiversity, from highlighting the Earth's stunning differences, to helping visitors understand the urgency of biodiversity loss."

Technology for the environment

At the center of the exhibit is the Biodiversity Theatre, where visitors can view a newly produced short film on the subject, produced by Aardman Animations, creators of the feature film Chicken Run. The lighthearted film introduces serious issues, including deforestation, pollution, climate change, and other wildlife concerns.

From the theater, visitors move into six exhibit areas, each centered on a different character and issue presented in the film. Each area involves visitors with hands-on interactive experiences, including computer simulations, larger-than-life models, video clips, and hands-on games. The areas also include "prescriptions for the future," which illustrate positive ways in which people around the world are making a difference in environmental preservation.

Kiosks play a central role in providing this information.

The Difference of One kiosk shows visitors what actions they can take to help preserve the environment. The software allows kiosk visitors to enter their ZIP code and dates of birth, have their pictures taken by an embedded camera, and vote on the main reason why they want to protect biodiversity. Reasons can be philosophical, political, economic, or spiritual.

The Wild World kiosk, another element of the exhibit, allows visitors to touch the screen and insert their ZIP codes. They are immediately told what eco-region they live in, the status of species that live there, and their region's environmental health.

"We've made each kiosk very interactive, because we want to make the entire experience very engaging," said Robyn Mofsowitz, WWF traveling exhibition coordinator. "Our main audience are families and we wanted to have them share this experience together."

"We're using kiosks because we needed some way to make the entire thing fun," she added. "Using kiosks allows visitors to follow some simple instructions and have an incredibly interactive, fun and educational experience."

A workable experience

Greg Sprick, of Somerville, Mass.-based Jeff Kennedy Associates, the firm that designed the entire exhibit, including some of the kiosk software, said a major challenge was the need for a very simple interface.

"People are standing. They may have fidgety children by their side. They probably don't have a very big attention span, so simplicity is important," Sprick said. "We have as few controls as possible. We don't want people to get lost by having too much to navigate."

Sprick said kiosks are ideal for such a heavily used exhibit, which must also withstand travel.

"Durability is a primary concern," he said. "An ordinary keyboard, like you'd find with a laptop or personal computer, would last only a matter of weeks or so. What we have here lasts much longer."

For people with disabilities, track balls, a kind of upside mouse, are available and are easier to use than touch screens, especially for those who might be wheelchair bound and can't reach up. For the hearing impaired, St. Louis-based Technisonic Studios provided close captioning, as well as an audio navigation system for visitors with vision problems.

However, Sprick warned kiosks could have limited usage in a situation where people need to interact. Characterizing them as potentially isolating in a museum display setting, the designer said a kiosk can generally only accommodate one person at a time.

"Our goal here is to get people to interact and not work by themselves," he said, noting that multi-player situations, such as those found in museum displays, are not generally kiosk based.

But Technisonic's Ellen Legow, which also designed software for the display, disagreed.

"Kiosks are not only fun to use, they lend themselves to creative applications," Legow said.

Legow did agree, however, that simplicity is a key to making a kiosk project such as the WWF's work.

"When a person walks up to a kiosk in this setting, they must navigate it," she said. "That means that as designers, we must keep the end user in mind and understand that in a display and museum setting, there are all kinds of levels of sophistication, so we need to keep it as simple as possible."

Traveling miles

WWF officials did not detail the exhibit's cost. The organization spent $27.8 million funding conservation education efforts such as Biodiversity 911 during fiscal year 2001.

The exhibit visited such locations as Springfield, Mo., and Danville, Va., during 2001. Currently, the exhibit is visiting museums in Bettendorf, Iowa, and Norwich, Vt., but will spend most of the summer in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Legow said she would not be surprised to see more museums and traveling exhibits turn to kiosks as a way of delivering information.

"Kiosks offer us a different kind of medium," she said. "We try to find the best possible way to fit the end user, and kiosks are definitely good for museums and displays like this. They allow for a good deal of creativity and interactivity."