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The Force is strong with this kiosk

Recently, visitors at the EMP Museum in Seattle were faced with the dark side of the Force as they confronted the original Darth Vader suit from the original trilogy, and then heard his haunting breathing emanating from a tablet kiosk.

July 22, 2015 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

Recently, visitors at the EMP Museum in Seattle were faced with the dark side of the Force as they confronted the original Darth Vader suit from the original trilogy. As music from the Mos Eisley cantina played in the background, guests found themselves among many familiar costumes, from the Jedis of the Old Republic to the stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire. As visitors toured the exhibit, they were also able to hear the haunting sound of Darth Vader's breathing emanating from a tablet kiosk. However, this kiosk also gave users the chance to take a closer look at many behind-the-scenes details from the movies.

The developers of this tablet kiosk software, FlowVella, designed it to enable customers to create their own personalized presentation, according to CEO and founder Brent Brookler. "This isn't template driven, this is a real authoring," Brookler said. FlowVella developed its first interactive presentation software, the Flowboard, in 2013.

With the Star Wars deployment, FlowVella designed the presentation to provide a variety of experiences for users. "These are like interactive books with audio, video, text, galleries. You've got video clips from the movies, behind the scenes, audio clips from Darth Vader's voice, audio clips of the light sabers and behind the scenes audio," Brookler said. Users can essentially find out all sorts of interesting information and tidbits about Star Wars, without sitting through a long presentation. Brookler said he views this type of interactive technology as the key component that will improve museum experiences.

"Gone should be the days that videos are running on a loop. You can replace video monitors and put in iPads, which are commoditized," Brookler said. Brookler also argued that the younger generation is used to self-guided touchscreen experiences, thus it is important to meet that expectation with tablet kiosks. This trend of self-service interactivity has manifested itself in almost every modern industry, especially the kiosk industry.

In addition to the kiosk software, FlowVella also offers a standalone app that allows users to craft their own apps to use as they please. "You can make pretty complex designs. After you completed that design, you can turn it into a standalone app," Brookler said. You can also apply that app to a tablet kiosk. FlowVella currently offers two different versions of its application, one free and the other premium.

This deployment is a piece in the puzzle of transforming static communication into a true interactive customer experience. On the Internet, users can receive and process information completely on their own terms. The same principle can be applied to other areas of customer experience technology, especially kiosks.

(Images courtesy of Brent Van Wieringen).

About Bradley Cooper

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Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and Food Truck Operator. He was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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