Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) Talkback Report

A report on a visitor study about three digital "talk-back stations" located in exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NMHU). In multiple locations in the Museum, non-digital visitor participation/visitor content contribution opportunities are offered with great success using sticky notes and guest-book formatted writing opportunities. However, it quickly became apparent that the Canyon Kiosks, Life Talkback and Land Talkback experiences were not meeting their original objectives. The aim of this research was to identify the issues impacting their success and subsequently develop design recommendations to improve their success. In particular the research focused on: Audience needs and behaviour in the exhibition space, Technical requirements of the organization, Technical limitations of the current hardware, Museum learning/experience objectives, Context of the current exhibition, and design/visitor experience. The remediation is now complete; we would be happy to share the results.