On February 12, 2011 the Chicago History Museum launched Lincoln’s Chicago, an exhibition portraying the city that became Lincoln’s second home and political headquarters during his rise to prominence. The gallery features portraits of Lincoln’s contemporaries, as well as lithograph views created by artist Adolph Kurz and published by Otto Jevne and Peter Almini, depicting Chicago between 1861 – 1865. Together, these images provide a glimpse of the city that Lincoln knew – a dynamic young metropolis on the brink of greatness.
To enhance museum visitors’ experience, The gallery will include a touchscreen activity titled “Visit Lincoln’s Chicago.” The goal of this interactive component is to engage visitors’ imaginations in a virtual visit to the city’s past through 20 lithographs from the Jevne and Almini album; 32 close-up details showing the artist’s spirited depictions of the city’s bustling life; and lively captions that create a sense that “you-are-there.” The activity will provide orientation to place and time through an 1863 map of Chicago; visitors will navigate their virtual visit by touching markers on this map that will reference the lithographs.
The Experience
You journey to Chicago via train, arriving at the Great Central Depot. Your first destination is the Sherman House. The hotel serves as the launch pad for your visit. Stepping outside of your hotel you find yourself amidst an 1863 map of Chicago, and a list of tours available on your visit. Each tour contains markers for several types of attractions Chicago has to offer. The markers are destinations you can attend during your visit. Each marker contains lithographs depicting Chicago between 1861 – 1865, created by Otto Jevne, Peter Almini, Adolph Kurz and James Sheahan. You can explore each lithograph and encounter 2-3 detail highlights. You can choose to attend all of the destinations or only those that interest you, and end your visit to Lincoln’s Chicago at your convenience.
tl:dr Below are my sketches for the Visit Lincoln's Chicago touch screen activity, the sketches will be posted on a wall during the kick-off meeting with the developers an delivered to them electronically. Their purpose is to generate conversation, refine the experience, and jumpstart development.
The attract screen will serve as an attention getter that tells visitors there is an interactive activity at this touch screen. It will be on when the activity is not in use and will provide basic instructions on how to begin the activity.
The introduction will be an animation that provides the foreground and context of the activity and sets the town for the experience.
The transition from the introduction animation to the activity should inform the user that the introduction is over and they can begin their visit to Lincoln's Chicago.
The map screen is the context of the activity it is a place where users make decisions on which tour and destination they would like to select.
The tour screen uses the map as context and generated markers for the attractions included in the tour.
When a user selects any item from the menu, a tour, map, destination, etc.; The activity will provide clear visual and audio feedback to reinforce that the activity is responding to the users selection.
When a destination is selected the main menu will collapse and the lithograph and its highlights will make use of the additional space provided. The full view of the lithograph will take up the larger view area and its caption/description will display underneath. There will also be contextual help that tells the user that they can explore the image by zooming in an out of it.
When a highlight is selected, the highlight will take up the larger view area and its description will display underneath.
When the user has finished exploring a destination and its highlights, they will select the persistent menu button.
After it is selected, the persistent menu will expand over the current screen and provide options for the user to continue or end their visit.
A clear way to exit the activity will be available throughout the activity via the persistent menu.
When a user opts to exit the activity they will trigger a transition screen which will lead them into the exit animation.
The exit animation will be fast, clever, and provide closure to the activity. At the end of the exit animation the activity will return to the attract screen.
Here are the sketches on the conference room wall prior to our meeting. It was a great way to kick of the conversation with the development team.
