Interactive exhibition design

An exhibition the visitor does not read but explores.

A visitor does not read an exhibition — they explore it. The difference shows in behaviour: at a text panel a person stands for four seconds and walks on; at an object that answers an action, for minutes. Interactivity is not there to look contemporary. It is there where the content is more complex than a paragraph on a wall can carry.

When interactivity is justified

1. The content cannot be shown — a process, a working principle, a scale, something that happens inside and is invisible in reality.
2. The audience is mixed. One object has to work for a schoolchild and for a domain specialist; a static case cannot do that, an interactive object can, through depth.
3. There is more material than the walls will hold. Interactivity compresses: one object can carry what would otherwise need a whole hall.
4. You need the person to do something. Understanding through action lasts longer than understanding through reading.

And the reverse: where the content is an authentic object and the story around it, interactivity next to it usually gets in the way. We drop it in those places, and that is part of the job too.

Formats we build

• Interactive scale models of territories and objects — with projection, zone highlighting and information layers on top of physical form.
• Multimedia installations: large screens, multitouch surfaces, objects that respond to approach and gesture.
• Playable exhibitions — a single system in which the visitor walks a scenario rather than a set of stands.
• Holographic showcases and volumetric exhibits for equipment that cannot be brought in.
• Augmented and virtual reality, where you need to be inside a space you cannot enter.
• Mechanism exhibits: physical action with your hands, not a tap on a screen.

How it works inside

One rule: reads in five seconds, opens up over five minutes. In five seconds a person understands what to do, with no instructions. In five minutes they find depth, if they stayed. Rules without manuals, discoveries the visitor makes themselves, and enough content in reserve for whoever wants to go further.

The second rule is about operation. An exhibition lives for years, and it is maintained not by its developer but by the person who looks after the hall. So objects are designed to restart with one button, to survive rough handling, and to expect that one day the network drops or a projector dies. An exhibit that only works in ideal conditions does not work in a museum at all.

How the work goes

1. Interaction scenario: what the visitor does, what happens in response, how it ends.
2. Prototype. We test the mechanic on people before any equipment is ordered. A cheap prototype now saves an expensive rebuild later.
3. Production: design, 3D, development, assembly, content.
4. Installation and commissioning on site — light, sound, projection calibration, a maintenance routine.
5. Support after opening: the first weeks show what no prototype does.

Scale

• 115 exhibits in a single exhibition — Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre, VDNH
• 2011 studio founded; we work worldwide
• 3 wks our fastest turnkey interactive project

How a visitor answers: 20 input devices — touch, gesture, voice, presence →

How many people saw it

• 2M visitors in eight months
  Russian Industry
• 600,000 visitors to the exhibition
  Russian Airports
• 7,000 delegates over three days
  Proryv

Projects where we have done this

• VDNH Space — The History of Human Spaceflight installation
• Russian Industry — Interactive installations · Russia Expo
• Russian Airports — International airports · Russia Expo
• Proryv — Rosatom · the presentation tunnel

Frequently asked questions