Museums, libraries and communities · For curators, exhibit designers and museum educators
Interactive museum exhibit ideas you can build on one touchscreen
Interactive doesn’t have to mean a custom build. Three exhibit ideas work well on a touchscreen beside a case: the stories of individual objects, the people behind your collection, and then-and-now photos of the same place.
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What makes an interactive museum exhibit?
An interactive museum exhibit lets visitors choose what to explore instead of reading a fixed sequence. On a touchscreen, that means tapping an object to open its story, searching for a person, or filtering by year. HistoryShowcase gives you the layouts for this, such as Timeline, Portrait gallery and Profiles, set up in an editor without code.
Updated
- Made for
- Curators, exhibit designers and museum educators
- Where it goes
- Beside the case, A family or education area, At the end of an exhibit
- Layouts
- Photo gallery, Portrait gallery, Timeline
- Visitors can filter by
- Theme, Year
- Cost
- Free to use. No payment details required.
Interactive should mean the visitor chooses
Plenty of interactive exhibits are a button that does the same thing for everyone. The more useful kind lets a visitor follow their own question: who used this, what did the harbor look like then, was my great-grandfather on that crew. Those questions already have answers in your files. They just never fit on the wall.
A touchscreen beside the case can hold them. Each object or person becomes a story with a summary, a longer write-up, photos and scanned documents, and visitors tap, search by name or filter by year to find their own way in. You set it up in the HistoryShowcase editor, so the exhibit can keep growing after it opens.
How does an interactive museum exhibit compare with a static display case?
| What matters | Static display case | HistoryShowcase |
|---|---|---|
| The real thing | Visitors see the actual object up close | Photos only; the object stays in the case |
| Depth of story | What fits on the label | A full write-up, photos and documents per object |
| Choosing a path | Everyone reads the same labels in order | Visitors tap what interests them |
| The hidden side | Only the side facing the glass | Close-ups of backs, marks and interiors |
| Changing the story | Rewrite and reprint the labels | Edit the story and it goes live |
Three exhibit ideas and what goes in them
Object stories
Each object in the case as its own story: what it is, who used it and how it reached the museum, with photos of it in use.
Hidden details
Close-ups of maker’s marks, repairs and inscriptions visitors can’t see through the glass.
People of the collection
Donors, makers and the people in your photographs as profiles, each with a portrait and their part of the story.
Names from the records
Crew lists, membership rolls and ledgers typed into stories, so visitors can search for a family name.
Then and now
An old photo of a street or shoreline beside a current photo from the same spot, captioned with both years.
The timeline behind it
The events that connect the objects, in date order, for visitors who want the bigger picture.
How to lay out the three ideas
Give each idea its own collection on the home screen, so a visitor can start with an object, a person or a place.
Your siteTap to Explore
- Object storiesPhoto gallery
One story per object, with a sub-collection for each case.
- The crewsPortrait gallery
Portraits that open into full profiles with logbook pages.
- Then and nowPhoto gallery
Paired photos of the same place, one story per location.
- Harbor timelineTimeline
Launches, storms and wrecks in date order.
Visitors can narrow it by
- Theme
- Year
How do you build an interactive museum exhibit?
Pick one idea, not all three
Start with the idea your collection supports best. If you have strong photographs but few documents, then-and-now is a good first build.
Write for someone standing up
Keep each summary to a few sentences visitors can read at the screen, and put the detail in the longer write-up for those who keep tapping.
Try it on the touchscreen
Use Preview to see the screen as visitors will, keep unfinished stories Private, then open the exhibit and start on the next idea.
Where does an interactive exhibit work best?
- Beside the caseVisitors can look from the screen to the object it describes.
- A family or education areaChildren and adults can explore together, and a teacher can steer a group through it.
- At the end of an exhibitVisitors who want more can search for a name they read earlier.
Interactive exhibit questions
How is this different from a custom interactive?
A custom interactive can do things HistoryShowcase can’t, such as a one-off game or a physical control. HistoryShowcase covers browsing, searching and filtering stories, set up by your own staff in the editor.
How many stories do we need before opening?
Fewer than you might think. A dozen strong object stories serve visitors better than many thin ones. Open with what you have and add more as research turns it up.
Our museum isn’t a school. Will the setup still make sense?
Mostly. Setup asks for a school name and colors because the product began with schools. Use your museum’s name and colors; the layouts and touchscreen are the same for everyone.
Can visitors who struggle with small text use it?
Visitors can turn on larger text, and reduced motion, right on the touchscreen.
Can the exhibit stay available after it closes?
Yes. The stories stay in your site, and the live site has its own web address, so the exhibit can stay online after the gallery is rehung. Mark anything you no longer want shown as Private.
Related ideas
Let visitors follow their own questions
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