TORONTO—This May, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) launched the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity, featuring 15 interactive kiosks designed by Overdrive Design. Each simple touchscreen shows videos and images that explore the diversity of life on earth – from flora and fauna to the ecosystems they live in – covering three themes: Life Is Diverse, Life Is Interrelated and Life Is In Crisis.

Built using Flash with ActionScript 3.0, the interactive screens were made to be simple enough so guests will intuitively understand how to use them. When museum guests touch an image on the screen in front of a snow leopard, for instance, they’ll see a narrated video clip about the habitat of that animal.

In order to ensure simple IT maintenance for ROM staff, Overdrive designed all kiosks to be connected to a central server, so everything is instantly updatable. The design firm has also worked with the ROM on kiosks for the dinosaur gallery, the mineral gallery and the ROM’s entrance information screens.

According to Overdrive’s principal James Wilson, this $60,000 project ran quite smoothly. In fact, their biggest challenge may have been the inexhaustible “public interaction” of their youngest test-drivers.

“We have learned that you cannot consider any public installation truly robust until it can withstand a busload of eight year olds being let loose on them,” Wilson told RGD Ontario. “Their ability to prompt repeated failures of perfectly solid applications is truly awe-inspiring.”