Digital screens and kiosks offer an interactive 'heartbeat' at the museum dedicated to the heart

Raise awareness and prevent cardiovascular diseases visually, interactive and fun for children and adults is the goal of Halle Heart Children' Museum, an installation that encourages reaching 'the heart' to teach and educate through screens and digital kiosks.

Located in the town of Tempe (Arizona – United States), Halle Heart Children’ Museum It is an innovative installation of 16.000 square meters specializing in hands-on, interactive cardiovascular learning that engages 30.000 annual visitors, mainly children, to encourage heart-healthy habits (exercise, healthy eating, etc.) in a playful way, visual and participatory.

Until a few months ago, this museum belonging to the American Heart Association (AHA), It was only open for guided tours for schoolchildren and private groups who were accompanied on their tour by professional guides who explained the contents..

At the end of October 2014, The AHA decided to open the doors of the museum to the general public (children and families, mainly), Although one of the problems they had was that they could not afford to have more professionals to guide the groups full time..

Those in charge looked for a way to launch a self-guided tour, that in addition to creating a dynamic and interactive experience that would generate interest in the exhibition, It will also fit the limited budget of this institution.

Economic challenges

As Len Gutman explains, director of Philanthropy en Halle Heart Children’s Museum, “we look at handheld maps and audio tours, But in the end we decided that through a digital kiosk we would have a more favorable experience for children and the general public.”.

Although a new challenge had to be faced: the economic, since it was a non-profit entity, it did not have the resources to finance the expenses of that facility., The solution came from the local technology company Insight Enterprises, who became involved in the project as a corporate partner, in addition to offering a grant that would allow the museum to pursue its ambitions of implementing digital kiosks.

In parallel, AHA found digital kiosk maker Meridian the ideal collaborator to design a robust and personalized digital system. adapted to both the informative needs and the budgetary limitations of the museum.

Self-Guided Digital Tour

In this joint development work, The museum had specific parameters of content and audience: Digital kiosks not only had to offer a child-friendly interface, but maximum security and a very attractive design, depending on the screen, size and height for its users.

Under these requirements, The digital kiosks designed by Meridian have a thin profile so they can be placed against the wall and are screwed to the floor, in order to prevent them from tipping over and falling on a child.

Its external appearance, made by Insight Enterprises is as colorful as the one in the museum itself and is personalized with your mascot, Lud Dub, dressed as the comic book superhero Red Crusader.

Besides, These systems incorporate purpose-designed screens, in size and height adapted to different levels of the child visitor, so that several children can gather around the digital kiosk and watch videos at the same time, which are also displayed on large format digital signage screens.

Halle Heart Children’ Museum features six Meridian digital kiosks that provide young visitors with a self-guided tour, which begins with a short video with information about the museum and details on how to interact in each exhibition room.

These systems use, for now, the 'kiosk mode' integrated into the Google Chrome browser to run the content and not specific software for reasons of cost and the limited resources of this institution.