While at my placement at Kin, I learnt about the process behind their Compass Lounge project at the National Maritime Museum; which included the visualisation of the NMM’s extensive archive. This archive includes thousands (around 250,000) of photographs, etchings, uniforms, flags and general maritime artifacts. Each object has been recently photographed at a high standard – something which needed to be taken advantage of. The user is able to interact with a 3D landscape of 4,000 images. The images are not accompanied with any information, however this has been considered due to the limited usage time by multiple visitors. This outcome still allows visitors to view and be inspired by the vast archive of high resolution images, within a museum space.
The plan-chest touch screens let users interact with the archive pieces in more detail with information on the most popular pieces in the collection; while the digital photo frames display pieces which have been recently viewed online.
This, in conjunction with the compass card, also encouraged visitors to visit the online archive outside of the museum, to discover further information about their chosen object or topic.
All images sourced from http://kin-design.com/project.php?id=147
Louise Lynn 