Abstract

The design of interactive museum exhibits presents an interesting set of design issues above and beyond the typical technical and artistic design issues. The fact that the setting has an educational intent yet must also be free of tedium makes choices of medium interesting, if not difficult. In this work we present our experiences and findings of the design constraints that arose during our development of a interactive museum exhibit that was, effectively, an historical simulation. Outside the scope of the typical design issues that one would encounter developing any interactive application, we found a number of pedagogical pitfalls and historical hurdles arose while trying to portray the past. This work elucidates our experience and provides guidelines for other designers of interactive museum ex-hibits, in particular historical-based exhibits, to consider in their future work.