Following on from our “business intelligence via podcasting” project, here’s something else we’ve done with an iPod Shuffle.
A client of a client of ours creates interactive exhibits for museums and galleries. In the past they’ve created exhibits that provide a commentary for visitors on a handheld device – as the visitor moves from area to area and display to display, the commentary fills them in with background details. For example, in one installation the owner of the stately home gave a running commentary on the paintings, sculpture and assorted ghosts in each room.
In the past they’ve used various types of hardware, ranging from walkman-style tape players to solid-state devices that pick up commentary through infra-red transmitters. All of them suffer from a number of drawbacks – whether it’s sound quality, battery life, size or cost, they’ve always been a sub-optimal solution.
The success of our business intelligence via podcasting project got us thinking – if an iPod Shuffle is simple enough for a business executive to use, surely they’d work for the British public? A quick experiment was called for.
We created a series of mini-podcasts – for each exhibit, we recorded an individual MP3 track of the commentary, and put them together into a playlist. This were loaded onto the Shuffle, which had been adapted slightly – we prised off the slider and put a dot of superglue to prevent it being switched to ’shuffle’ mode, then added a dot of red paint onto the ’skip forward’ button on the front. At the end of each track – or piece of commentary, if you like – there’s an instruction to ‘press the red button’, and about 10 seconds of silence before the start of the next track, just enough to move onto the next position.
Visitors to the exhibition are given a Shuffle as they enter, and move from display to display as the commentary plays. They’re prompted to move on the next area pressing the red button as they go, and an introduction at the start instructs them how they can pause and restart the playback.
There are some limitations – the earbud headphones aren’t ideal as they’re getting stuffed in so many different ears, so they were quite quickly replaced by some generic headband models. But the majority of visitors seem to be able to manage the very basic instructions, and so far no-one has left the show with an additional gum-shaped souvenir, despite their desirability!
From the client’s point of view, there are several advantages – firstly the outrageously low cost of the exercise, as a basic Shuffle is a fraction of the cost of other types of devices they’ve used in the past. Creating the commentary is also outrageously easy – we recorded and edited it using Garageband, then loaded the Shuffles with iTunes. This means that they’ll be able to make new commentaries for new shows very quickly. The Shuffle’s battery seems to last plenty long enough for a day’s show. But perhaps the most impressive factor was the reaction of visitors – being handed a Shuffle seemed to be a high point of their visit, and attracted a lot of positive comments.
It’s quick, cheap and effective – and it’s yet another example of how an innovative technology can be used in ways unimagined by the designers!
