Going to the ROM

For class this week, we decided to go on a field trip to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto. When we got there, we were guided by one of the people who worked in the media department to take us on a tour. She first brought us to the crystal and diamond section where she then gave us a speech about the ROM's upcoming new digital ideas and plans.

After visiting and interacting in that section, I feel that there are a lot of opportunities for the ROM to improve on with their interactions with the audience. For example, when we in the crystal and diamond section, I noticed the touch screens in each aisle shared info about each diamond and crystal. I felt there could have been more playful interactions put into the touch screen design to make it more interesting to the user. Maybe they could have incorporated some games or even a story animation to explain the timeline of the crystal. I think this is important because a mass amount of visitors to the ROM are kids.

A section that I particularly liked was the dinosaur section. It was recently renovated and improved. I felt the videos and animation that they integrated to explain the dinosaur's growth and and movement was very nicely done. The only thing I would consider is to make the French and English section more obvious so I can right away differentiate the language. It got a little complicating to tell which piece of information was explaining which item.

Below were some pictures that I was able to take at the ROM:

The last suggestion I would make to create a better visit for the ROM's audience is to allow them to somehow download or purchase photos for each section. This is because most audience want to take pictures with or of the objects they are reading about. If there were a download imaging booth for each section, it would sort of cool and interactive for the visitors.