Wouldn't it be wonderful to have something like this in entrance kiosks to our museums giving the history of the topic of the museum?

http://www.up150.com/timeline/

Crying shame their own display train was so amazingly underwhelming...

There are a variety of software packages that are suitable for the production of auto-run presentations with music or narration backgrounds, with or without interactive features. Unfortunately in many groups the most difficult item to find is a member who has the time, the interest, and the skills needed to do the work.

PC

Obviously it's the member's granddaughter who can do it. I bet there is a Boy Scout in town who is a computer freak looking for something useful to do.

We updated an old slide show Museum orientation program into power point and set it up to repeat on a flat screen.

Wesley

It is more than slick, it is just plain well done. It uses Flash, but they took the time to develop a non-Flash version so iOS users can see the content, and they built out a very nice mobile interface.

Railroad or not, this is an example of a corporation doing their own dotcom right in 2012.

Roll on, UP.

Rob

I feel like this also opens up an opportunity for those who may have the skills and are interested in helping a group-but may be separated from the organization's base-to "long distance volunteer" for the organization. It may not be the same as getting your hands dirty in the restoration shop, or giving tours of the museum, but it is still important to the group, as it presents an attractive and interesting front to visitors!

Since PowerPoint was specifically mentioned in Wesley's posting, I would just like to mention that this very useful program has capabilities that often are overlooked, including the ability to work with any randomly selected paper size, which allows you to use the program for printing information placards, posters and wall art in addition to its more common use as a presentation program. I fully realize that some railfan events insist on the use of ProShow for presentations, but PowerPoint is the standard in the railroad industry, and by using it you can sometimes get additional "mileage" out of information programs prepared by the railroads as well as government agencies for public distribution. There is some pretty interesting stuff out there done in PowerPoint, particularly on modern industry topics.

PC

After you enter and pay admission at the Nevada State RR Museum you enter a Introduction Area of three Flat Touch Screens that do an excellent job of presenting the history and geography of Nevada railroads. It's the best I'm seen at the RR museums I have visited.

These examples powerfully demonstrate the advantages of having professional designers involved in the creation of exhibits and interactive media.

The prevalence of desktop design software has made it much easier for anyone to produce graphics such as seen above. Unfortunately, not anyone has the design skills or training necessary to really pull these things off successfully.

More importantly, the actual content of interpretive graphics needs to be appealing and comprehensible to its audience. We need to do a much better job of communicating with the FAMILIES that come to railroad museums, and while the technical aspects of railroad equipment can be appealing, it is a small part of the overall story of railroad history. As a group, we are overly preoccupied with these technical details, and we project these interests onto our visitors. At the same time, we tend to expect way too much advance knowledge or appreciation of these details and their significance.

Yes we need educational graphics. Much more than most of our museums have, but they need to well designed in appearance and content that a public audience will appreciate. We need broader narratives, stories that focus on people, and explanations that convey the significance of these things we are too close to, and too enamored with, to begin to explain them to the uninitiated. For that, we need fresh outside eyes. Potentially the eyes of professional exhibit designers.

Ok Randy, I'll bite. What is a professional exhibit designer? I Googled it. Here is one result as an example:

http://programs.columbian.gwu.edu/museu ... ibitdesign

Most museum exhibits are designed by professional designers that work for one of the many exhibit design firms in the country. The individuals that work at these companies have backgrounds in a wide range of fields including graphics, education, history, lighting, and architecture. Alternately, they have gone through one of the many exhibit or museum studies programs throughout the country.

Exhibit designers work for all kinds of museums and also work to create commercial exhibits for trade shows and the like.

Those exhibits at Nevada State were designed by these guys: http://www.taylorstudios.com/news/new_projects.html

The UP stuff was probably done by this creative firm: http://eleven19.com/website_design_and_ ... steam.html *Corrected Below*

*Edit* My mistake, upon further research, the UP website was done by these folks: http://whatcheer.com/ *Edit*

I believe the exhibits you previously admired at The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania were designed by these folks: http://www.hilferty.com/Railroad/index.html

Larger museums have their own design personnel on staff in their education departments. They work with museum curators and educators to develop exhibits that aim to successfully communicate the educational messages the museum wishes to tell with their collection.

Honestly, a lot of this stuff could be done in-house with volunteers, but I feel whomever tries needs to seriously consider that their knowledge and interests may not jibe with those of the average visitor. The professionals are accustomed to trying to translate arcane and esoteric information into compelling narratives in collaboration with museum experts.

California State Railroad Museum recently refurbished a lot of their exhibits. They landed a sizable grant specifically for this purpose since a lot of foundations are attracted to funding educational programs, especially when they clearly benefit children.

Also, I think you only need to Google "Exhibit Design." Many years ago, I worked in an office that was shared with one such firm. They have recently been consulting with California State to help plan the new technology museum.