An important focal point this week was the touch table. First of all, the students creating a SciFi application for our touch table showed their work to the crown princess, with quite positive results. After this “royal approval” of the first touch table application, we set out to further explore how the touch table could be used in a library setting. Therefore, we conducted a second brainstorm session with a varied user group, and started to analyze and group the ideas that emerged from the two brainstorms conducted so far. This led to seven main groups of ideas, some of which (e.g. searching and navigation) are closely related to library services and use, and others (e.g. gaming) were aimed at relaxation and entertainment. Before moving on to a phase of prototyping the most promising ideas, we tested out the limitations and opportunities of the specific touch table acquired by the library. This can provide further guidance to the selection of the most feasible ideas for actual implementation.
Specific activities
-Organizing and conducting a second brainstorm session about the use of touch tables in the library, with students and library employees
-Analyzing the outcomes of the two brainstorm sessions about the touch table
-Configuring and testing the touch table (opportunities and limitations of interaction methods, configuring demo applications included with table, test out use of web applications)
Detailed about activities
Analyzing results of two brainstorms about use of touch table (more than 75 ideas), arranging and grouping them
Seven main groups of ideas, with a few examples:
Exploration
"Visually explore outer space”, “explore human body”, “explore citations”
Searching
"Visually grouping search results by hand, reorder and arrange”, “searching based on author name”
Navigation
“Choosing a discipline and subject, get highlighted map with library materials”, “maps of library services”, “map of things to do on campus”
Discipline-centered
“Digital experiments (e.g. physics, chemistry, biology)”, “physics simulations”
Collaboration & Creation
“Creative lab - idea sourcing”, “Creating art”, “idea wall”, “collaborative space for group work”, “favorite book voting”, “photo wall”
Personalization
“Scan library card and get personalized info”, “scan book to find related content”
Gaming & Relaxation
“Quizzes”, “Making music, build instruments and play them together”, “drawing competition with AI”