Master's thesis | Interaction Design

Touching Knowledge

Interactive information system

 
Touching Knowledge

During the course of the restoration work on the Murinsel (a man‒made island in the river Mur in Graz), which began in September 2016, two custom-made information terminals with touch displays were installed in the exterior area of the artificial island. These two screens allow visitors to find all kinds of interactive information about tourist attractions and culture-related sites in Graz. Both the information software and the content of the terminals were decidedly customized to the needs of the Murinsel visitors. In addition to the requirements concerning the thematic preparation, contents and usability, there were additional, in particular technical requirements for the software.

The main part of this master’s thesis is concerned with the design and development of a software which fulfills these requirements. This thesis describes the process of designing the software, how the features of the final version were selected, and why some of the already implemented features were later dropped. The software has been in use since the re-opening of the Murinsel in February 2017, and has been improved and expanded several times since then. During the course of this thesis a module was implemented which is able to record the statistics regarding use of the information terminals. One chapter of this thesis explains how this data is collected, and attempts to analyze the general usage as well as which areas the software should focus on in the future.