How to Utilize a Touch Screen Kiosk for Your Museum Exhibit – Mission San Juan Capistrano Case Study

With the ability to manage hundreds of pieces of content, from photos to video, it’s easy to utilize FlowVella for museum kiosks, no matter the size of your organization. The ease of use (no developer required!) and low cost of set up, requiring just an iPad and a FlowVella PRO account, make it approachable for exhibits and displays of all sizes. If you haven’t yet explored the opportunity that a touch screen display brings to your museum or gallery, then read on to find out how!

About Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano, a historic landmark and museum, is located in Orange County, California. Founded more than 200 years ago as the 7th of 21 missions in California, today it is is a monument to the multi-cultural history of the area, embracing its Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and European heritage.

Originally built as a self-sufficient community by Spanish Padres and Native Americans, the Mission was a center for agriculture, industry, education, and religion. It is now known as the “Jewel of the California Missions” and welcomes over 300,000 visitors every year.

How Mission San Juan Capistrano is using FlowVella

Mission San Juan Capistrano offers a Commemorative Tile Program to its patrons. They wanted to create a way in which to commemorate these tiles in a digital space, as well as utilize a touchscreen display to show off their archival photo collection in their Worth a Visit Exhibit.

With hundreds of photos and captions to manage, Mission San Juan Capistrano partnered with FlowVella’s Design Services to create an immersive and interactive experience for visitors to enjoy. The historical themed presentation takes visitors from the early days of the Mission to modern day in a photo slideshow and also includes an alphabetical list of participants of the Commemorative Tile Program.

How to Create an Archival Photo Collection with FlowVella

With a library featuring hundreds of unique photographs from the past hundred or so years, Mission San Juan Capistrano wanted a unique way to display their photo archives to their museum visitors. With their branding and design specifications, we were able to take their photos and captions and create a 300+ page Flow that captured their history in one interactive experience.

The first step in creating an archival photo collection with FlowVella is to gather your materials. Mission San Juan Capistrano shared their photographs with us directly, and I was able to download and optimize the wide range of file types and sizes for use on a tablet display to our recommended 1024×748 pixel guidelines. We’d recommend compressing all photos using a service like TinyPNG or TinyJPEG into the smallest file possible without compromising on image quality when dealing with hundreds or even thousands of photos.

From there, design began on the presentation itself. Their design team provided the finished comp, and we implemented it utilizing slices and the import as PDF feature. Once the first several screens were created, like the cover, a table of contents page, and a photo page, I was able to duplicate those screens, drop in a new photo, and paste the correct caption so that each screen matched the previous perfectly.

Once all of the photos and captions had been implemented, it was time to link it all together. We divided their Flow into sections, and the first screen of each section was linked off of the Table of Contents page. Additionally, we created inner screen links, so that a viewer could either swipe or tap an arrow button backward or forwards to go to the next photo. The last step, of course, was to get approval from the Mission San Juan Capistrano team, and for them to implement it in the museum!

Why FlowVella

Looking for a cost-effective solution, Mission San Juan Capistrano utilized FlowVella software and iPad kiosk displays in several exhibits. After implementing FlowVella and touchscreen displays, Mission San Juan Capistrano has noticed that a visitor is almost always utilizing the kiosk displays. They also have been happy with the screen views and overall analytics section, which allows them to provide metrics reports to their Board of Directors.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you get started with FlowVella for a touchscreen display solution, creating a photo archive, or as an interactive slideshow, reach out to us today!

Other Resources

FlowVella for Museums – More information about how to use FlowVella in a museum setting

How FlowVella Powered the Star Wars Exhibit – An example of FlowVella in action in partnership with the Smithsonian via Fast Company