Designing and developing interactive kiosks for cultural heritage: best practices and common issues

Interactive kiosks are a smart way to engage museum visitors and complement their visiting experience with another layer of engagement and interaction with the artworks. Kiosks are also a perfect complement to an integrated Cultural Heritage project that applies digital technologies for the study, the documentation, and the conservation of works of art, as it might help in adding a new dimension of dissemination and public outreach to the project. The design and development of an interactive kiosk for Cultural Heritage involves very different knowledge, skills, and tools. However, it is possible to find various software components that can be used, with a reasonable effort and a sound strategy, to set up an interactive kiosk able to display complex 2D+ and 3D data and implement advanced interaction paradigms. The aim of this work is to help possible developers, by discussing some working strategies and approaches, highlighting possible tools, and analyzing past activities of kiosk development and deployment.