MoMA.guide launches
March 2008

MoMA.guide, designed and developed by Cogapp in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), has launched.

MoMA.Guide, an interactive public access system that guides visitors in their experience of MoMA, marks a new stage in the evolution of visitor information technology.

Working closely with colleagues at MoMA, Cogapp took the project through consultancy, design, build, and finally, installation. In the initial design phase the company’s design team worked with renowned designer, Professor Malcolm Garrett.

MoMA.guide’s fluid interface presents a clear forward journey for the user: rather than refreshing whole screens at a time, information is presented in a series of panels that build left to right across the screen and, at any point, may be rewound, like a scroll. User testing at the conceptual stage proved that users find this interface extremely intuitive and easy to understand and use. The interface design supports the idea that every click represents a ‘positive choice for more content’ with no start or end point. The user can simply fill the canvas with any combination of panels and continue in a fluid movement through the guide.

MoMA.guide is based on Apple Macintosh hardware and software which provided the project with outstanding creative possibilities. To achieve the fluid and dynamic interface envisaged by the design team, the presentation layer has been constructed from a combination of Cocoa and Flash. An overall framework defines the common structure and code library, managing tasks like navigation history; while each panel type is defined by a separate Flash project, again facilitating modular development. Cocoa is used to achieve smooth visual effects beyond Flash’s capabilities, and to interface to custom hardware.

A synchronization system manages the content and data produced by diverse back-end systems and ensures that each kiosk is kept up-to-date; it also allows data to flow back from the kiosks onto MoMA’s website. Currently this ‘backflow’ is used to send e-cards through the kiosks, but it could also be used for other purposes such as marking material in advance on the web site to later retrieve from the kiosk on a visit to the museum.

New features can be added by separate teams, drawing on a common kit of parts. Content can be contributed from a variety of sources, including existing content repurposed without modification, with such integration removing the burden of additional maintenance imposed by earlier systems. A variety of publishing mechanisms are seamlessly integrated to create a rich, visually arresting, easily maintainable and up-to-date information source delivered to the widest range of users.

A final level of flexibility is provided by the presentation layer which adapts for different sizes of screen, different input devices, and user requirements. For accessibility, visitors can change presentation styles, for example to view larger type in a choice of several high contrast colour schemes; and an alternative navigation mechanism allows special input devices to be used by visitors with poor motor control.