Background

The Altoona Historical Society sought an interactive experience for the new City Hall that would provide visitors with an opportunity to dive into the rich history of the city. They desired to share their extensive image and video archives in a way that would make the collections accessible and exciting to city residents. They also wanted to highlight the various historic sites around Altoona. We created an interactive touchscreen experience that allows visitors to experience all this content and more.

Implementation

Visitors to the City Hall of Altoona, Iowa can now discover the history of their town through an interactive kiosk experience. We worked with the Altoona Historical Society to create the interactive exhibit to allow visitors to explore the past and present of Altoona. Guests use a 49” Ideum Drafting II multitouch table to browse historic maps, photographs, and videos that stretch all the way back to the inception of the city. The kiosk serves multiple purposes specific to City Hall and to the larger community. It acts as an information kiosk about City Hall and the community leaders and officials who govern Altoona. Public events appear as a bulletin on the home screen, letting visitors know about upcoming events.

The kiosk also tells the story of Altoona through a timeline of historical events and interactive historical maps. Major events in the formation of Altoona are accompanied by a deep archive of photographs that bring history to life. Notable residents of Altoona past and present are highlighted and their contributions to the town are brought to light. Sites of historical significance are made easily accessible, enriching awareness of Altoona’s growth over its nearly 150 year history.

We designed an intuitive exploration system that evokes the physical experience of sifting through historic photographs and documents. Visitors slide photographs in and out of view as if they were pushing them around a desk. Menus and navigation elements harken back to card catalogs and exploring archives, and historic maps reveal locations as if they were slides to be analyzed.

We worked closely with the Altoona Historical Society to curate content for the experience to reveal the history of Altoona from its inception to the present day. Content specialists helped tell the stories behind the photographs and videos, bringing to life the lives of its notable residents and historic sites. 

The interactive kiosk experience was made possible by the Facebook Community Action Grants program, an initiative through which Facebook strives to be a good partner in their data center communities and invest in the long-term vitality of the community and its residents. To learn more about the Facebook Altoona Data Center and the Community Action Grants program, visit the Altoona Data Center on Facebook. 

We feel honored to have played a part in helping the community of Altoona discover more about its past and grow its community in the present.