The Cooper Hewitt Kiosk was developed in partnership with the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, in New York City.
Tellart worked directly with the director of the museum, and was tasked with developing a multi-purpose, interactive kiosk. It would be used to not only create a new visitor account with the museum, but also view the collection a visitor would have saved on their interactive pen. You can learn more about the museum's interactive pen, and digital initiatives here.
As Lead Industrial Designer on this project, given an extremely short timeline (2 months), I worked rapidly with our greater team to bring the idea from concept, into reality.
As Lead Industrial Designer on this project, given an extremely short timeline (2 months), I worked rapidly with our greater team to bring the idea from concept, into reality.
It was clear from the start, no off-the-shelf solution would work for the only Industrial Design museum in the country. It had to be special, and unique, while also fitting the current design aesthetic of the museum.
I pulled inspiration from the Cooper Hewitt front desk, a white corian, as well as the black target logo "tap" icon, core to Cooper Hewitt's identity, but also used for pen interactions throughout the museum.
The kiosk also needed a speaker and speaker holes, for future use cases that involved sound. It needed to be portable, moveable, ADA accessible, and pass the very strict Smithsonian Exhibition Design guidelines, which require lengthy approvals from the federal government. This is in the best interest of the design, but certainly placed many constraints upon it.
All this to say, the project was a challenge, but we pushed through and came out with a successful design that satisfied the client, and could work for all ages and types of people. We worked closely with OCTO design group in Pawtucket, RI to bring two of the kiosks to reality.
The kiosks will be seen on the floor of the Cooper Hewitt in the latter half of 2018.
Quick, iterative concept sketching, which quickly moved to computer renders. The client approved the concept on the right.
Prototyping at scale to ensure the proposed design worked for everyone.
