Post-COVID Interface Design for Social Spaces
COVID 19 has completely changed the way, we as humans will start living. Social interactions have changed. People now behave and act in a completely different way. This is an attempt to visualize a way out about how the digital interfaces in the public spaces will have to be dealt with. Earlier social distance was more situation based rather than technology-assisted, but with the pandemic of Corona and its threat looming over, it may mean that we will need smarter interfaces that assist the end-users. This is an attempt to initiate the discussion in this regard.
What where the exhibition spaces before the COVID pandemic struck the world?
All over the world when we visit any exhibitions, museums, or knowledge centers, they are primarily focused to either entertain people or part knowledge and act as information banks. We see several schools conducting their routine science museum trips as a part of their geography class or at times to gain historical knowledge. As per the data published by UNESCO, there are more than 85000 Museums all over the world. They are fantastic crowd pullers and are designed in such a way that there are a great number of interesting things for everyone. We can see the use of technology to the fullest in these spaces. Be it small touch interfaces, large digital walls, ceiling projections, or voice-assisted devices. You name it and they have it in some form or the other. People are encouraged to use more and more of these gadgets to enhance their experiences. AR / VR, simulation, everything co-existed in these spaces for years.
Post-COVID 19: How will the exhibition spaces need to undergo some major changes?
In one of my very recent visits to Atlanta Georgia, I came across this beautiful touch interface that was displaying information. It was a digital display in an exhibition space that had a lot of information about what kids would be curious about and find things on their own. The interface was designed to be operated by one child who could stand in front of this touch interface and get adequate information through the digital display. But to my surprise, they were three kids who bumped into this centerpiece. Everyone wanted to explore the same species from their own perspective. Finally, it’s the choice demand and the interface had to struggle to cope up with the mental agility speed and expectations of these 3 kids. An interface that was designed for controlled interactions two hands and one brain was now in the real-time scenario which was being used by 3 superfast brains and 6 extremely fast hands. Every microsecond of the delay was not acceptable, luckily the interface stood up to the expectations and it was a happy learning experience for the kids.
Fortunately, this was Pre-COVID 19 scenario and there were no set norms like social distancing. Three kids could freely interact with each other, come in close proximity, and also touch the interface surface without bothering about hand sanitization or the fear of touch induced COVID transmission.
But when we visit the same post COVID 19, we will have to work in the same space very differently. We would need a radically different approach that needs to be taken into account at the overall space design or services design experience.
What are the immediate solutions that will be seen when exhibitions and museums reopen?
Exhibitions were great examples of knowledge centers that were open unrestricted and free for everyone. There were sources of income for all the caretakers, curators, and thousands of people who worked behind the scene to keep them up and running. Social distancing, Thermal screening were words that didn’t exist in these spaces. But all that will change. Just to make them safe and secure places to visit a lot of new things will have to be introduced in most of the places.
If we look at a collective list of things that can be seen changing when these public spaces reopen can be listed as below
1 Pre Booking of slots, rides, and entertainment spaces will be the way going forward. To avoid cash handling most of these spaces will choose online cash handling.
2 On arrival, all these places will be conducting thermal checks of their own staff as well as the guests that would be entering the premises. This would be done more from a precautionary measure.
3. Most of these places we would see the staff wearing protective clothing and maybe behind hygiene screens and counters located on the premises.
4. Floor Markings for social distancing will be created to make the experiences more safe avoiding crowing.
5. Cleaning equipment, cleaning standards will be raised to higher levels. Additionally, hygiene stations will be set up where frequent touch may occur and people need to ensure that their hands are sanitized.
These are things that will happen at the physical setup. To assist the overall experience to be smooth we would also see crowdsensing and social distancing apps that would be needed to be developed for individual exhibitions or museums.This would also ensure that geolocation and customer flow-based real-time information is available to avoid crowding and safety is ensured.
Interfaces will now have to be designed which recognize the silhouettes and just not touch responses. Interfaces if designed for multiple players will have inbuilt intelligence which facilitates social distancing. That may be the new normal for multiple player based games. Digital interfaces will have to guide users to maintain a social distance. Lack of this distance may lead to voice messages or assist users visually to move to the predefined distance to get the interface started. Intelligent solutions will have to be built to ensure the safety of the beneficiaries using these spaces. Fortunately, technology now is more mature these days and these interactive spaces are great places where these modern technology solutions can be easily deployed and will be happily consumed in the interest of the end-users. Touch interfaces of the earlier days will need a major revamp with either plugin solutions or some adaptations to make the interactive surfaces more safe and secure for thousands of users who will be interacting with them.
Conclusion
Acceptable social interactions, normal social distances are changing post-COVID-19. Specifically play zones, museums, exhibitions, interactive social gaming zones will now need to be revisited. There will be social distancing norms, guidelines, and instruction signages that will come up in many places. Crowding of places will be avoided and spaces will be designed to assist and advocate appropriate social distancing. There is huge scope to look at these spaces which may have to undergo tremendous operational changes in an immediate time frame. Gesture controls, voice assistance, or even foot controls will see greater acceptance in these areas. Interesting times ahead to see how we will have to modify our design approach when we design these interfaces and how the end-users will have to adapt to these new behaviors which will be a part of their normal interaction with these digital spaces.
