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1) Basic Type A single, stand-alone exhibit, with few (or limited) conceptual links to other interactives. This is most often true when you’re building a demonstrator for a highly specialised piece of research: outreach exhibits are often, however, illustrating fundamental principles. Part of an exhibit cluster. Sometimes you will be building an interactive that is intended to be part of a group of exhibits, connected by an overarching theme, which might be as simple as the graphic design of the set, as part of an exhibition or display, but in more complex cases may involve a coordinated approach to the content of all of the exhibits. An example of the latter case would be the Particle Physics for Scottish Schools project, PP4SS, for which we designed a series of eight exhibits, as part of two story arcs: the first being an introduction to particle accelerators, taking students through the various physical principles of operation; and the second being a more general overview of particle detectors, with emphasis on the detection of cosmic rays. These exhibits were from the outset designed as a complete group.2) Mobility Fixed venue When an interactive is to be permanently sited in a venue, some design problems are minimised: access to power and a network are often straightforward, and many of the issues in the modularity section can be sidestepped. Portable Most interactives will be used in this way, in a variety of venues. In the extreme case (when used as part of an outreach group like SCI-FUN, for example), the exhibit must be designed to be taken to many locations with widely differing requirements (discussed later). At minimum you have to consider the way in which the interactive will be connected to the local environment. Not all venues will have immediate power, networking, water or other consumables, for example. (See later for more.) When many such exhibits are to be built (and this may apply to a collection of interactives from a variety of designers), modularity is increasingly important, described next.
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