Solutions

A new touch-screen interactive developed by Art of Multimedia is demystifying climate change for visitors to the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra.

The half-hour presentation, produced for an existing exhibition space, provides an overview of the subject from the layperson’s point of view. It organises the content under three broad themes – understanding, reducing and adapting – to show how everyone can respond positively to this complicated issue.

Like all thoughtfully designed multimedia, the Climate Change exhibit allows you to choose your own path through the information. Content is carefully layered and rich with visuals to keep you hooked.

“It’s a complex presentation,” Christine Cansfield-Smith, the centre’s director, says. “AOM had to do an awful lot of thinking and planning to make it work, to make it look good and keep it interesting.”

The Discovery Centre is as much for adults as children, she explains. It always strives to do CSIRO’s research justice and never dumbs down content. In this instance the target audience is aged 14 plus.

On the theme of adapting, the presentation includes the surprising idea that climate change is not necessarily all bad. In fact, it is generating some valuable innovations such as drought-resistant crops and buildings that are energy efficient.

Two clever features built into the exhibit are also helping to engage users in unexpected ways.

You can choose PDF fact sheets on particular topics of interest to read on the spot, and then email them to yourself for future reference, with CSIRO able to update the sheets as needed via a CMS back-end.

And you can ask CSIRO a question by entering your query in a field within the presentation. An answer is prepared by a CSIRO researcher and later emailed directly to you, as well as posted in the exhibit to build a continuously evolving frequently asked questions section.

“These features are very new. They may never have been used in an exhibition context before,” Christine adds. “I provided the brief and content. It was up to AOM to create the look and navigation; their brilliance came up with that. We have raised the bar.”

Click “view project” on your right for a quick taste of the Climate Change exhibit.

Find out more about the CSIRO Discovery Centre here.