Reinventing the UX at the National WWII and Korean War Veterans Memorials
The National World War II and National Korean War Veterans Memorials are hallowed ground here on our National Mall. It’s hard not be moved by the architecture, the inscriptions, the statues and most importantly by the veterans and their families who frequently visit. How can mobile devices enhance the experience for visitors, old and young? How can something so sacred, permanent and powerful be enhanced and enriched through technology? This year INADEV had the honor of reinventing the user experience at both of these memorials through laying the groundwork for the first wi-fi enabled, augmented reality experiences on the National Mall. Working closely with the American Battle Monuments Commission and the National Park Service, we launched the first phase of the project for Memorial Day Weekend celebrations – two kiosks at the National Korean Veterans Memorial and four kiosks at the National World War II Memorial. These web-based kiosks serve as a foundation for the mobile phase of the project, currently underway. During this session you’ll see a demonstration and hear the story of how we built these experiences, systems and apps – including decision points and challenges along they way. Specifically you’ll learn: -who was involved and how mission objectives and technology choices were mapped -how content and multimedia was sourced and managed -what augmented reality technologies we chose and why -why we chose Drupal as the content management system behind the kiosks and the headless system behind the mobile apps -how we combined API’s with RWD to serve content to mobile devices -how we connected Drupal to remote data sources that allow searching for people involved in the war efforts -how we used remote kiosk management technology to allow remote monitoring, control and content management -how we met ADA and Section 508 accessibility requirements -how we used Drupal’s multilingual capabilities to provide content in multiple languages This session is non-technical and appropriate for anyone interested in a demonstration and a great example of using Drupal, API’s, Augmented Reality and Cordova for building interpretive mobile experiences.
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Reinventing the UX at the National WWII and Korean War Veterans Memorials
- 1. Dan Katz, VP Technology Solutions INADEV Corporation dan.katz@inadev.com @mtndan ModevCon 2014
- 6. Dan Katz VP Technology Solutions @mtndan Jitesh Sachdev Chief Operating Officer @jiteshsachdev
- 8. Governance • Multiple Stakeholders Diverse Users • Youth, Seniors, International, Volunteers Rangers • Generally not Technical Infrastructure • Not Designed for Remote Management
- 9. Security Accessibility Network Multilingual Kiosk Management Data Integration Extensible Platform for Growth Engaging User Experience
- 20. • ADA • WCAG 2.0 • Harper’s Ferry Center Accessibility Committee
- 22. • Strong Content Architecture • Windows/IIS on MySQL • Multilingual • Database API to SQL Server • Accessibility • Security • Drupal “Distro” model for Kiosks
Editor's Notes
- This is the introduction… the hook. Ask, show of hands, how many of you have visited the National Mall? How many have visited the National Korean Veterans War Memorial? How many have visited the National World War II Memorial? How do you engage? Talk about the tourists wandering (next slide) Talk about the rangers available (next slide) Talk about the paper interpretive stuff (next slide)
- Tourists are largely reliant on
- Dedicated NPS rangers are available and provide interpretive services, but there are only a limited number of resources.
- Or you can leverage technology!
- I think the best way to give you a feel for this project is to show you this very short video clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwHGFppZrXo&feature=youtu.be
- Introduce the project, ourselves, and the other players involved. We installed network of WiFi-enabled kiosks gives visitors access to photos and war records drawn from federal archives and databases kept by different agencies, including the National Archives. For instance, a visitor can look up his or her grandfather's service record, search for others who served in his unit, find contemporaneous photos, or read about battles in which he fought. The kiosks are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 compliant for disability access; they are also accessible in both English and Spanish. What we’ve done is leverage technology, including Drupal, to provide another way to engage with the memorials. The first phase of this project was completed Memorial Day weekend and included a total revamp of the interpretive kiosks and introduced wifi at the memorials. The second phase will incorporate mobile and augmented reality technologies. The National Park Service, NAMA – National Mall and Monuments Area American Battle Monuments Commission
- Both the Korean and WWII memorial had computer kiosks for several years. These kiosks served an important purpose by allowing visitors to look up the names of people involved in the war efforts and see their information show up on the screen. Our team was began working with ABMC on these old kiosks fixing problems. However, there were several things not quite right: Management Reliability Usability Security
- While the ability to search the databases from the kiosks was meaningful and useful, ABMC and NPS knew they wanted to provide something more. A way to meet visitors needs as well as empower staff to manage the kiosks securely. These kiosks were underutilized and well, not very attractive. To pull in visitors and inform and engage them, rich imagery and a modern design was needed. The entire system needed to be secure limited access outside the firewall. Non-English speakers needed to be served, and the applications had to be accessible not just according to 508 but to NPS specific ADA standards. Kiosks needed to be monitored and managed remotely and the system had to interface with ABMC’s existing databases of the war dead and register of remembrance. Above all there needed to be an extensible platform – to add content, integrate with new data sources, AND to serve content to other systems, mobile devices and apps. The system should be reusable to deploy across the national mall at other monuments and memorials.
- Multilingual Drupal + Onsite Secure Wifi Network + SiteKiosk + Cloud Management Each kiosk (4 at WWII and 2 at Korea) consists of a browser and “digital signage”. The browser hosts a fully accessible kiosk app, and the signage is managed by NPS and ABMC staff – used to draw attention and make announcements about things like honor flights. A Drupal based resusable solution that will be extended and deployed across the mall ???
- I’m going to walk through some of the key screens on these kiosk sites now. There will be a mix of WWII and Korean War Veterans Memorial.
- This is the WWII kiosk homescreen.
- This is the Korean War Veterans kiosk homescreen. You can see that it’s the same layout, but different content and imagery. We’re leveraging Drupal’s profile/distribution capabilities here to promote maximum reuse.
- This is the People Finder – submitting a search looks through several data sources from the Army and ABMC. Aggegated into a single database schema Not just people – but details we use, like the cemtary they are buried in. Sql server hosts the data Mysql still the drupal backend
- This is a people finder result. Highlight the background image is dynamic depening on where they were buried
- This is an example of content – highlighting special facts and people in the war efforts. For WWII we have sections on the Tusgeekee airman, the Code Talkers, Women in the war effort, and Kilroy. For Korea we have sections on women, the homefront, operation little switch, and the DMZ.
- This is an example memorial facts page – it’s information slides about the memorial. Totally accessible.
- We had a tight schedule, and some challenges…. Getting buy in, involving everyone, strong product owner commitment, vendor management
- Our keys to success – a great product owner, worked very closely with our team throughout multiple agile iterations…
- Section 508 is 13 years old. In order to “check the box”, we could have short cut the effort. Instead we had one of our accessibility professionals ensure these apps were truly accessible in the real world. The kiosks are web based, running on Windows 8 touch screen devices. In addition to accessibility considerations for Drupal, Design in general, we had to ensure the OS level accessiblity features worked correctly. For example, the narrator. Also, the NPS recommendations. Discuss specifics. For example, using color to convey location is a no no.
- An integral part of our solution is a secure, cloud hosted remote management solution that provides the ability to reboot kiosks, manage logs, alert and monitor in real time, and manage content through a secure network connection.