Last time we talked about this project [Museum Learning Blog Post], we were in the process of organizing the observational data collected from the Oregon Hatfield Marine Science Center on museum visitors interacting with touch-enabled exhibits on the touch table and touch wall. At this point, we have identified all visitor groups that we have audio interviews, video footage, demographic data, and observation notes for, as well as some groups that we have only some of the above for. The next step in the research project is to develop and apply a qualitative coding scheme to the various data-sets based on our research questions. We hope to uncover some interesting findings to help us design better touch-enabled science museum exhibits!

I am an undergraduate student at the University of Florida studying Computer Science. Now that the data aggregation process is coming to an end, I will be able to develop analysis skills to apply to the information; in particular, I am learning the techniques used in qualitatively coding interviews, and beginning to think more critically about specific gestures and actions users perform and their significance.