Video interviews, archive film clips, audio recordings and slide shows are all
accessible via touch activated tabs on the 'virtual museum' console. This
podium is situated in the 'KTC Street', the main entrance to the hospital, a
wide walkway covered with an opaque, high domed roof structure, and with its many windows, some leading to garden courtyards, there is plenty of natural light. The street has an open but calming atmosphere, and along with the café area, is an ideal place to relax and reflect, a place where people can revisit the past in a bright modern space.

Whilst designing the King's Mill Hospital Heritage Murals the team recorded many audio and video interviews. Historical film footage was also kept in the hospitals archives.

We designed the appearance of the touchscreens to work with the murals we had previously completed. Information is split into comparable colour coded sections, carefully worded for ease of use. The interactive format is similar to a web site, but instead of a mouse information can be accessed by just lightly 'touching' the screen and therefore is very user-friendly. The touchscreen is ready for use throughout the day but when not activated a screensaver of moving images plays, carefully timed to encourage people to 'touch one of the coloured tabs to begin the heritage trail'.

Each section leads through to a set of buttons that when touched brings up the history in the format of written text and either a slideshow, an audio slideshow with descriptive voiceover, a video, or a mixture of all three. These oral memories of the past engage the public in a dynamic way which adds a different slant to the murals on the opposite side of the KTC 'street'. This is an enjoyable and dramatic medium, which is designed to engage all ages and help them to understand the history of the hospital.

Feedback

"The idea for the units came out of my desire, and that of our enthusiastic History Project Committee, to do justice to the vast amount of material that the public has sent in to us. Much of the material has been in the form of very personal memories that benefit from the extra dimensions of sound and video clips. The committee have been delighted to capture this material and let the patients and visitors in hospital have an opportunity to learn more about the personal stories that form part of the fascinating history of the King's Mill site.

When access to this material is extended via web access we expect to see great interest from the many nationalities that have played a part in the King's Mill story. The really exciting part will be that we can go on adding to this story and recording it for future generations."

Brian Meakin, Former Chairman