The Interface Experience at Bard Graduate Center
The Interface Experience examined the evolution of the interface in personal computing over the last forty years. We designed a website that also serves as a mobile companion for the show. The Interface Experience: 40 Years of Personal Computing was organized by Kimon Keramidas at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in 2015.
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Courtesy Bard Graduate Center; photographer Bruce White.
The welcome screen lands a user in a random position in a grid of exhibition objects, encouraging an exploration of the edges of the page in all directions.
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Welcome message and homepage
Devices in the exhibition can be sorted by a number of numbers: year made, units sold, lifespan, & cost.
Visitors to the exhibition were prompted to join the gallery’s wi-fi network; once connected to the internet via that IP address, a keypad icon appears in the top navigation. The keypad functionality mimics a traditional audio guide interface, allowing users to input a “stop number” from the wall label to pull up additional information and media associated with a given piece in the show.
Anecdotal connections drawn between objects in the show give a sense of the interconnectedness of companies, technologies, and people involved in the evolution of personal computing.
The most significant thing about personal computers is that they are personal. Site users can submit their own personal recollections of a given object in the exhibition. These comments — the good and the bad — are collected and displayed on the site.
