On my first walk through the Visitors Center (VC), I saw a huge touchtable that held a lot of potential. I wanted our exhibit to have an interactive element to it, which would draw attention to the equipment used on the Newport Hydrographic Line (NH Line) and the variety of species found at the stations. After many discussions with the VC, we were given the greenlight to repurpose the touchtable for our exhibit. The touchtable was not only the last portion of the exhibit to be completed, but it was also the most challenging.
In the brainstorming process, we discussed all kinds of platforms that would be able to create an interactive NH Line. The goal was simple: a VC patron would be able to click on a station on the NH Line map and read about what is sampled. Despite having no website design experience, we ultimately decided that in order to maximize the success of our goals, we’d have to create our own website. With no website design experience, I was apprehensive about starting this process. Luckily, the website designing platform we chose was super user-friendly with a small learning curve.
These past few weeks, I have been working on the website builder to make the NH Line map into an interactive website that can be displayed on the touchtable. It’s been fun learning the ins and outs of what goes into making a website. Even though I’m not doing anything as complicated as coding, there was still a learning curve to overcome. The website will be featured on the touchtable at the Hatfield Marine Science Center VC in just a few weeks!
