Interactive Installation CMS
Signage CMS
A content-management system for building interactive installations that staff assemble and change themselves, with no code, in a visual editor. Already live running a museum exhibition.
- 12
- kinds of content block
- 0
- code to build a display
- 0
- internet required
The problem
Interactive displays are usually custom-built for each setup and then frozen. Staff cannot change a caption or a photo without calling a developer. The site often has no internet, and if the power blinks the screens fall out of step with each other.
What I did
I built a system the staff run themselves: they assemble each screen by dragging blocks, the displays stay in step with one another, and it all runs offline with no internet. Staff need no developer to run it. The first real deployment is a museum exhibition.
Engineering decisions
- 01
Staff run it day to day
Staff add content and work with ready-made block types themselves, with no developer needed for everyday changes. New block types can be ordered through support.
- 02
Displays react in sync
A visitor taps one display and the others react instantly, in step. The system watches every screen on-site and can restart or find any of them remotely, so staff are not running around with a keyboard.
- 03
Works with no internet
It all runs offline on the site's own computer, so it keeps working with no network, yet it still pulls live touches like the weather or a shared spreadsheet when there is one.
- 04
Survives a power cut
If a display loses power and reboots, it comes back to exactly what it was showing on its own, so nobody has to re-sync it by hand.
Screens
Outcome
A white-label system that runs synced interactive displays, touch tables, projectors, info-screens, and lets staff build and change them with no code. It is already live in a museum running the "Siege of Leningrad" exhibition, and it all runs offline on the site's own computer.
Built with
- Vue 3
- Node.js / Express
- Socket.IO
- PostgreSQL 15
- Electron
- Docker Compose