National Trust – Lytes Cary Manor Kiosk & Tablet 360 Virtual Tours

The National Trust operate over 500 heritage properties throughout the UK, with some welcoming over 700,000 visitors each year. With accessibility now an important part of many organisations strategies, we were approached to design and build an accessible kiosk style virtual tour to be run at Lytes Cary Manor in Somerset. The virtual tour, placed onto kiosk tablets within the ground floor entrance hall, is ideal for those unable to navigate the tight hallways and steep stairways of the property.

Shot over a period of one day, this was one of our most challenging tours visually due to the low lighting, extensive shadows cast by the tripod and complex floor edits. We encourage you to view the Lobby, a room that had no lighting and on the day and was in virtual darkness to the naked eye! Long exposure times and the layering of many differently exposed images resulted in a scene that shows the detail of the wallpaper, something the staff at the property were keen to convey.

The virtual tour interface has been designed specifically for a kiosk style tablet; large menus, easy to see buttons and large intro texts create a tour that can be used by visitors of all capabilities.  Added information points highlight areas of interest, acting as a virtual guide throughout the manor.

We’ve added a customised version of the tour below so you can get a taster of what was created. Best viewed on larger screens, we’ve also included a thumbnail navigation menu for those of our visitors viewing on a phone or smaller sized tablet.