Encouraging museum visitor engagement using spontaneous talk-in-interaction audio guides

We describe the building and testing of a museum audio tour with content recorded as spontaneous interactive dialogue between two curators as they walked around an art gallery. The aim was to produce a guide which would increase the amount of topically relevant talk shared by people visiting a museum in groups of two or more. Conversation analysis is used to show how a pair of visitors engaged more with the content of the guide than they would have with audio produced as traditional scripted monologue. Examples of a variety of engagement types are detailed and a supporting rationale drawing on Goffman's theory of 'footing' is discussed. The approach potentially offers a low cost way for organisations involved in informal learning to produce flexible in-house audio content for mobile and e-learning, which improves visitor engagement both with the content and with one another, and leads to a more enjoyable visitor/learner experience than traditional forms of audio

Evocative computing – creating meaningful lasting experiences in connecting with the past

We present an approach – evocative computing – that demonstrates how ‘at hand’ technologies can be ‘picked up’ and used by people to create meaningful and lasting experiences, through connecting and interacting with the past. The approach is instantiated here through a suite of interactive technologies configured for an indoor-outdoor setting that enables groups to explore, discover and research the history and background of a public cemetery. We report on a two-part study where different groups visited the cemetery and interacted with the digital tools and resources. During their activities serendipitous uses of the technology led to connections being made between personal memo-ries and ongoing activities. Furthermore, these experiences were found to be long-lasting; a follow-up study, one year later, showed them to be highly memorable, and in some cases leading participants to take up new directions in their work. We discuss the value of evocative computing for enriching user experiences and engagement with heritage practices

The imperial war museum’s social interpretation project

This report represents the output from research undertaken by University of Salford and MTM London as part of the joint Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture, operated by Nesta, Arts Council England and the AHRC. University of Salford and MTM London received funding from the programme to act as researchers on the Social Interpretation (SI) project, which was led by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and their technical partners, The Centre for Digital Humanities, University College London, Knowledge Integration, and Gooii. The project was carried out between October 2011 and October 2012

Proceedings of the International Workshop “Re-Thinking Technology in Museums: towards a new understanding of people’s experience in museums"

Proceedings of the International Workshop “Re-Thinking Technology in Museums: towards a new understanding of people’s experience in museums

ENGAGING THE VISITOR WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE ARMS AND ARMOR COLLECTION

The Worcester Art Museum is seeking to incorporate the Higgins Armory collection into its galleries and simultaneously increase visitor engagement by implementing technologies appropriate to the exhibit and target audience. In addition to developing an iPad implementation, our project provided recommendations for accomplishing this in the Meyer Idea Lab and the Medieval Gallery. To accomplish our goal, we visited museums with interactive exhibit designs, interviewed museum staff, observed visitors, and surveyed visitor responses to the available media. Our project culminated with a promotional video on arms and armor, the informational iPad implementation, analysis of visitor survey data, and recommendations for future exhibits at the Worcester Art Museum

Designing Museums for Participation, Collaboration and Social Interaction

This thesis documents the design and development of novel interactive experiences that explored concepts aimed to enhance the visitor experience to Cork Butter Museum, Cork, Ireland. The context to the work is that in recent years, museums and cultural institutions are increasingly motivated to apply creative strategies to engage visitors who come for recreational, social and sometimes educative purposes. Novel museum exhibits designed to cater for such needs often involves the integration of new media technologies in response to rising expectations visitors have with regards to being actively engaged during their visit. This often requires a higher level of participation than reading text or looking at artefacts from a controlled distance. Researchers have explored transforming the visitor experience through a wide range of projects in the fields of embodied interaction and experience design, which might be regarded as emerging subfields of research practice in HCI. Recent approaches to the design of public exhibition spaces have often made use of widely available input/output sensing technologies which support alternative strategies for the creation of novel interfaces and delivery of dynamic content. In light of such developments, the aim of this work was to explore the design of engaging experiences that would facilitate participation, collaboration and social interaction in a museum through the creation of technologically augmented artefacts. From the outset, a principle of the research was to ensure that any interventions were sensitive to and respected the natural aesthetic of the museum environment. Aims and objectives that were suitable for the research were first identified through design research, out of which a set of design principles that were specific to the museum emerged.Authentic artefacts which were suitable for the creation of novel experiences were identified and transformed over the course of an iterative design and development cycle. They were then brought into the museum for a case study, and their effects were analysed and discussed. The process, methods, and findings that were uncovered over the course of the research will be described in the thesis

Interactive Multimedia Design In Museum Gallery

The rapid development of digital technologies has made digital media widely available to everyone. Some museum galleries in Malaysia, such as the National Museum, have made use of interactive multimedia, which provides interaction between the users and the items being displayed. Regardless of the presence and accessibility of interactive multimedia, few studies have indicated that research on museum visitors in Malaysia, especially museums with interactive multimedia display, are still lacking. In this research, an interactive multimedia is proposed to enhance visitors’ experience by using design elements and design principles. With the usage of the Norman’s Emotional Design Model as the conceptual theory, the study was conducted to gain insights of interactive multimedia usage and visitors’ perceptions and preferences. The outcome of this study will provide designers and developers the option of considering work closely in order to deliver the best interface design for interactive multimedia. This research will also benefit the museums in Malaysia as it is able to provide an insight into the awareness of interactive multimedia and touch screens usage for more engaging experience. It also encourages visitors to educate and entertain themselves with interactive and multi-sensory contents. Overall, the results provide directions for curatorial and design criteria issues for interactive multimedia in informal learning institution such as galleries in museums. The results of the research provided suggestion for the use of Norman’s Emotional Design Model, design elements and design principles when developing interactive multimedia in order to enhance user experience in museum galler

Storytelling in Art Museums

Storytelling, in the context of art museums, is a method of communicating the qualities and attributes of art through a story. It helps the visitor bring the work of art to life and understand something the eye cannot see, a compelling narrative. It is important for visitors to discuss art and share stories on tours and through virtual media. We learn and form our own meanings from stories. These interactions will help build more relationships within communities. It is the museum’s job to take visitors on a journey and introduce them to new objects and perspectives. This thesis addresses what storytelling is and how it is being used in museums today. It studies the essential components that lead to successful storytelling campaigns, including online initiatives. This thesis also describes how museums illustrate their mission through storytelling by showing how they bring communities together. This thesis examines the leading institutions in storytelling today: the Delaware Art Museum, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, the Asian Art Museum, and the Monmouth Museum. These institutions are highlighted to show the current developments of storytelling

Presence in the Past: An Examination of the Use of Technology in History Museums to Adapt to the Modern Museumgoer

Museums have been changing rapidly in the past few decades, shifting from focusing on the collections to the interactive experience gained by the visitor through their museum experience. Technology has been used as one tool to facilitate this change, but it is varied and continuously changing. Because of the relatively new use of technology by history museums and its constantly changing nature, research such as this study is needed on technological applications in historical interpretation. This analysis is based on interviews with a variety of museum professionals, an extensive literature review, and examples from museums. This research shows that technology has been used by museums before the museum experience to attract and prepare visitors, during the museum experience in exhibits and as guides, and after the museum experience as a means to maintain contact. This use of technology has brought numerous benefits in helping allow for an interactive, visitor-focused museum offering a personalized experience, however there are potential drawbacks. These include the visitor ignoring the artifacts and not interacting socially in the museum. However, of most concern to museum professionals and historians is that their authority and expertise in historical interpretation may be diminished

Technology in Museums: New Tools for Traditional Goals

This thesis has examined the ways that museums might theoretically incorporate technology in addition to current technologies employed in museums. Analysis has been done on the ways that technology can be useful in engaging visitors who might come to museums alone, in a group, or as part school fieldtrips. The various uses of social-media are discussed, including social-media strategy recommendations for museums. Museum mobile applications are investigated and features for such applications have been analyzed for how they might benefit both museums and visitorsMaster of ArtsArts AdministrationUniversity of Michigan-Flinthttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145732/1/Bellinger2018.pdfDescription of Bellinger2018.pdf : Thesi