Creating a Virtual Tour Design Guide for Museums

This project, completed with the Centre for Accessible Environments (CAE), involved the creation of a guidebook that assists museums in the United Kingdom in creating a virtual tour, to enhance their accessibility and the educational experiences they provide. Through on-site research and interviews with professionals of museum access and virtual tour design, we developed a low cost process for small museums with limited resources. This project assists CAE in their mission to enhance accessibility through the use of inclusive design

User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time

Bletchley Park text: using mobile and semantic web technologies to support the post-visit use of online museum resources

A number of technologies have been developed to support the museum visitor, with the aim of making their visit more educationally rewarding and/or entertaining. Examples include PDA-based personalized tour guides and virtual reality representations of cultural objects or scenes. Rather than supporting the actual visit, we decided to employ technology to support the post-visitor, that is, encourage follow-up activities among recent visitors to a museum. This allowed us to use the technology in a way that would not detract from the existing curated experience and allow the museum to provide access to additional heritage resources that cannot be presented during the physical visit. Within our application, called Bletchley Park Text, visitors express their interests by sending text (SMS) messages containing suggested keywords using their own mobile phone. The semantic description of the archive of resources is then used to retrieve and organize a collection of content into a personalized web site for use when they get home. Organization of the collection occurs both bottom-up from the semantic description of each item in the collection, and also top-down according to a formal representation of the overall museum story. In designing the interface we aimed to support exploration across the content archive rather than just the search and retrieval of specific resources. The service was developed for the Bletchley Park museum and has since been launched for use by all visitors

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning using Augmented and Virtual Reality in Museum Education

Recent advancements in the cost, availability, and capability of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices and software are spurring their mass distribution to the public. This fundamental shift in the use of AR and VR predominantly from military and academic research laboratories to the public presents new opportunities and challenges for the design of instructional technology. While studies of AR and VR have been conducted to inform the design of individual instructional products, few studies have focused on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) products in which AR and VR learners work together toward shared learning goals. The museum education industry possesses unique and inherent characteristics that position it as a strong candidate for the development and deployment of CSCL-ARVR products. Tourism locations, such as museums, provide an exemplary environment for advanced learning technology experimentation in which information technology infrastructure and programs of instruction are often already in place and in which many tourists already possess smartphones and or tablets that may be used to mediate location-based educational experiences. The goal was to conduct formative research to develop a tentative instructional design theory that can be used to guide the creation of CSCL-ARVR instructional products. Instructional design theory and software engineering practices were applied to guide the design of a CSCL-ARVR instructional product prototype to support museum education. The prototype, named Co-Tour, was designed and developed to enable remotely-located VR participants to collaborate with AR participants located within a tourism location to jointly navigate the location, examine exhibits and answer questions about exhibits related to a problem-based learning instance. Formative data were collected and analyzed, and the results were used to develop a tentative instructional design theory. Mixed Reality Museum Co-Visit Theory is proposed to inform the design and development of CSCL-ARVR co-visitation experiences for museums. A theoretical framework was developed and was informed by CSCL, game-based learning, social constructivist theory, flow theory, and the construct of camaraderie. Five values supporting the goal were elaborated to guide theory methods production including fostering of collaboration, leveraging of informal learning activities, incorporation of motivational elements, favoring of loose organization, and provision an effective user interface. Future research should focus upon replication towards validation and generalizability of results and upon the broader museum going population

LearnPads for Schools

The Postal Museum of London purchased a set of tablets intended to support engagement during primary school group visits. Our teams goal was to identify how The Postal Museum might deploy these tablets to improve the effectiveness and consistency of the in-gallery experience. We identified industry benchmarks by conducting observations and interviews at museums offering digital programs for schools. Next, we assessed the needs of our target audience through interviews and focus groups. Based on our findings, we created and tested a functional alpha prototype outlining activities for use in The Postal Museum gallery. In addition to the prototype we delivered a set of recommendations detailing how to implement and maintain the tablets most effectively

Optical Heritage Museum: An Interactive Touch

Optical Heritage Museum (OHM) was established in 1983 with the aim to preserve, promote and display historical artifacts of the optics industry and educate all of its vital role optics has played in societal development. Over the years, the museum has grown in its physical space along with exhibit development to engage audiences in innovative, effective methods. Clark University’s School of Professional Studies department and curator of Optical Heritage Museum, Mr. Whitney’s Whitney, have establish a collaboration that has spanned over two semesters with the goal to support and aid in improving OHM. Our capstone group was assigned the task of improving marketing strategies for OHM, which altered its focus on developing strategies and knowledge on improving the museum’s interactivity amongst its exhibits

Evaluating Interactive Exhibits at the Postal Museum and Mail Rail

The London Project Center Postal Museum teams mission was to evaluate interactive exhibits at the Postal Museum and Mail Rail and furnish improving strategies to the Museum. The team achieved this goal through four primary objectives: identifying current and best practices at similar museums, soliciting Postal Museum staffs knowledge of the exhibits, assessing visitor experiences with the interactive exhibits, and conducting in-depth evaluations of selected exhibits. For project deliverables, the team compiled the ratings of each exhibit in four main categories: attraction, placement, engagement, and learning. On top of that, the team presented a set of long and short-term recommendations for existing exhibits, new interactive ideas, and the museum as a whole

Innovative Exhibit Interpretation Using Mobile Applications

London\u27s Science Museum sought innovative ways to interpret important artifacts, such as James Watt\u27s workshop, which contains many objects far removed in time and experience from modern visitors. To assess the suitability of new interpretive tools, this project surveyed a wide range of potential technologies, and then carefully assessed in two stages a prototype iPod Touch Multimedia Guide. The result is a promising new interpretative tool that allows visitors to explore a wide range of objects within multiple interpretative dimensions