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Independent reviews of tours and mobile programs
...of cultural sites, cities, monuments and places of natural beauty, wherever they may be found.Can you recommend a tour or mobile interpretation program?
Help us build a comprehensive guide to audio, cellphone, multimedia, mobile web and app-based tours at museums and cultural sites around the world by adding it to this index - and post a review below if you can!If you are a museum or other cultural site, you may create a page to describe your project in the Projects section of the wiki.
If you are a vendor, please add information about your Products & Services in that section of the site.Text messaging with a Holocaust survivor @ the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Posted by LoicT on | May 4, 2012 | No Comments
How do you grab the interest of teens and keep them engaged in a museum exhibit, especially when the topic is complex and difficult? That’s what I wanted to learn as I had the chance to catch up with David Klevan and JoAnna Wasserman from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM).
Our conversation focused on their new text-based mobile tool designed to increase teen engagement in a special exhibition: The State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda. The exhibition reveals how the Nazi Party used modern techniques as well as new technologies and carefully crafted messages to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany, showcasing the pivotal role of propaganda in the Nazi effort to achieve and consolidate power and how it ultimately was taken to radical extremes during the second World War and the Holocaust.
The USHMM gets 500,000 students visitors annually and most of the visits take place between March and June. During this “busy season,” the exhibition experiences heavy crowds by visitors who are frequently rushing from museum to museum on the Mall, impeding the quality of their engagement.
The Museum’s challenge was to find a way to extend teen’s visit time and focus them on the key points of the Propaganda exhibition. They were looking for a mobile solution that met the following criteria:
• Self-guided
• Takes place inside the museum
• Technologically agnostic
• Filters exhibit content /does not add more
• Is as authentic as possible and believable
• Engages and interacts with the teen audience
The solution: A self-guided, text-based dialog with a living Holocaust survivor. Not an easy combination of features to pack into a mobile tool. And they needed to find a survivor who would be happy to host the experience (the easy part!).
As visitors enter the special exhibit area, there is a text panel prompting them to make a call from their cell phone. They hear a message from their guide, Margit Meissner, introducing herself and the exhibition. The text-based dialog is then set up between Ms. Meissner and the visitor, so the text messages, as written, are personal, informative and authentic in order to effectively engage the teenage visitors. Not easy to do!
So via short 140 character texts, the 90-year-old Holocaust survivor guides a visitor through the propaganda exhibit, probing for engaged, critical responses to her questions. Based on each response, a visitor receives another text encouraging further exploration and directing the visitor to the next stop in the exhibition.
David and JoAnna worked with their colleague, Tim Kaiser, to develop approximately 40 text messages that guide the visitor on a linear narration of the exhibition. The linear path did prove to be a bit challenging, as visitors prefer to maintain as much control of their experience as possible. Therefore, an important early change to the tour was a modification allowing the visitor to control the pace of their visit (though, they still most progress in a linear fashion). The tour content is easy to change/modify – as the team analyzes which texts prove to be the most engaging and effective in eliciting critical responses from the teen visitors. The pilot period showed that engagement in the exhibition and amount of the exhibition viewed went up after the text-based tool was implemented. Without the mobile tour, teens spend approximately ten minutes in the exhibition; with the tour, they spend more than 40 minutes on average. Bravo!
As our conversation was wrapping up, JoAnna pointed out that there are additional activities for teachers and students to use in the classroom including lesson plans and a special exhibit website. This summer, they hope to add a new Web site and mobile app to support the exhibit as it travels across the US and extends the dialog on the power and dangers of Propaganda to a much larger teen audience.
To hear David and JoAnna and other colleagues explore best practices in teen mobile, join us at the Museums and Mobile IV Online Conference on May 9th at: http://www.museums-mobile.org
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A look at the National Air and Space Museum’s Mobile Website beta.
Posted by LoicT on | April 30, 2012 | No Comments
I recently caught up with Jon Hallenberg (@jonhallenberg), Web Developer at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) ahead of his talk at the Museums & Mobile IV Online Conference. The aim was to learn a bit more about the NASM’s very first mobile website, and better understand the challenges & opportunities the team faced in approaching the design, audience choice, and the build. And of course, our conversation wondered into musings on its future.
First some basics about the project:
• The NASM mobile website allows visitors who are using web-enabled smartphones to get at basic information about the Museum, daily events, exhibits and find objects on display that have been formatted for mobile devices
• Target audience: visitors on-site at the Museum or those planning a visit
• Must have features: museum hours and location, directions, daily events and movie schedules, exhibitions, and objects on display
• There is also the objective that the site provide feedback into improvements for the main NASM websites
The Air and Space Museum has visitors year round (over 9 million annually) and they want different things from their visit. This made for a big challenge on deciding where to begin with mobile. Should they do an app, mobile site, or both? In the end, the decision was made to develop a mobile site; build it in-house in order to go fast, serve the most visitors and allow the development team to learn and make changes quickly.
The most surprising nugget in our conversation came from the answer to “how long did it take to build it” question? “We had it mostly done in a week.” Yes, you read that right, a week. Pretty amazing if you ask me! The week timeline was part need and part a challenge to the team. Jon was very happy to report they not only were they mostly done in a week, but there was another upside as well.
“It was great to watch the team just get into building the site, forgetting about work hours and diving into build something they liked,” reported Jon, with a decidedly more excited voice, “folks would log back in after they got home to fix something that was bugging them, try new things, fail, try some more things, until the it all came together.” This type of work project was not typical, and the team loved it
So where does Jon see them going in the future? For mobile web, adding features that make sense for the mobile experience, improving and expanding the collections information available, allowing user generated content and comments, and experimenting with responsive design. NASM is also pursuing different options for apps that will provide interactive tours and take advantage of the broader collections of the Smithsonian.
Visit http://mobile.nasm.si.edu to give the mobile website a try. Suggestions welcomed!
For a complete list of Smithsonian mobile apps and websites visit: http://si.edu/Connect/Mobile#SocialMedia
To hear more about the NASM mobile web site, and to hear more colleagues explore best practices in the planning, development and implementation of mobile museum projects, please join the Museums and Mobile IV Online Conference on May 9th.
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UNESCO World Heritage iPhone/iPad App: Challenges Publishers Face in the Age of Digital Convergence
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | January 22, 2011 | No Comments
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has partnered with Harper Collins and the folks at Aimer Media to develop an app which is a comprehensive pocket reference guide to the 911 World Heritage sites. Based upon a book between Collins and UNESCO, the UNESCO World Heritage app allows you to search through these sites by alphabetical index, year inscribed, country, or the classification of the site (Cultural, Natural, Mixed). The user can also add sites to a list of favorites, review a list of the last 20 sites the user has viewed, or tap “Random” allowing the app to pick a site for the user to view. When the user selects a category to search by, say sites classified as Cultural, the user can then search within this subset either alphabetically or via a search field. The strength of this app is the ease of use by which one can navigate and explore the UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Read the full review here.
Tags: Aimer Media > Harper Collins > heritage apps > iPad culture apps > iPhone culture apps > iPhone paid apps > publishers > reference apps > UNESCO > United Nations > World Heritage sites
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LACMA iPhone App v1.0: A Study in User Frustration
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | January 8, 2011 | No Comments
The current version (1.0) of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) app is as a study in creating a frustrating user experience. This app, in its current version, is not ready for prime time. Twice in exploring this app I’ve had to uninstall and reinstall the app in order to proceed. This app doesn’t crash but it does lead the user down poorly designed paths from which there is no return. No hints. No suggestions. Just a dead end. Although graphically the LACMA app is aesthetically appealing the accumulated frustration from frictions great and small in interacting with the app results in a poor user experience overall.
Read the full review here.
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NYC Must Have iPhone Art App – cultureNow: Guidbook for Museums Without Walls
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | January 4, 2011 | No Comments
If you live in New York City, have an iPhone and an appreciation for art or a curiosity about NYC history then the cultureNOW: Guidebook for the Museums Without Walls is a must have app. Even if you don’t live in NYC this is an enjoyable app to explore as a virtual visitor. For your $1.99 you get mobileaccess to a database of literally thousands of public works of art and architecture (4000+ in Manhattan alone!!). One of the real strengths of this app is the numerous ways the user can explore this vast wealth of content. If you are in the city you can search by location using the iPhone’s GPS. Planning to visit NYC or curious about a specific area then you can choose to enter an address. The user can also search the entire cultureNOW database by the name of a work of art, a building, by artist, by architect, and even projects such as Arts for Transit and Percent for Art. The cultureNOW folks have “mapped any artwork paid for a public agency or visible from a public space” and this app makes it all so conveniently accessible. In yet another way this app is user friendly the handy “Prefs” icon allows the user to set over 20 search categories as on or off. If you want to focus on only the historic buildings near a specific location this app makes it easy to do that. And the handy “Prefs” icon makes it easy to change to explore in a whole different direction when you choose.
Read the full review here.
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iPhone Art Apps for Cars, Quilts, Copyright Humain, Grünes Gewölbe, & Graphic Design
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 24, 2010 | No Comments
This week we have an eclectic mix of apps. Some you may like because you are interested in the subject and in such cases I’m sure the app developers would appreciate your support and feedback as the apps covered here are not as developed as they could be with some user feedback. Even if the particular subjects of these apps do not draw your attention if you are developing an app for your institution there are design pluses and minuses of each that are worth reviewing.
Read the full reviews here.
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10 iPhone Apps for Current Art Exhibitions (Part 2)
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 18, 2010 | No Comments
Amidst your holiday preparations and travels here are some iPhone apps for current art exhibitions in Paris, London, Zurich, and Lincoln, Massachusetts to perhaps give you a few moments of enriched time .This is the second of two post related to current art exhibition apps.
Read more here.
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10 iPhone Apps for Current Art Exhibitions (Part 1)
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 12, 2010 | No Comments
I wish everyday involved an exhibition visit or at least two or three each week. While institutions are putting more and more information about their collections and exhibitions on their websites it is the apps which for me are really making this type of content accessible. With a website I’m very often multi-tasking when viewing but with an app I’m focused on being engaged with that content. Headphones on and iPhone or iPad in hand I’m asking the app to entertain, engage, and inspire me. To take me on a journey.
Here I take a look at 10 iPhone apps for current exhibitions (divided into two posts with 5 each) to see how they compare in their approach to engaging the virtual visitor. Do these apps invite one to attend the related exhibition after viewing? And how well do these stand on their own as an experience for the virtual visitor? I start from the perspective of the virtual visitor because this visitor’s travel budget is limited but his curiosity budget is not and with these apps I can attend an exhibition anytime, anwhere. Read the full review here.
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Why Visit? 3 iPhone Apps for Historic Places
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 12, 2010 | No Comments
Let me confess up front that I have a weak spot for apps that focus on local historic areas. These are like someone inviting you into their home. This is where they live and work. There’s an element of pride based upon a true appreciation for a place that shines through the best of these apps. Even if it’s unlikely you’ll be able to make the physical journey to everyone one of these, the best historic places apps create a soft spot in your heart that you don’t forget by taking you on a mental journey. Read the full review here.
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Follow A Culture Trail App
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 12, 2010 | No Comments
Guide books for culture trails have aided travelers for ages and now we’re seeing these become available as apps for smartphones. This certainly makes the traveler’s load a bit lighter during the journey but are these apps good at inspiring traveler’s to make the journey in the first place? Do they give the user a reason to follow the culture trail? To get excited about the various stops along the trail? To want to return to portions of the trail missed on a first or second visit? Or are they reference tools for when the traveler is in the midst of the journey providing logistical information in a convenient easy to navigate format? I would suggest that the best culture trail apps will inspire the journey, prove useful during the journey, and of course these days, allow the traveler to share real-time bits of their experience on the trail with not only their social network of friends but also leave tips for future travelers on the trail. Read a review of two culture trail apps here.
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