Design principles for creating mobile experiences in museums

Frankly, Green + WebbCreated for: Presented by: Date issued:All In Hand: Mobile Technology + Museums Alyson Webb November 2013

Frankly, Green + Webb

We work with cultural organisations to help them design, evolve and improve their digital services.


We specialise in mobile.


After the Gold Rush


Share some of our design principles, our processes and the evidence behind them.


Service Design Principles


1. Design a service not a product


Contentdesign

Experiencedesign

Servicedesign

• Operations

• Processes

• People

• Marketing

• Communication

• Infrastructure

• Software

• Hardware

• Information

• Help

• UX


How Likely are Visitors to Use the Free Wifi Service?


In the main, visitors’ concerns about using their smartphones in the museum centred on practical concerns about cost and battery life

1 in 5 visitors had no concerns at all about using their smartphones


2. Design the service around specific audience motivations


Who Uses the Audio Guide?



3. Market the benefits not the technology


Communicating The Benefits Of The Service To Non-Users

Non-Users have few negative perceptions of the guide… They have little perception of the guide at all


This is the audioguide hand out location.

Less than half of the visitors take the free audioguide


4. Decide what you would like to see and make that happen


“(we) liked when the story referred to things in the museum and asked you to

find them.”

“probably would have walked past Fire of London picture

otherwise.”


5. Develop services that improve, extend or piggy-back on natural

visitor behaviours


Q. What activities did you engage in using your smartphone, that enhanced your gallery or cultural visit?


6. Do something small and do it well.



7. Physical context and mobile experience has to work together


“…the saxon roundhouse where we sat and watched the videos and then

thought about what made our house a home and what differences the were

between ours and theirs”

“there was somewhere quiet to read - like the house”


Process


1. Start small

2. Start mobile

1. Set the expectation of iteration

2. Work cross-departmentally

1. Show evidence of how your visitors are using mobile in the gallery already

2. Agree on a set of principles

3. Be clear and honest about what mobile does well and what it does badly

4. Make use of what is already out there.

5. Map the whole visitor journey

9 tips on process


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w: www.franklygreenwebb.com

Images thanks to Flickr Commons:

The hidden treasures of the Worlds Public Archives

http://www.flickr.com/commons

Created for: Presented by: Date issued:All In Hand: Mobile Technology + Museums Alyson Webb November 2013