developing the portsmouth historic dockyard app
DESCRIPTION
Presented at the Museums Association conference in Cardiff, October 2014.TRANSCRIPT
SURFACE IMPRESSION
Developing the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard app
with
PORTSMOUTH HISTORIC DOCKYARD
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
• Many attractions contained within the dockyard• Lots of opportunity for historical interpretation in the
dockyard itself
The concept
• To produce a resource that allows visitors to get more out of their visit, not just one or two attractions
• To avoid problems with previous interpretation/guides• Interpretation boards clutter up the space• Audio “wands” have a tendency to disappear• Printed material goes out of date
• Solution: create a smartphone app that visitors can download to their own devices
About Surface Impression
• Specialists in digital media for museums & heritage• Founded in 2001• Very experienced in
• Web development and interactives• Online collections• Social media / engagement• Mobile and in-gallery implementation
• Used to working with HLF, Arts Council and other funding bodies
The plan
• Lead with “tours” rather than attractions• Different tour topics or audience groups• To be free and available on Apple and Android• People to follow geo-located points of interest• Use internet mapping (Google / Apple) to
show the points• But also have a strong narrative thread that
could be followed
Early designs
Content
• Nick pulled together the content from a variety of sources to create a coherent narrative
• Content is entered into a content management system so the app can be updated at any time, without needing a new submission to the app store
Locations
• Measuring location accurately can be tricky• We’ve tended to use photography – either on GPS
enabled cameras or ordinary smartphones• But if you use your own phone, it can be inaccurate• Inaccuracies also creep in from human error
– Where you’re standing to take a photo is the recorded location– But it’s easy to think the thing you photographed is being
located• Some points have had to be adjusted using online maps
Field tests
• Once the app was coded up and largely functional, we held a testing session at the Dockyard
• Representatives from the organisation and the attractions attended
• They tried out the tours and assessed the content
• We also did a “secret shopper” test with two children
What we found
• The overall concept and narrative approach was well received
• Inevitably some details needed to be changed
• The news feed / calendar was not translating well from website to app
• The Google/Apple maps for the Dockyard didn’t make sense
• Location-based unlocking of content was too crude
Solution 1: selfies instead of unlocking
• Instead of tying achievements in the kids tour to “unlocking” locations, we encouraged them to take photographs of themselves at the spot instead
• They can then show their “album” of found places to get small rewards
Solution 2: a drawn map
• Instead of using online maps, we adapted a diagramatic map that Portsmouth Historic Dockyard had commissioned for print
• But we had to modify it heavily, repositioning the elements so that they accurately represented latitude and longitude
What’s next
• Imminent launch on Apple App store followed by Google Play
• Tweak content over the winter, ready for push in spring 2015
• Market the app to visitors – opportunities:– Signage in queue areas– On tickets, brochures, ads– Social media, website etc– Optimisation on App store and Google Play
Contact
Peter PavementSurface [email protected]@peterpavement01273 958600
Nick HewittNational Museum of the Royal [email protected]@NickHewitt402392 724391