visitor experiences with a mobile in-gallery game
DESCRIPTION
Presentation at Western Museums Association conference on October 11, 2013 in Salt Lake City Utah on a panel titled "Family Time in Museums: Online or Unplugged?"TRANSCRIPT
An In-Gallery Mobile Game at the J. Paul Getty Museum
Susan EdwardsJ. Paul Getty Trust
[email protected]@jolifanta
Don’t build a mobile app
just for the sake of it
Mantra
How many of you have heard this?
“We need an app!”
How many of you have heard this?
“We need an app!”
Have Goals
Meet the needs of your visitors
Is technology the right tool?
GettyGames
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Have Goals
Meet the needs of your visitors
Is technology the right tool?
Educational Objective:
Encourage families to have fun
looking at art together
in the galleries
Paper edition
The Goals
• Provide visit planning for families• Un-facilitated • Gameplay = 20-25 minutes
The tool chosen Mobile web(Pilot project)
Benefitsof Mobile Technology
• Easily updated and edited• No printing costs (but development cost)• Any visitor with a smart phone can play• Provides interactivity
Challenges of Mobile Technology
• Visitors don’t look at the exhibition• Visitors don’t know the app exists• Visitors don’t use it because it doesn’t work
for them
Opposing Fears
Visitors will ignore the exhibition
Visitors won’t play the game
Balance the experience of the game with the experience of visiting the museum.
Balance
Common Problemswith in-gallery mobile
• Visitors get lost• Visitors get frustrated• High rate of early drop-off• Visitors are head-down in their phones• We make it too complicated• We don’t provide added value• We don’t test and iterate enough
Don’t make any assumptions!
Test everything!
Lessons for Success
Images: J. Paul Getty Museum
Build looking into the app
Understand your audience
Make it relevant to the museum experience
Give visitors ownership
Balance
“It was just what I was looking for – something to increase my son’s focus on the artworks during the
museum visit.”
Parent to child:
“Do you see something else next to the teapot?”
“My brother usually hates our regular museum visits.
This time, I saw him engaged for the first time.”
The Experience
• High number of players finish the game• Close looking observed in evaluation• Gives families a place to start in the
museum• Empowers parents to start conversation
about the art• Young players feel ownership of the
museum and the artworks
Don’t build a mobile app
just for the sake of it
Mantra
Mantra
Understand your audience
