Presentation slides from Museums Australia 2012 conference by Nicolaas Earnshaw from the Powerhouse Museum (PHM), Sydney Australia. Looks at PHM visitor engagement in relation to three PHM mobile products.
8. 3. love lace
✤ Mobile Web + App
✤ Measurement
✤ Data driven decisions
Notas do Editor
Hi, I’m Nicolaas, Senior Online Producer with the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. \n
In this lighting talk we’re going to talk about PHM visitor engagement in relation to three of our mobile products. In the process we’ll tease out some factors that have influenced success (or failure) of these types of mobile products.\n
Our 3 products will be, firstly the PHMs online collection designed for mobile web, secondly our mobile walking tours application for iOS / Android devices and thirdly the Love Lace exhibition mobile web and application.\n\nBut before we proceed..\n
... not all engagement is good. Running into a barb wire fence... engaging but not really a desirable outcome. Work out your definition of positive visitor engagement before proceeding with any experience.\nSecondly, not all visitors are digital/mobile visitors. Recognise that we are engaging and analysing a subset of your visitor community.\n\n
What is it?\nTalking our collection out the basement and into the hands of visitors.\n\nThings that influence success and failure here are:\n* Developed as a mobile web. Why? Has larger device reach and lower barrier to entry (from a visitors perspective there is larger investment required to download / install app). Easier to just load a mobile friendly site on your phone. This allows for quicker turn around from in-gallery interest to exploration.\n* We recognised that mobile is a ‘unique’ platform thus don’t just make a version of your site that fits on a mobile screen... because a user on mobile might be on the bus, in your gallery etc so needs/context are vastly different from a desktop user. Build any mobile web presence knowing these unique traits!\n* Current redesign of our mobile collection (responsive design patters and risks with that)\n* This product is very old and it shows, in someways it a smaller version of a larger record. This is no longer acceptable.\n
What is it? \nCurated stories using objects from the basement in places when they are relevant.\n\nThings that influence success and failure here are:\n* We didn’t develop this product ourselves. SAS is great if product is well documented and defined, plus it comes with a friendly and easy to use method for non-technical staff to produce content on. The mytours product fitted these requirements.\n* BUT with SAS you have limited control over the products development roadmap. Example; It took a while before our tours became available on Android devices... PHM has a somewhat agnostic view to mobile platforms so this matters to us. The company did eventually release a version for android and they are VERY responsive to our product suggestions. But be careful, not all companies are as responsive.\n* Going native (building apps for devices) I my opinion can only be justified when there is a significant requirement to use of the phones native hardware (Compass, GPS etc). Apps still place more emphasis on the visitor demonstrating commit to the experience, so make sure the experience you offer is worth it. We see in the figures that the walking tours are worth it.\n* Movement of native hardware to browser level functions (GPS etc)\n* The long term stickiness of the application is directly related to the new/novel content or experiences... so have a content strategy to ensure continuous production of content. Never think you can build an app and walk away.\n
What is it? \nDigital companion / catalogue to the Love Lace exhibition. Ability to scan objects of interest to find out more (text,arts bio, video interviews etc)\n\nThings that influence success and failure here are:\n* Building for both mobile web and app has helped us maximise visitor reach\n* Building it in-house with our own development has given us more control and ability to influence product development roadmap, which leads to\n
* The ability to make data driven decisions. It’s easy to collect data, more important to act on it. Love lace tracks scans of objects and movements in the gallery space... so\n* We improved our mobile app and web versions based on the mobile web and app usage\n* We improved the in gallery experience. The joys of side effect of tracking is understanding and improving movement in the gallery space.\n