What kind of mobile content is most engaging for museum visitors? And what impact does it have? There is surprisingly little research data on this question. This is a presentation that looks into both of these questions and provides principles for designing audioguide content that really works for visitors. Conference paper available here: http://mw2014.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/listening-to-visitors-research-findings-on-mobile-content/
Android Application Components with Implementation & Examples
Listening to Visitors - Research Findings on Mobile Content
1. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGWCreated for: Presented by: Date issued:
Museums and the Web 2014 Lindsey Green + Laura Mann 3rd
April 2014
2. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Listening to Visitors:
Research Findings on
Mobile Content
3. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
http://www.reasonsmysoniscrying.com/
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40 hours of content
Some designed some not designed
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Value of the guide
to the visitor experience?
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1.Do audioguides work?
2.What are the design
principles that makes great
content for visitors?
17. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Methodology
1.Recruitment before visit
2.Representative styles of
content
3.Structured notes in front of
the works
4.Follow up interview
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1.Do audioguides work?
2.What are the design
principles that makes great
content for visitors?
19. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
It tells you
things you don't
see at first
sight
Impact: Visitors Report Overwhelmingly Positive Effects
On Their Experience
I know what
to look for
now
I stayed much
longer than
expected and
discovered new
works
Q. Based on your experience today, has the Audio Guide led you to...
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Queen Charlotte was not overall
favourite but the way it pointed to
detail made you follow in a way you
wouldn’t normally and you might
notice that kind of detail next
time.
Gives me confidence that
what I see isn’t that
far off and I feel ok
about what I appreciate.
Would help me go
and look at
others.
Applied
knowledge
Increase skills
Increase looking
Increase confidence
Conversations tended to
bring in something from
the 'outside': that
'extra' makes you stay
and look longer.
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Visitors enjoy listening to audio
in front of objects
Biggest experience today
was surprise at how good
it was. Really felt I
learned something.
(I have just finished an
art history degree!)
Even when they
really don’t
expect it
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Some content design principles
from the visitors
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Principle #1
Information is important
but meaning is more important
https://flic.kr/p/4TnCFZ
27. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Liked the fact that Higgins was
giving another angle on
Constable. That was interesting.
Was happy not to hear lots of
facts - interesting insight
was enough.
Assumption is that guides are
'basic knowledge' for people who
don't have a background in art'.
So this experience was a nice
surprise. It drew attention to
new details.
Helps you as a lay person
see it through expert eyes
and they pick out what they
think is important.
Principle #1
Information is important
but meaning is more important
28. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Principle #2
Choose a style
of content that
matches your
resources and
skills
https://flic.kr/p/cqrgTu
29. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Principle #2
Choose a style of content that
matches your resources and skills
All the
contextual/curatorial
information can produce
overload. There are other
ways in the gallery that
that can be delivered.
Learning Director was
very interesting. Sounds
like they are very
knowledgeable and relaxed
in how they deliver it.
30. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Principle #3
Respect that this is an intimate
personal experience
31. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Couple of narrators
were very old fashioned -
more formal tones make you
switch off
Totally held by the
commentary. Disagreed with
the interpretation and that
was a bit distracting, but
great story - hideous person!
Relish in the voice and
passion of narrator really
came through
Annoyed that Alison Watts
wasn't introduced properly
- understanding who she was
would have completely
changed my appreciation.
Principle #3
Respect that this is an intimate
personal experience
32. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Principle #4
Make the time in
front of the object count
33. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
A little background
is fine but it
shouldn't dominate.
A lot was rather old fashioned -
too detailed description that
doesn't add value. I can see it
anyway - prefer story or something
that adds to the experience rather
than describe.
Prefer punchy short.
All the
contextual/curatorial
information can produce
overload. There are other
ways in the gallery that
that can be delivered.
Principle #4
Make the time in
front of the object count
34. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Principle #5
Connect the experience
with the space
35. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Frustrated by details
pointed out by restorer
that weren't visible.
Need reassurance that
you're listening to the
right thing
Principle #5
Connect the experience
with the space
36. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Audioguide Content
Design Principles
1.Information is important but meaning is
more important
2.Choose a style of content that matches
your resources and skills
3.Respect that this is an intimate personal
experience
4.Make the time in front of the object
count
5.Connect the experience with the space
37. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
hard working content
= valuable content
= big impact on engagement and
understanding
To answer this…
38. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
hard working content
= valuable content
= low cost + large audience
But more
importantly this
39. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
I want to go at my own pace
Compromise on Principle #3
Make time in front of the object count
Barrier to
use
Solution
Experience
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Barrier to
use
Solution
Experience
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I don’t have my headphones with me
Reduction in amount of looking
Barrier to
use
Solution
Experience
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Would you like an
audioguide?
We have an iPod
Touch tour!
Download the app!
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Be surprised by
what you can see
Let us take you on
a journey around
our collection so
you don’t miss a
thing!
Feel what it’s
like to be inside
the paintings
44. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
Our Take Aways
•Use audioguides for what they
deliver well
•Focus on delivering meaning over
information
•Understand what makes your content
valuable to the experience of the
visitor
•Start mobile and stay mobile - in
how you think and produce content
45. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
e:
laura@franklygreenwebb.com
lindsey@franklygreenweeb.com
t:
@FranklyGW
@lhmann
@lindseygreen
Images thanks to Flickr Commons:
The hidden treasures of the Worlds
Public Archives
http://www.flickr.com/commons
46. Frankly, Green + Webb t: @lindsey_green @lhmann @franklyGW
If you’re wanting help
thinking more about this and
the other opportunities and
challenges around digital
interpretation – get in
touch.
Our work is a mixture of:
•Design research for helping
understand how audiences use
digital technologies in the
cultural heritage sector
•Strategic planning and
concept development - for
funding applications such as
heritage lottery funding
•Implementation i.e getting in
up to our elbows in order to
help these types of projects
get up and running. Find out more at:
http://www.franklygreenwebb.com
Editor's Notes
We work with organisations to help them to design and improve their digital services. We particularly specialise in mobile for the cultural sector.
First a confession – this session isn’t about mobile – it’s about audioguides
We used to talk about audioguides but we’ve kind of rebranded this to ‘mobile’ now.
Because let’s be honest audioguides have a bit of a reputation.
When I started this presentation I thought that audioguides were like a problem child
A bit of a pain, difficult to manage and a reputation for being expensive.
Our partner who was meant to be speaking to you today, Alyson thinks their an embarrassing parent
A bit old fashioned, not as cool as they once were.
This is my dad.
This was at my wedding when after months of worrying he stood up to give the father of the bride speech
with a pair of fake eye brows on because he thought they made him look like George Clooney.
So here’s my embarrasing parent
But we’ll come back to him later.
So anyway – I’m going to be talking about audioguide content. And there’s the next thing. I have to say because when you’re talking about content you have to say this.
‘Content is King’
[Content is King]
We’ve heard this statement so many times that it no longer means anything
Content is King. Respect the content. Value the content. Make the content work hard.
[hardworking content = valuable content
Content working hard for us in the past has meant
[low cost + bigger audience = Value]
And to make it better value = reduce cost and increase audience by distributing on multiple platforms.
For audioguides we try and reduce the cost by making the hardware and software work around it.
We deal with content by managing it, structuring it, giving more access to it, tagging it, allowing people to use it.
Because that’s easy to test, it’s tangible and we can discuss easily in concrete terms and therefore we can quantify the risk.
And here’s a provocation for you - I think Audioguide content is difficult to transfer to multiple platforms because it’s a totally unique experience – another issue for our awkward embarrassing parent.
Here’s why
Watch a film – the audience is fixed but the content moves
You can change the location, shape, size of this screen – the action will still happen, the experience will change a bit BUT not so much that the meaning will lost.
Slide 7
With audioguides, the experience is created by putting the viewer in the scene and moving them through it. It’s an incredibly unique experience and not easily transferrable because that content should be and has to be designed to work intimately within the physical space.
And I would suggest that’s what makes them unique but that's also what makes them tricky to put across multiple platforms without seriously compromising or degrading the experience
So under these terms – audioguides not only come with a shed load of irritating issues but they are also difficult to deliver value.
[low cost + bigger audience = Value]
But what about looking at value in a different way?
[Value = having a big impact on how our visitors engage with our collections and understand the world]
It can be so amorphous, so difficult to discuss and so subjective to measure this – but if it audioguides can deliver on this then surely there is value.
Back in 2012/13, we started working with the National Gallery, London.
Charlotte Sexton, the then head of digital and responsible for the guide wanted to understand how their audioguide service was delivering and whether or not they needed to refresh some of the 40 hours of content.
Which let’s be honest, refreshing 40 hours of content sounds like giving it a quick rub with a face cloth but is a mammoth task and an expensive one too.
So a bit of back story most of the content was produced back in the mids 90s.
It was produced as part of a tech driven project –
the intorudctoin of a random access CD ROM player that was said to be able to hold almost unlimited content!
so a ton of content was produced super quick, using crap narrators, at low cost, without any interpretation strategy. no testing in gallery
There was also new content where an editorial team had actually sat and thought about what they wanted the experience to be in front of the different works.
We wondered if the visitor could spot the difference.
Charlotte wanted to understand the value of the guide to the visitor experience,
but also she wanted to be able to articulate internally to get those who needed to be involved, engaged and interested.
Any money spent went in the areas where it was going to deliver.
We did a large piece of quantitative work evaluating the whole service
– marketing, distribution, users, non-users perception.
We interviewed the internal staff to map the user journey to understand the key moments where the visitors interacted with the gallery (the touch points)
We also set about evaluating the existing content,
but knew that Charlotte would need to make new content and
so we wanted to know any underlying principles so that she knew it would work for the visitors.
We thought there was an opportunity to understand if audioguides work, but more importantly understand what are the principles for making content work?)
[Do audioguides work? What are the principles for making content work?]
We had to recruit people before they visited, mainly because we were hijacking an hour of their day. We then gave them a list of paintings and an audioguide and asked them to note down their thoughts in the moment. Finally, we interviewed them about their overall experience.
Researching content is hard and there were some definite flaws in this methodology but it’s given our first glimpse into answering these questions.
We had to recruit people before they visited, mainly because we were hijacking an hour of their day. We then gave them an audioguide with content chosen to represent different styles and techniques of content that were available on the audioguide.
We developed a series of structured questions to help them note down their thoughts in the moment
Finally, we interviewed them about their overall experience.
We recruited through facebook There were some definite flaws in visitors self selecting – so we had a group that were fans of the gallery. But interestingly, it meant we had a majority of people who weren’t audioguide users.
Asked users whether guide had led them to… less, the same or more
No negative impacts
Over 80% of users reported the tour as having led them to ‘enjoy their visit more’
Three quarters of participants reported that the tour had led them to learn more and discover more about art.
These indicators correlate closely with Gallery objectives for learning and engagement suggesting that the audio guide is a good ‘fit’.
We also hear from visitors how the experience of listening to audio helped them, increase their skills, their capacity to look, increase their confidence.
What was interesting was that they really valued the experience offered by the audio in front of an object – this is what the core of audioguide is
So back to my embarrassing parent – my dad didn’t embarrass me during his speech because it turned out
he was brilliant at story telling and public speaking. And as I get older I realise that he’s actually great at being many things including being a parent
Audioguides are good at being audioguides. They have a really good impact when we let them do what they are good at.
There is a good body of literature on audioguides
There is surprisingly little data on this when it comes to content
The overall insight was that the visitors appreciated quality.
the visitors nailed it when they talked about the content
they could spot the rubbish stuff
they could see elements of the old stuff that worked and elements that really didn't and they loved the new
Now I don't for one minute think that anyone sets off to make poor quality content
Just as you know many people in your organisation have lots of different views on what is quality content.
Well guess what it turns out that visitors also have quite strong views on what was a quality experience for a mobile guide.
So these are some of the principles for great audioguide content that we identified after reviewing the research
This is not the medium for information; I can see there is something there. Help me understand
what I am looking at. Have opinions, provoke, challenge me to think.
When we think that we are delivering ‘information’ we lose the focus of what we are trying to achieve.
Choose a narrator or interviewee that can really deliver meaning through their voice. They need to be able to deliver a performance that brings the content to life else the meaning is lost
Visitors don’t have a preference for a particular style
They liked interviews
They liked archival,
They liked debate and conversation
And they liked narration
But whatever the style when the production is done badly – that narrator is phoning it in, the interview edits are forced, then the production becomes a distraction and they’re not able to focus on the content
introduce the person speaking. Why should I listen to you?
Address my needs by addressing my questions first
Choose a voice that matches your organisations voice
Visitors link perception of time to how engaging and entertaining the content was.
Entertaining content was too short, boring content was too long.
So it turns out that visitors saying something was too short is actually a complement – it doesn’t actually mean you should make more
Visitors can recognize when experience hasn’t been created mobile and created audio
There are certain small differences in how you direct someone view that change when something is in front of you
Your processes should reflect audio and mobile – so draft content in audio first, draft it inside the gallery if you can.
We’re a consultancy working with cultural heritage organisations wanting to develop digital interpretation – specialising in mobile.