Technology brings new appeal to museum experiences
Museums are spaces with an important mission: in a very real sense, they are where we come to understand the big picture of history, culture and human development – and our own place in it.
The behaviour and expectations of consumers have changed dramatically in our digital era, and institutions cannot remain aloof: their long-term sustainability depends on attracting a new generation of visitors. Many are therefore looking to join the digital era to create experiences that are more engaging, intuitive and appealing to a wider audience.
Now let’s explore the potential of tech to transform and enhance the customers’ experience of the institutions.
From passive to engaging
Digital technology can give visitors the means to not only view but interact with exhibits – to learn about them in an active and personal way.
For example, the renovation of China’s Li Shizhen Memorial Museum gave its exhibits of traditional Chinese medicine some needed youth appeal with tech like 4D cinematic experience and interactive wall displays. On its grand reopening, the upgraded museum attracted 60,000 visitors.
So how can museums go further to engage? The fact is visitors have come to expect exhibits to have digital and interactive screens. One next step is to actually involve the people in the exhibits.
The Australian Museum is using technology to involve the public in the actual creation of exhibits through crowdsourced data collection. In partnership with IBM iX Sydney, the museum launched a five-year citizen science project called FrogID which enables people to take an active role in conservation. Participants can make audio recordings of frogs’ unique croaks and upload them to an online database via a specially designed app, helping scientists to count and map their populations. The crowdsourced data is also available on the project website, where the public can explore comprehensive profiles and discover all kinds of frog facts.
Personalised and intuitive
At the National Comedy Center in New York, visitors answer questions about personalities, TV shows, films and web content they found funny to create a unique ‘humour profile’ within three minutes of their arrival. Each visitor then receives a ‘laugh band’ – an RFID bracelet containing their data – to wear during their stay. Some exhibits read the laugh bands and react in different ways, adapting their content to the funny bone of the wearer.
This represents an exciting phase where we can go beyond studying data for visitor flow, and identifying popular exhibits, to reacting to visitor data in real-time.
Reaching a wider audience
As more and more of our time is spent online, museums that reach out to us right where we are will be the ones that capture our attention. Even venerable institutions like the British Museum and the Louvre offer extensive virtual tours online, creating a huge audience and wide awareness of their major and popular exhibits.
Taking this a step further, the New York Public Library launched a ‘digital time travel service’ for its historical maps collection. It allows users to explore maps ‘then and now’ in an experience akin to Google Maps. The same data has also been made publicly available on GitHub, where those interested in working with the Library on the project can contribute their knowledge.
This is a great example of an institution not compromising on the integrity and consistency of its archives, while looking to the future of how we learn and interact with information.
The future of the past
Technology has already transformed many of the institutions we know and care about, whether through interactive displays or intuitive experiences or both. As high-end technologies like artificial intelligence and biometric recognition continue to push the boundaries of how we engage, the future for museums is an exciting one.
