I know that everyone looks to what other museums are doing and want to jump on the bandwagon but there are many things to consider before doing something that another museum does especially when it involves technology and museums like Smithsonian.
First: what is the size of your museum compared to the museum that you are looking at (visitors, tech budget, staff). (In this case the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum)
Second: "Custom" App development can get very expensive very quickly along with troubleshooting, bug fixes, and updates. Also, development time can take about 8 to 12 months maybe more. Note there is "Off-The-Shelf" software that is cheaper and easier to use but may not have features you want/need and these types of services have monthly fees so if nobody is using it then you are wasting money.
Third: Staff, do you have the staff resources to dedicate to this project as well as the additional funding needed to produce additional content (organizing content, video, audio, photography, and copy). As well as someone to oversee the project?
Forth: Do you have the staff to maintain and update the content, can the app auto-update or does it have to go through the developer for an update (additional cost).
Fifth: If all of the above is possible, then it comes down to "will a visitor download the App" from what I find is that it's very hard to get visitors to do this. With smartphone cameras having the ability to take better and better photos which results in larger and larger files storage is now at a premium. And yes, they might install the App and remove it but most may not go through the process unless there is real value to the app.
You need to know your own visitors not the visitors from other museums, for example, you might get responses from people at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhatten NYC which may not represent how visitors would use Apps in your museum. These numbers are a good guide but it will never tell you about your visitors. I would recommend doing your own survey but as we found most will say they will download an App but in the end few really do.
From our experience, I found that it also has to do with how you promote the app. You really need to push the app and have signs throughout the museum and to have staff inform visitors about the app. Even have the guards suggest to visitors to download the app and point to a sign that tells how to do this.
I would suggest starting off with a Web App. This is a website that visitors can go to which could function in almost the same way as a mobile App. These types of sites can be built for a fraction of the cost. Some museums have web developers on staff (like me) and you can build it using WordPress which would make it a lot easier to update. This would also give you a good idea on how much content you need and how little resources you have to produce good content. You can use Google Analytics to see what kind of usage you are getting and if you get high usage you may then consider building an app. I would also suggest a simple URL nvmmtour.org, don't use numbers or dashes as this would require some users to switch to symbols on the smartphone keyboard.
I don't want to be the
"Pin in the Balloon of fun" I love to see new tech and new ways to reach visitors but it's hard to match a budget like the Smithsonian.
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Raymond Stivala
Manager of Web/Multimedia Development
The Newark Museum
Newark NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-19-2018 10:49 AM
From: Samir Bitar
Subject: Mobile App usage in your museum
Hi,
The Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum recently launched a new mobile instant art guide called Hi. The guide's Pick up rate in the first three weeks is hovering around 3%. we'd like to contextualize this. Can you share what your museum's pick up rate is for mobile apps and/or audio guides? thanks!!
p.s. we've reached out to Pew for any current research they are working on. I'll sub-post to this thread if and when I get that.
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Samir Bitar
Director
National Veterans Memorial & Museum
Columbus OH
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