museumsandtheweb.com - interpretation

ArtClix Mobile App at the High Museum of Art

NicoleCromartie — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 03:29:34 +0000

MW2012

Nicole Cromartie, High Museum of Art, USA

Abstract

Program Item Reference:

ArtClix Mobile App at the High Museum of Art

Rules of Play: Design Elements of Addictive Online Learning Games

davidschaller — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:16:45 +0000

MW2012

Keywords:

games

Keywords:

learning

Keywords:

design

Keywords:

interactivity

Keywords:

interpretation

Abstract:

Over the past decade, games have grown as both a commercial industry, as a field for scholarly research, and as a practical medium for teaching and learning. Inspired by a broad array of research emphasizing the effectiveness of problem-based, anchored instruction, developers have been creating games about subjects ranging from childhood obesity to electoral politics to personal finance. Even former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has embraced games as a way to teach civics to schoolchildren. Games have definitely come of age as tools for teaching and learning.

But we still need to understand how to make learning games fun. For that, we must learn about game design. Given the breadth and depth of this topic, this workshop focuses on a handful of game mechanics that help us move from the kinds of "game-like" interactives commonly found on museum Web sites into the realm of true games. With a firm understanding of these mechanics, we can design online games that incorporate our content and create compelling, even addicting learning experiences for our audiences.

This workshop focuses on a handful of game mechanics that help us move from the kinds of "game-like" interactives commonly found on museum Web sites into the realm of true games. With a firm understanding of these mechanics, we can design online games that incorporate our content and create compelling, even addicting learning experiences for our audiences.

Please note that this workshop will use paper prototyping methods to explore game elements and mechanics. Understanding these elements is essential to design an effective and engaging online games, so our focus will be on design principles, not on production aspects of online games.

Type:

Workshop - full or half day

Rules of Play: Design Elements of Addictive Online Learning Games

Site:

http://www.eduweb.com

Authors:

Dave Schaller

Delivering mobile from the ground-up: exploring the approach

hughw — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:29:16 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

If mobile is the answer, what was the question?

Keywords:

mobile

Keywords:

digital

Keywords:

framework

Keywords:

evaluation

Keywords:

interpretation

Keywords:

access

Abstract:

The challenges of delivering a meaningful ‘mobile’ experience for an institution are not always technology-related. Securing cross-departmental stakeholder investment and ensuring alignment with the institution’s core mission have been key for National Museums Scotland and National Museum Wales in developing a framework for their mobile programme. This paper will explain how these organisations sought to overcome organisational challenges from the outset; pushing forward ideas and taking a common approach to planning mobile projects that can be adopted by other institutions.

National Museums Scotland and National Museum Wales have many similarities in their structure and set-up. Both operate a main base out of their respective capital cities (Edinburgh and Cardiff) and have a mix of specialist rural and urban-based museums. Since 2009 the proportion of online visitors from mobile devices has increased significantly for both organisations; taking this on board alongside in-gallery research and predicted market trends, both have begun developing a programme of mobile interpretation using the same user-focused approach.

For the National Museum Wales this is about making information accessible, as well as creating a link between historic buildings and collections in a rural setting at the National History Museum at St Fagans. For National Museums Scotland it’s about bringing new interpretation and innovation to the recently-reopened National Museum of Scotland. Importantly, neither approach has focused on technology in the first instance - workshop sessions have concentrated on getting the right people to take a balanced view of audience needs and create design briefs that tie closely to each organisation’s strategic objectives.

Both projects have their specific challenges and the session will explore what led them to take certain decisions, what the outcomes have been to date, the broader implications for developing mobile products in terms of cost and impact on the museum technical infrastructure, and the lessons they feel will benefit other museums looking to develop their own plans.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Optimizing engagement

Authors:

Hugh Wallace

Dafydd James

Loic Tallon

Evaluating the Practical Applications of Eye Tracking in Museums

rjstein — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:21:54 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

Evaluating the Practical Applications of Eye Tracking in Museums

Keywords:

eye tracking

Keywords:

gaze tracking

Keywords:

visitor studies

Keywords:

interpretation

Keywords:

interactives

Keywords:

Evaluation and Research

Abstract:

Museum professionals spend a significant amount of time studying the ways that visitors engage with objects in their collections to improve the quality of interaction with them. Focus groups at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and elsewhere indicate that visitors see art museums as places for “inspiration” and “contemplation;” however, visitors are observed to spend very little time actually looking at art. Obtaining a more concrete understanding of what aspects of a visit are found to be inspiring, and how museums can actively promote and encourage those experiences remain some of the field’s biggest challenges. In thinking creatively as to how to address these problems, the authors began to explore whether recent advances in eye tracking technology might hold some answers.

Techniques for measuring gaze have been an important part of cognitive psychology since the early 1960’s. Environmental scans by Rayner (1998) summarize the scope and evolution of research linking eye tracking and cognition. Agreement in the research suggests that gaze and attention are tightly coupled (Hoffman 98) implying a direct relationship between the way we look at museum objects and our thinking about them. Research by Wooding (2002) examines the use of eye tracking systems and art from the collection of the National Gallery in London. While the data seems promising, Wooding’s work focused more on a generalized method for visualizing eye tracking data and not on specific applications of these techniques for art history or museology. Milekic (2010) published an overview of gaze tracking and its potential applications for museums, highlighting the coming advent of cheap and commercially available equipment to support the use of these tools in a museum setting.

Funded by an IMLS Sparks! Ignition grant, the Indianapolis Museum of Art is exploring whether or not eye tracking technology can be useful to museums seeking to better understand how in-gallery visitors actually “see” the objects in our collection. Through a set of three experiments, the project seeks to understand whether eye tracking can be used to measure visitor attention to artworks, understand the correlation between guided interpretation and visitor comprehension, and to trigger interpretive content delivery. In this paper, authors will review the relevant literature in the field that connects gaze detection and cognition; explain in detail the experimental methodology used to determine the practicality of adopting these techniques in museums; and report in initial conditions and factors discovered during the project’s initial research.

Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin.

Hoffman, J. E. (1998). Visual attention and eye movements. In H. Pashler (ed.), Attention (pp. 119–154). Hove, UK: Psychology Press

Wooding, D. (2002). Fixation maps: quantifying eye-movement traces. In Proceedings of the 2002 symposium on Eye tracking research & applications (ETRA '02). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 31-36.

Milekic, S., Gaze-Tracking and Museums: Current Research and Implications. In J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds). Museums and the Web 2010: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics. Published March 31, 2010. Consulted September 28, 2011. http://www.archimuse.com/mw2010/papers/milekic/mil...

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Tools for tapping into visitor behavior

Authors:

Robert Stein

Ed Bachta

Silvia Filippini Fantoni

Tiffany Leason

Educators, Curators and Docents: Creating Interpretive Resources based on Conversation

biblio — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:46 +0000

Olsen, C., Harris B., & Zucker S. (2010). Educators, Curators and Docents: Creating Interpretive Resources based on Conversation. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web.

The Virtual Endeavor Experiment: A Networked VR Application

jtrant — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 03:18:22 +0000

Johnson, J. (1997). The Virtual Endeavor Experiment: A Networked VR Application. Museum Interactive Multimedia 1997: cultural heritage systems design and interfaces. Selected Papers from ichim97.

The next generation - 'knowledge environments' and digital collections

jtrant — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:59:43 +0000

Cameron, F. (2003). The next generation - 'knowledge environments' and digital collections. (David Bearman, Trant, Jennifer, Ed.).Museums and the Web 2003: Proceedings.