Museums are experiencing great benefits by leveraging technology to enhance their visitors’ experience. This trend has evolved from simple audio tours to immersive mobile app experiences and engaging touch screen displays. No matter what the technological application is, Museums experience a lift in visits and engagement when they leverage consumer-accepted technology.
The use of digital and mobile technology is growing more and more popular amongst the world’s most renowned museums, like the Smithsonian. Mobile technology allows museums to deliver a more immersive experience by providing visitors with more context through self-guided and self-driven tours, and additional historical information about the piece delivered via text, audio or video on mobile devices.
Some museums like the Cleveland Art Museum have installed large-format touch screens that display images of exhibit pieces and which allow users to learn more about exhibits in an interactive way. Others have developed apps that can be used on mobile tablets (whether brought to the museum by visitors or issued to visitors by the museum) that serve as a personal tour guide to visitors.
Museums are also creating augmented reality experiences that are delivered on tablets. The Royal Ontario Museum leverages the cameras on iPads to allow visitors to see what dinosaur skeletons may have looked like with skin as they scan the iPad across skeletal casts.
Drive Engagement With Tablet-Based Customer Facing Devices
If you’re looking for a low cost, but highly effective way to bring technology into museums and drive increased engagement with visitors, you should consider Customer Facing Devices. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney Australia has found that by using mobile tablets instead of LCD and plasma screens for audio/visual displays they can drive closer engagement between visitors and content.
Here are some simple ways you can leverage tablet-based Customer Facing Devices:
1.) Learning Kiosks – Odds are that you’ve got a write up on your website about important exhibits with links to additional articles and information. With a kiosk app, like MokiTouch, you can turn a standard mobile tablet into a kiosk by locking it down to that specific web content. Your visitors can now browse a preset group of articles about the exhibit to learn more.
2.) Self Guided Tours – You can lock down mobile tablets to play specific audio or media files on the command of the visitor. As visitors move through your museum and come to specific exhibits, provide them access to audio and video to learn more.
3.) Digital Signage – You can create a more engaging experience by replacing traditional printed signage with digital screens and tablets as signage. Digital Signage also gives you more flexibility in updating signage while keeping costs lower than that of replacing printed signage.
