This project focuses on building a self navigational guide web based application to bring a fresh take on a direction and navigation for Museum of Solutions (Muso) - upcoming museum for children in Mumbai. It facilitates fun engagement with museum, provides necessary tools for smooth interaction and experience with a variety of installations and activities all around the museum as well as alterations in application, its features and tools according to the requirements and needs of MuSo visitors.
When we go to a museum, we often rely on the information stand or a guide to convey information about artifacts to us and that is how it's communicated and conveyed. But what happens if the information is to be conveyed to someone who has short attention time span? Who would not stand and read the whole inscription to understand a piece and in MuSo case any installation? How to make kids try out and learn from installations even when no one is there to introduce it to them? Will there be a guide present everything they will visit there? And if elements from the building are made of recycled items how will this information be conveyed to visitors?
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Step 1- Site visits
The purpose of the site visit is to learn about the behavior of children, parents as well as people in general in a traditional museum space. It aims to learn more about how people and children react and interact with the space, information, artifacts and how much do they take away from the museum. The technique that will be used to collect user data will be observing and talking to users as well as user interview. This activity is also conducted to identify the need of design intervention as well as the missing gaps and threads in the existing museum system. Also, this will help me to validate how my project will be beneficial to solve the problem of the users?
- To understand better about the pain points and motivations of my primary users in the context of their experience of the museum.
- To identify why people, prefer to visit the museum?
- To talk to kids about their experience of the museum as well as observed their behavior in this site.
- To get to know what were the interest points of children in the museum and what they like about a museum?
- No one was spending more than 30 seconds reading the information of the panel.
- Signs to navigate people in the museum- unclear, wrong use of iconography.
- One of the information panel lying in the dusty corner.
- Kids were restless, tempted to touch items, trying to make videos and click pictures, fiddling with the phone, walking aimlessly with their parents with no interest in the things around them, not reading any information on the panel, not letting parents be in one place for a long time, some of them were crying and getting irritated.
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- Audio Guide available for visitors in multiple languages.
- One can go to a particular spot with a number designated for it and play that same number audio to find out information about that spot, artifacts etc.
- Kids were restless, tempted to touch items, trying to make videos and click pictures, fiddling with the phone, walking aimlessly with their parents with no interest in the things around them, not reading any information on the panel, not letting parents be in one place for a long time, some of them were crying, getting irritated and even sleeping.
- As compared to traditional museum, children were engaging more in this museum.
- As children were allowed to touch and interact with installations and screens, there was more attention, involvement and engagement of kids with them.
- Involvement and combination of different senses like sight, hearing, touch, and visual was keeping children occupied and busy as well as on their toes with engagement with installations.
- Kids preferred to straight away interact with installations instead of reading information on panels besides them and then engaging.
Step 2- Synthesizing Research Work
MuSo. A is a web based navigational guide app application designed to facilitate smooth museum visits for users. Some of the key elements focused and incorporated in the application-
• Collaboration and Learning
• How to assemble enough players for conduction of multiplayer games without the need of a third party to be there every time.
• Convey instructions/ information in a fun and interactive manner.
• Incorporation of booking tickets through the app- Because of COVID-9, no contact policy is being widely accepted and hence booking tickets online through application can be a solution for that.
• Highlight facts about the building and MuSo which can be easily missed in a visit- Eg- How MuSo building is made up e
• Application can be used by ALL museum visitors (children/ parents / teachers/ visitors)
• Immersive Audio means no need to look at the device as audio and media is triggered automatically.
• Offline content does not require internet access to operate once the app is installed.
• Multilingual allowing users to listen, watch or read content in various languages.
• Multimedia tours include audio, text, images, and video. Content can be customized further using HTML/CSS.
• Custom Maps & Pins create a unique user experience and allow for monetizing the app with an advertisement for cafes, shops, and other points of interest.
• Optional Login to collect user contact details.
• Social Media sharing, integration
• Web site links can be opened within the app as new app pages or within tours, so no need to duplicate existing web content.
• Surveys can be easily embedded using third party software to get visitor feedback.
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