nancy proctor handheld basics

Handheld Basics:

From Audiotours to iPhones

Tate Modern, 5 September 2008

Nancy Proctor, Smithsonian American Art Museum

ProctorN@si.edu

Top 10 Tips for a successful mobile solution

(…and a few more)

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

0. Invitation to the Digital Feast

Beth Lipman, Bancketje (Banquet) 2003

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

1. It’s not about the technology

• Focus on user experience and content

• Design for your audience’s needs

• Design for your museum’s needs

• Use the simplest technology solution available that will meet those needs

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

2. It is about the story

Speak to your visitors’:

• Heads: Answer questions, give insights

• Hearts: Create an emotion, atmosphere, time or place

• Hands: Inspire a response - create, contribute, sign up, come back

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

3. Think about voice

Who is the most interesting person to your audience to guide them?

Some common crowd-pleasers:

• Artists

• Experts

• Other visitors

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

4. Think about context

• Private device / public context

• Multi-tasking and the museum shuffle

• Ergonomics of your space

• What other resources can support the tour? Signage, marketing, web, staff…

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

4a. About that context…

• Can we build content that works both in front of the exhibits and off-site?

Soundtracks & soundbites…

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

5. Think globally…

• WWW = Whatever, Wherever, Whenever

• So the museum needs cross-platform content rights

• Design for the distributed museum

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Museum

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Museums

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Distributed Museum

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

6. But act locally

• Mobile is different

• Different mobile platforms support different kinds of experiences– Choose the platform that meets the need– Develop content for the kind of experience

that platform supports– Work within the technology’s abilities today

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

7. Know content vs. technology

Some common confusions:

• Do they love the device or the content?

• Screen as eyetrap

• Do tactile devices make visitors touch the exhibits?

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

8. Move to web standards

• Combine best practice from mobile

(audiotours provide the largest database)

• With web-standard interfaces to content: familiar, tried & tested, simple to use, direct

• Avoid content & features that are platform- or device-specific

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

9. Turn visitors into teachers

Why should our visitors’ Web 2.0 lives stop at the museum’s threshold?

• Voting to learn

• Aide-mémoires

• Souvenirs

• UGC

• Sharing

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

10. Build for humans

• Research the needs of both the audiences you have…

• And the audiences you want

• Take tours, try mobile solutions everywhere

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

Bonus slide for vendors

What we really, really want:• To own our content • Best practice• Training• The cross-platform CMS• Applications• HW if it supports web-standard content & comes with

a guaranteed upgrade path• A better business model• A partner

Nancy Proctor, 5 September 2008ProctorN@si.edu

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

Usque ad Astra!

Photo by Mike Lee, 2007; from SAAM Flickr Group