As any adult with children under age 10 can tell you, museums are great for getting you out of the house, stimulating your child’s mind, and (hopefully) tiring them out enough to get a good night’s sleep. As a father of a 5- and 3-year-old I will also tell you that you don’t do a lot of actual reading at the Museum.
Just last weekend my wife and I took the kids to the Museum of Natural History in New York. If you have never been, it is a huge museum with a ton to see. Even though we looked at hundreds of displays, we probably only read the placards of a handful. Kids look quickly then they run up to the next thing in an instant. You are lucky to be looking at any one display for more than a minute.
The day after our trip to the Museum I downloaded their Explorer iPhone app and have been using it to connect with the kids and remind them about the great trip we just went on. I’m also using it to teach them (and myself) a little more about all the cool displays we saw.
Explorer is nicely designed and easy to navigate, and beyond geotargeting the user’s location for maps and tours inside the museum, it is not terribly complex. The museum is just providing the information that is already on each of the displays.
The app offers a list of exhibits, self-guided tours, and locations for food, shops, restrooms, and exits. Each section has beautiful photography and descriptions like the ones you would see right on the museum displays. The whole piece has a clean, modern design that makes it easy to read a decent amount of information.
The Explorer app would have definitely come in handy while at the museum. I could have used the map with location targeting a few times (quick directions to restrooms and places to get food are a must with young kids). A self-guided tour would have been really cool too, but the old school paper map got us around okay. I am glad I got to fully enjoy the onsite experience with my wife and kids, but I’ll be sure to try out the app on our next visit.
Museum visitors have a big appetite for easy-to-use mobile apps these days. In addition to guiding their experience at your museum, apps can give your patrons reasons to learn more after they leave and create the desire to return again. Creating mobile apps for museums is a hot topic that is inspiring webinars, Twitter chats, and programs like “Mobile App Development” at the Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo in May.
The task of creating an app can be daunting, but just remember that the app itself doesn’t have to be overly involved. Provide information that your museum already offers in an organized, well-designed manner and your visitors are sure to enjoy your app long after they leave. You might also consider giving users the option to receive alerts when new content or exhibits become available to help inspire repeat visits. Ready to create a mobile app for your museum? Drop us a line!