Technology in Service of the Audience

If you look around at discussions of technology in museums, you will often hear some variation on the concept that technology should be used only in the service of the content: that it should only be used if if will complement or further the message in some way.

As much as I agree with this concept, I would like to propose another concept that goes hand in hand: technology should be used in service of the audience. With an ever growing array of new technologies to choose from, not all technologies are right for every audience, and what is right for your audience today, may end up obsolete tomorrow. By keeping your audience in mind anytime you consider developing a new technology initiative, you are more likely to succeed in communicating your content.

Several years ago, I was asked to develop a new technology initiative for the museum I was then working at, a small local history museum. I proposed a cell phone-based audio tour, and after a bit of research, began a pilot program. I signed up for a free trial with a company that handled the technical end, wrote and recorded a couple of stops based on a handful of the museum's artifacts, and placed signage around the museum in time for a large anniversary event. The feedback from the staff and volunteers was good, but after the event, I checked the analytics, and discovered that not a single visitor had called in for any of the stops. 

Thinking back, I've asked myself many times why the cell phone tour failed to attract any attention from the visitors that weekend. My conclusion is that I failed to keep the audience in mind when I chose to develop a cell phone audio tour. Most of the visitors to this particular museum are local residents. The history of the town is their history. A better use of technology might have taken that into consideration, and offered visitors a chance to share their own stories instead of providing information that they may have already known. 

When developing programs using new technology, it is important to keep in mind that not every initiative can be a success, just as not every technology will appeal to every visitor. It is important to approach new initiatives with a sense of experimentation, a willingness to fail, and to deconstruct what worked, what didn't, and how it could be done better next time.

Going Mobile Part 2: Using QR Codes Effectively

If you've read Part One of this series, you've asked yourself if you should be using QR codes, and I'm guessing if you're still here, you answered "yes" or at least, "...maybe?"

In this post, we're going to look at a couple of examples of museums that have used QR codes highly effectively, overcoming some of the barriers to entry mentioned previously: not knowing what a QR code is and what to do with it, having to download a QR reader to a smartphone or other mobile device, and motivation to do so.

A couple of examples of museum QR code projects that are successfully overcoming these barriers are the Brooklyn Museum and The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz.

The Brooklyn Museum is well known for its use of technology to drive its community-centered mission. Shelley Bernstein, the museum's Chief of Technology, describes in a blog post the museum's many different uses of QR codes. Key take-aways from this blog post include an emphasis on ensuring accessibility, which they do by providing the same information via kiosks for people without smartphones, providing introductions and explanations for the QR codes in various forms, and the importance of experimentation and testing with new technology initiatives.

Meanwhile, Nina Simone of the Museum 2.0 blog, and Executive Director of The Museum of Art & History, focused on another significant barrier for audiences: why would a visitor want to scan a QR code in the first place? When adding QR codes to a special exhibition at MAH, they found a simple solution. By using a brief line of introductory text at each QR code, such as, "Scan the QR code to see the inside of this cabinet (1 min slideshow)." they introduce the concept of QR codes, as well as entice audiences with a description of what the QR code leads to.

Have you seen any other examples of effective QR codes in museums (or elsewhere)?

Going Mobile Part 1: Should Your Museum Be Using QR Codes?

(Hint: Are your visitors?) 

From the QR Designs exhibit at Artisphere.

Barely a day goes by that I don't see at least one QR code, if not five. From pizza boxes to the pages of magazines to ads on the subway and even in television commercials, those square barcodes (the QR stands for "quick response") are everywhere. On the content producer's end, they are a quick and easy way to link to information--most commonly, a webpage, Facebook page, or online video--requiring nothing more than cheap or even free software and a print product with a little bit of real estate. For that reason they've become ubiquitous, particularly in advertising.

Museums are starting to get into the mix as well, and more and more, I'm seeing QR codes on labels or other museum displays. But are they effective? The downside of QR codes is that the barrier to entrance for the end-user is comparatively high. In order to take advantage of a QR code, the visitor has to a) know what it is, b) have a smartphone, c) download or install a QR reader on said smartphone, and most importantly, d) be motivated to do so.

This series of posts is going to tackle two issues. In this first part, who among your visitors are using QR codes… and who aren't?

A comScore study published in August 2011 concluded that 14 million Americans scanned QR codes during the month of June. This population tended to be younger, with 53% between the ages of 18 and 34, largely male (60.5%), and comparatively wealthy, with over 36% having an annual household income of $100K or greater. (Though I highly recommend checking out the entire study if you have any interest in using QR codes at all.)

Looking at these numbers, it is clear that if your audience fits this demographic, QR codes have the potential to be a very useful tool in your toolbox. Other metrics might also be useful in determining if your audience is likely to be familiar with QR codes: if you have analytics tools (such as VisiStat or Google Analytics) for your website, how much of your website traffic from mobile browsers? If you go into the galleries, do you see people in front of your displays with their smartphones in hand?  Depending on your answers to these questions, you may find that your audience is already comfortable using QR codes.

But what about everyone else? Are the rest of us doomed to be left out of the QR craze? Not necessarily. Although 14 million is a large number, it is only a small portion of total smartphone users in the U.S., which was up to 78.5 million in June (as seen in another comScore study) and steadily growing. There is a much higher number of visitors who have the technology available to them to use QR codes, but are not for one reason or another. (See Part Two of this series for more on that.)

But in all these statistics and numbers, one thing that hasn't yet been mentioned are those who do not have access to a smartphone. It's easy to get caught up in the "ooh shiny" excitement of any new technology, but it is important to remember that the technology is just the vehicle for delivery of the message. This is doubly important when relying on visitor-provided technology to access the content. Museums have long tried to refute the perception that they are only for the upper-class, the rich, and educated.... even though smartphones are becoming more common, an over-reliance on smartphone technology to deliver content could lead those who don't have smartphones to feel excluded and unwelcome.

When considering accessibility, often the solution is to provide alternate or additional means of communicating the message. For example, in the case of QR codes, one high-tech solution is to also provide video screens or displays that can access the material linked to in the QR code--a simpler, lower-tech solution is to provide take-away materials with the QR coded links so that someone could access that information on their own time.

In part two of this series, we are going to explore this question further by looking at some approaches that can help your audience (whether they are QR savvy or not) get past some of the barriers to using QR codes that I mentioned earlier in this post. In the meantime, though, I urge you to consider your audience before jumping on any new technology bandwagon--is the technology going to help, or hinder, your message?