Promising Beginning? Evaluating Museum Mobile Phone Apps

Economou, M. and Meintani, E. (2011) Promising Beginning? Evaluating Museum Mobile Phone Apps. Rethinking Technology in Museums 2011: Emerging experiences, University of Limerick, Ireland, 26-27 May 2011.

Abstract

Since 2009 museums have started introducing mobile apps in their range of interpretative media and visitor services. As mobile technology continues to develop and permeate all aspects of our life, and the capabilities of smart phones increase while they become more accessible and popular, new possibilities arise for cultural institutions to exploit these tools for communicating in new ways and promoting their exhibitions and programmes. The use of mobile apps opens up new channels of communication between the cultural institution and the user, which extent to his or her personal space and go beyond the boundaries of the museum’s walls. The paper presents a survey carried out of mobile apps designed by art or cultural historical museums and analyses the wider issues which are raised by the findings. It discusses, among others, the kind of use these apps were designed to fulfil (e.g. the majority are guided tours to the permanent collections or to temporary exhibitions), the layering of content,and the type of user interaction and involvement they support.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Economou, Professor Maria
• Authors: Economou, M., and Meintani, E.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Information Studies
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2011 The Authors
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the authors