bringing sites to life with ibeacons

Leicester Castle Beacon App

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Leicester Castle Tells its Story

Giasemi VavoulaUniversity of Leicester

gv18@le.ac.uk

Bringing Sites to Life with iBeacon-based mobile interpretation

Leicester Castle

A problem to solve: limited interpretation and resources

A technology to explore:BLE beacons

BLE beacons – what you need

• BLE beacons• Content / beacon

management system

• Beacon app• BLE device to run

the app

An opportunity:Digital R&D Fund for the Arts

• Leicester Castle Tells its Story was funded by a grant from the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts (Nesta, Arts & Humanities Research Council and the National Lottery through Arts Council England)

• The award was to develop BLE beacon-based heritage interpretation for a historic building

• Project partners– Leicester City Council (Arts and Museums Service) (Project Lead, Arts Partner)– School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester (Academic Partner)– Locly (Technical Partner)– Metro-Boulot-Dodo (Creative Content Partner)

Starting point

What can BLE beacons do for an empty, listed Castle that opens its doors to the public once a month, with historical interpretation provided only by sessional staff and printed information sheets?

(and for dozens other historic buildings and venues in similar situations?)

Outline

• Part I: What we built• Part II: How we built it• Part III: Why we built it (that way)• Part IV: What we found out (research findings)• Part V: What we learned (experiential findings)

Part I: What we built

The Beacon app

The Green Bicycle Murder Trail

The Court Audio Trail

The Family Trail

Interactive guidebooks

Part II: How we built it

R&D ProcessSt

age

1Visitor researchPotential visitor researchVisitor ObservationLiterature ReviewContent Research / Generation

Stag

e 2App version 1

Visitor evaluationApp version 2Visitor evaluationUsability testing

Stag

e 3Final app

Summative visitor evaluation

Requirements

locly

• “an easy-to-use, self-service platform for creating professional and engaging proximity iBeacon experiences for mobile users”

• National Slate Museum, pilot in Apr 2014; community generated beacon tour Sep 2014

• Apps for iOS and Android, no app development costs*

• Support for range of content & interactivity• Beacon management and content management• Ongoing development, improvement oriented

locly platform: how it works

Beacons

Content

Tour

Site Project

Place 1

Card 1: text

Beacon 1

Card 2: widget

Beacon 2

Place 2

Card 3: audio

(locly terminology)(project terminology)

locly platform: how it works

Metro-boulot-dodo

• “create innovative cross artform work and we have produced an impressive catalogue of arts projects including installations, performances, interactive tours, visual art and new media, large scale spectacle and loads of site specific heritage work”

• Castle histories translated to stories:– High Court in Great Hall -> Green Bicycle Murder trial

audio performance; Oral histories with court staff/workers– Castle as home to Kings and other VIPs: historian

researcher game experience

Leicester Castle toursGreen Bicycle Court Audio Family Trail Historical

TimelineArchitecture Trail

Beacon range Point of interest in room

Point of interest in room

Point of interest in room

Whole room Whole room

Guidance level & approach

Prescriptive; audio instructions

Free roam; audio instructions

Prescriptive; text/graphic instructions

Free roam; no instructions

Free roam; no instructions

Interpretation approach

Emotive audio-based dramatisation

Oral histories Treasure hunt, content (text and graphics) rewards

Timeline-based content (text and graphics)

Unstructured list of architectural features, content in text / graphics / audio

Appeals to Visitors in groups

Group of adults

Families with children

Families with children

Group of adults

Part III: Why we built it that way

Visitor Research & Evaluation• Stage 1

– 70 visitor questionnaires

– 70 potential visitor questionnaires

– 130 visitors observed in courtrooms

• Stage 2– 60 visitor

questionnaires– 3 Heuristic

evaluations• Stage 3

– 113 visitor pre-post visit questionnaires; app logs

• Development & Evaluation Framework: putting visitors at the centre– Impact on visitors’ perceptions of

• Learning• Enjoyment• Environment

– Information– Activities– Learning opportunities

– Impact on visitors’ use & engagement with space• Length of stay• Pattern of stops at points of interest

Visitor Research & Evaluation

Front-end evaluation

App version 1

Formative evaluation

App version 2

Formative evaluation

Final app

Summative evaluation

Part IV: What we found out (research findings)

Visitor perceptions of learning

“How much did you learn about the

Castle during your visit?”

z-Test App usersNon-users

Mean 4.02 3.21

Known Variance 1.22 1.14

Observations 113 70

z 4.88

P(Z<=z) two-tail 1.05E-06

z Critical two-tail 1.96

Visitor perceptions of enjoyment

“Overall, how enjoyable was your visit to the Castle?”

z-Test App usersNon-users

Mean 4.44 3.94

Known Variance 0.85 1.03

Observations 113 70

z 3.35

P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.000807

z Critical two-tail 1.96

Visitor perceptions of environment

“How would you rate your experience of:

available information; available activities;

learning opportunities?”

Visitor length of stayDeclared time of start and time of end of visit

All 3 tours that utilised beacons at physical point of interest scored better than tours that didn’t

Interactive guides (unordered list or timeline-based) scored worse than other interpretation approaches

All tours were considered at least ‘OK’ by all visitors

Beacon vs non-beacon tours

Beacon vs non-beacon tours

What we’re learning from: visit motives

Part IV: What we learned (experiential findings)

Generating Content for Beacons

• Walking interviews (Evans & Jones, 2011)• Situated oral histories• Story building blocks

Mapping visitor movement

Clerk desk (2)

Judge seat (1)

Dock (7)

Jury box (5)

Witness box (3)Public seats (at

back) (4)

Barristers (6)

Pre-app

Built-in Content Evaluation

• Does this piece of audio work here?• Is this combination of image and text

acceptable?• Is this video too long, too short, or just right?

Conclusion• Beacon-based interpretation beneficial for learning and

enjoyment, and increases positive perception of the site as learning environment

• Potential of beacon logs to understand impact on visitor use of space; to inform development; to evaluate offer

• We design for learning-oriented visitors, but it is the socially-oriented visitors who are more keen app adopters

• Technology confidence not a prerequisite for effective use

• Big potential: linking with other culture/heritage offers• Big concern: user privacy

Questions?For more information contact:

Giasemi Vavoula, gv18@le.ac.uk (Academic Lead)Sally Coleman, Sally.Coleman@leicester.gov.uk (Arts Lead)Rhys Jones, rhys@locly.com (Technical Lead)

LinksLeicester Castle Tells its Story – report: http://tinyurl.com/zbmaa59 Leicester Castle Tells its Story – website: http://tinyurl.com/qfwa2ws Locly: http://locly.com/ Museum Studies: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies Metro-Boulot-Dodo: http://www.metro-boulot-dodo.com/