idiscover - the use of games to enhance cultural heritage experiences

Universiteit Hasselt - Expertise Centrum voor Digitale Media Provinciaal Gallo-Romeins Museum – Provincie Limburg

Universiteit Hasselt - Expertise Centrum voor Digitale Media Provinciaal Gallo-Romeins Museum – Provincie Limburg

iDiscover

The Use of Games to Enhance Cultural Heritage Experiences

Jolien Schroyen

Hasselt University - Expertise Centre for Digital Media Gallo-Roman Museum – Province of Limburg

iDiscover - background

- EFRD projects:

- ARCHIE: enhance vistor experience through mobile ICT (2005 – 2008)

- RITCHIE: expertise centre and demolab iDiscover for (mobile) ICT in culture and heritage (2008 – 2012)

Mobile ICT to enhance the visitor

experience

The success of games to engage

audiences

The success of games to engage

audiences

The success of games to engage

audiences

The success of games to engage

audiences

The success of games to engage

audiences

The success of games to engage

audiences

iDiscover framework

Conceptual framework to situate the desired cultural heritage experience. Which technologies are needed to suit a specific target audience, (museum) environment, context of use,… ?

ARCHIE museum game

ARCHIE museum game

Target group: youngsters,

during school visits

­ Interested in multimedia,

games, hands-on activities,

experience and explore

­ Social interaction

ARCHIE museum game

- stimulates interaction between youngsters

- encourages interaction with the museum

- tailors the presentation to the students’ needs

ARCHIE museum game

- stimulates interaction between youngsters

- encourages interaction with the museum

- tailors the presentation to the students’ needs

ARCHIE museum game

- stimulates interaction between youngsters

- encourages interaction with the museum

- tailors the presentation to the students’ needs

ARCHIE museum « game »

­ Learn by playing

­ Training skills, built-in learning curve

­ Rich graphical design

­ Relive specific episodes from local history

Evaluation and results

­ Extensive user tests, in various phases of the design process

­ Observations, logging of user interactions, questionnaires

­ Evaluation of : ­ Usability and playability ­ Training of social skills (social interaction) ­ Training of cognitive skills (interaction with

museum environment, interpretation and observation, …)

­ Learning key messages

Evaluation and results

­ Museum game does stimulate social interaction and exploration

­ Humour as a trigger!

­ Mix of free exploration and (very) focused searching for answers in the museum

­ Museum game is able to support the learning of key messages

­ Unaware of their learning

­ In search for a stimulating challenge for every target group

Evaluation and results

­ Youngsters very enthusiastic about medium (more fun, cool, clear, modern, less boring, easy,…)

­ After a one hour museum visit, they still want ‘more’

­ They like in specific:

­ Game actions

­ Searching for objects in the museum

­ Playing together, in small teams

Handheld museum games as a way to increase attractiveness of museum visits for youngsters

Evaluation and results

­ Completely deployed and operational (Fall 2010) as part of the educational programme of the Gallo-Roman Museum of Tongeren

­ One of the most advanced mobile guides that is currently in use in a real life situation

­ Advanced, yet very fragile technology

Evaluation and results

­ Deployment phase often neglected in R&D

­ Pre-deployment evaluations with ~1000 test users

­ Intensive real life usage, by school groups and families during school holidays

(100 families in 1 week)

Park Explorer Middelheimmuseum

Target group: youngsters (14-26)

­ Open air sculpture museum for modern and contemporary art

­ iPhone + GPS

­ Stimulate visitors to explore the park + unlock “remixes” made by youngsters

(as part of the Sculpturized!-project < Piazza dell’ Arte)

Park Explorer Middelheimmuseum

­ Lightweight game: “art radar”, hints and wild cards

­ Extra reward: hidden places in the park

Evaluation and results

Feedback user testing - Previously hard-to-find

artworks: more accessible - Game element is fun - Extra content is

appreciated - Visitors love the incentive

to explore - Only iPhone ? (available in App Store iTunes)

Do-It-Yourself approach

“In het wiel van Odiel”

­ Target group: school groups (focus on technical and vocational education)

­ Two small city museums:

­ National Museum of Cycling

­ City Museums of Izegem (industrial history)

­ Develop an engaging educational programme

­ Odiel Defraeye as a key figure to explore local history in the first half of the 20th century

Do-It-Yourself approach

“In het wiel van Odiel”

­ Web-based authoring tool

­ Students create their own mobile game

­ Resulting games can be played by fellow students on a smartphone in the museum

Do-It-Yourself approach

“In het wiel van Odiel”

Do-It-Yourself approach

“In het wiel van Odiel”

Evaluation and results

­ Project launched March 2012

(inhetwielvanodiel.be)

­ “Light” version for regular museum visitors: play mobile game in the museum (content made by heritage organisation TERF)

Evaluation and results

­ Students show commitment to create fun, meaningful games

­ Students immersed in museum content, storyline Odiel Defraeye

­ Unlocking content in museum by means of searching and scanning QR-codes is fun

­ Difficulty in matching content to the physical museum environment

contact

- Hasselt University - EDM : Jolien Schroyen

jolien.schroyen@uhasselt.be