bringing sites to life with ibeacons
TRANSCRIPT
Leicester Castle Beacon App
Search for “Leicester Castle“
Leicester Castle Tells its Story
Giasemi VavoulaUniversity of Leicester
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, [email protected] (Academic Lead)Sally Coleman, [email protected] (Arts Lead)Rhys Jones, [email protected] (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/