Digital Museum Tour Guides

Context

This design was developed while in a 3-month long design studio course as part of my second semester in a Learning Engineering masters program.

In this course, we were invited to pick a design challenge of personal interest.

I’m passionate about history education and chose to work on something that would help people connect to the history of a significant space. 

Design Challenge

History is often seen as facts to know, and this can especially be true in museum spaces. In actuality, studying history is an active, constructive process. 

I wanted to take on the challenge of supporting visitors at a historic site to:

  • actively interpret social histories

  • understand the relevance of history to social issues today

Design Solution

To address my challenge, I created an augmented reality experience in a historic setting that is organized through a set of digital tour guides. 

Theme Selection

By selecting a theme most relevant to themselves and their own interests, learners will have relevant prior knowledge and be supported in making sense of the artifacts and experiences they encounter.

Interactions

As a learner walks through the museum, they are invited to interact with the space by posting questions and seeing the answers of questions others have asked, accessing information to build context, accessing additional perspectives through supplemental guides.

Asking questions to supplemental guides

Descendants

At the end of their exploration of the museum, learners are introduced to the descendants of the initial guides. This was an opportunity to both elicit emotional connection and support learners in making more explicit connections to the current local context.

Lowell Offering

Learners are prompted to share a story that is tied to the themes they selected in the beginning in order to pull everything together through reflection.

These stories would then be contributed to the “Lowell Offering of 2023”, based on the magazine created by Mill Girls as they formed a community in Lowell. 

OPPORTUNITY to view other visitor submissions

Digital Guides

Through the museum, guides tell their stories as an employee of the textile mill all the while taking advantage of the exhibit materials that are available.

This is rooted in ideas of expeditionary learning as well as research about the technology used at historic sites.

Stories

Guides provide a rich story that allows learners to make emotional and personal connections.

Along the way, the guide asks the learner questions to support constructing interpretations.

Available interactions with primary guide
Lowell offering prompts

Boot Cotton Mill Museum (Lowell, MA)

This experience is set in a museum located in a historic cotton mill. Lowell, MA developed around a handful of textile mills, and Lowell's growth as a town is closely tied to the textile mills.

Setting this experience in this museum allows me to take advantage of the connections between a location, sense of place, and the stories tied to that space.

Design Process

Ideation

Location Selection

An important aspect of my ideation process was location selection.

In order to take advantage of a sense of place, it was crucial that I identified a location that is historically significant, but also meaningful to how people experience this space in the present day.

After visiting a handful of locations, I determined that Lowell, MA, and the Boot Cotton Museum would be the best choice for this project. This option allowed me to build on existing interpretations, artifacts, and resources already present in the space.

Learning Theories and Research

Place-Based Learning

Place-based learning encourages the use of the local environment and community as a foundation for learning. It encourages supporting learners to make connections between the real-world context and what they hope to learn to better understand the world around them.

Learning Conjecture

By being immersed in history with a guiding question and support from historical AR tour guides, learners will be able to make connections between their experiences, their emotions, and the social histories of the place.

Along the way, they will be supported in constructing their own interpretations of history.

Option to post and read other's questions

Constructivism

Constructivism tells us that learners need to have opportunities to construct their own understandings in order for the learning to be meaningful.

This theory is particularly relevant when trying to support learning about history as an interpretive act.

Staff

Museum staff expressed that the central focus of the museum is technology and the experiences of people often take a back seat. They also acknowledged that the museum experience can feel disjointed.

Examples to Support Reflection

Engagement Conjecture

Learners will be motivated to learn more about the Boot Mill Museum because they will select a theme of interest, interact with AR guides, develop curiosity about those guides, and interact with the space.

As a result, they will want to construct their own interpretations of the social histories presented in the museum.

Iteration 1

Design

The first iteration was primarily a sharing experience. I focused on building up the concept of a thematic guide around the space who shares their perspectives of the items in the exhibit and asks the learner questions along the way.

Based on research into the use of AR at heritage sites, I knew that exploring the space through the perspective of another person could elicit some emotional connections. This aligns with suggestions from expeditionary learning and place based learning to highlight personal connections with content.

Additionally, I believed that prompts along the way to guide learners thinking would support learners in constructing their own interpretations.

Results

After testing with classmates, I learned that testers connected with the digital guide on a personal level. They wanted to know more about their experiences and hear the rest of her story. However, the experience was very monologic. There wasn't enough happening to the experience for learners to interact with the guides and the space.

Iteration 2

Design Changes

In the second iteration, I aimed to address learners' wants that surfaced from testing my first prototype. My main focus was adding additional perspectives that highlight the variety of experiences in the space. Additionally, in the first iteration, I had not yet helped learners make connections to the present day. This time around, I wanted to support learners in making those connections and interacting with the multiple perspectives that are needed for historical interpretation.

  • Knowing that learners connected with the digital guide through the stories that they told, I developed richer stories based on the experiences of the guide rather than the things they see.

  • To address the desire for more interaction I built in ways that learners could explore topics of interest as they encounter them in the space, and ask questions of an additional guide.

  • Encountering things from multiple perspectives is a necessary step in constructing your own interpretations. To better support learners in that process, learners would now be able to see the perspectives of other guides in the same space.

  • I added supplemental guides (who are descendants of the initial guides) to support learners in making connections to social issues of today. These descendants give an epilogue-like conclusion to their great-grandparent's story, discuss their own experiences around the theme of choice, and ask questions for learners to reflect on their own experiences with a selected theme

Results

Supplemental guides fit in the space and made sense paired with the main guides. However, learners wanted to be able to ask their own questions throughout the experience, not just pre-selected questions at pre-determined spots.

The experience so far has been filtered through the lens of people's experiences, which supports learners in making personal connections. However, learners expressed a need for an objective lens to help ground what they encountered with the guide in its historical context.

Finally, people were interested in making connections to the present day, but more specifically, they were interested in how the histories experienced by the guide had an impact on Lowell as it is today. 

Available interactions with primary guide

Expeditionary Learning

Expeditionary learning is an approach that immerses learners in real-world experiences to support academic and character development.

This approach emphasizes the importance of making personal and emotional connections and highlights the critical role of reflection.

Visitors

Visitors felt like they learned best (and enjoyed it!) when museums focused on the stories of individual people and provide sufficient context.

Technological Possibilities

As I decided on my design challenge, I was curious about how I could incorporate technology.

In my preliminary research, I found that:

  • using technology to heighten emotional response supports learning

  • combining digital enhancements (audio, information, visual, etc.) may work best

  • focusing on the experiences of individuals can bring larger social issues down to a level that can be more readily discussed

How did I expect learning to happen?

Equity Conjecture

This design supports learners to understand that history can be for and about anyone, history can be seen through a variety of perspectives, and that innovation has social impacts by highlighting multiple perspectives and experiences, and providing opportunities to learn about the lasting impact of a historic theme.

Testing

I tested this iteration with classmates through an interactive slide deck mock-up. This prototype illustrated where the digital guide would be available in the museum space, and how they would interact with the learner.

Through testing, I hoped to answer the following questions:

  • Was the digital guide engaging?

  • Are people learning about the history of the space through this experience?

  • What more would learners want and need from this experience? 

Choosing a topic to explore in more depth

Testing

I tested a digital mock-up of my prototype (sample slides below) with 4 people who enjoy going to museums. This was completed over video conference and in person individually. After learners had the chance to interact with the prototype, I asked questions and facilitated conversations to gather feedback and insight.

Going into testing, I hoped to answer the following questions:

  • Do the supplemental guides make sense and allow learners to learn more about topics of interest as they encounter them?

  • Are the additional storylines engaging?

  • How do learners prefer to make connections to the present ( at the end, or throughout the experience)?

  • What helps learners understand what the digital guides share and what other interactions do learners want to have?

Prototype Sample Slides

Iteration 3

Design Changes

In response to the desire for more interaction, I created more continuous opportunities for learners to interact with their guides and the themes presented around them.

When the digital guide is available learners can:

  • switch to another guide’s perspective to see how they experienced the themes reflected in that space in the museum

  • post questions and read other people's questions (and answers) from that space in the museum

  • access supplementary resources to build context

  • Additionally, this led to a redesign of the toolbar from iteration two. Now the toolbar is simplified to reduce cognitive load and reflects the new interactions.

Additionally, the descendants of the guides share how the city has changed and how those changes have impacted their own lives. This supports a stronger connection to the current local context.

One of the biggest changes in this iteration was providing more direct support to learners through the process of reflection. Prior to this, learners had been generally asked to reflect or tell a story. But in this iteration, learners now have access to prompts and examples as they create a contribution to the Lowell Offering, 2023. 

Prompts to support Reflection

Testing and Results

I tested the digital prototype for this iteration at the Boott Cotton Mill Museum with a group of four museum visitors. They interacted with a mockup of the design on iPads as we move through the museum together.

Going into testing I wanted to learn:

  • How does the design work in the actual museum space? (this was the primary focus for this iteration and testing)

  • What supported learners in making personal connections?

  • Do the additional supports around asking questions meet the learner’s desire to learn more?

The results from testing showed that the structure of the experience worked well in the museum space, with a natural back-and-forth between the design and the exhibit materials. Additionally, the interactions with the guide successfully supported learners in making connections to the present day. However, it also became clear that learners needed more support in how to use the design, and there was still a desire to learn more and dig deeper. 

Testing the design in the MUSEUM

Critiques and Next Steps

Critiques

Variation Among Learners

What went well:

  • The design offers opportunities for learners to explore a variety of interests from the initial selection of a theme to the interactions with supplemental guides they encounter.

  • The Lowell Offering contribution reflects learner variation by offering a range of prompts and enabling the viewing of other submissions, accommodating those who need more guidance and support for reflection as well as those who might be hesitant to create their own content. These prompt also include more free-form options, which provides autonomy for learners who are skilled with reflection and interpretation.

  • Learners will come to the experience with a wide range of prior knowledge in regard to history. The "learn more" feature can provide background information to learners who may be unfamiliar with the relevant historical context.

What could be stronger:

  • While the "learn more" feature provides some background information, I didn't fully take into account the needs of learners who are unfamiliar with the historical context and diverse language needs. Technical vocabulary should have been made more understandable, and possibly more of a global historical context can be brought into the design to get a better understanding of how the history in this location is situated within broader historical patterns.

Learning Objectives

What went well:

  • By the third iteration, learners were well supported in making connections between the past and the social issues of the present day through the topics addressed by the guides, the questions they ask, and the reflections of the descendants.

What could be stronger:

  • An area that I wish I had done more with was supporting learners in creating their own interpretations along the way. The opportunities are there with the availability of a variety of perspectives, but going from having different perspectives to synthesizing and constructing your own interpretation can be a big step. Learners who are not skilled in the practices of historical interpretation might struggle.

Next Steps

If I was moving towards another iteration with this design, based on tester feedback and critiques, I would:

Include clearer directions

How and when to use the design in the actual museum space was initially unclear and learners expressed a need for more support. This might be more explicit directions at the beginning, or even markers at specific points in the exhibit to guide people on when to consult the design. 

Build in more language supports

The character's experiences included terms and jargon that weren't easily understood, especially by learners who don't have a strong understanding of the historical context. Some of the language supports I envision could be definitions, pictures, or even examples of the things mentioned by the guides. 

Continue to add more perspectives and leverage the possibilities of AR 

Learners still had the desire to know and see more, including additional perspectives. Learners also wanted to see the experiences of the guides and how they might interact with the artifacts present in the museum, not just hear about them in narrative form. 

Provide more support for the interpretation process

While I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about doing this, I know it's an important piece of the learning objectives that need more support. I would want to go back to the literature to get a better understanding of the techniques that have been used to support learners in historical interpretation first and then move forward toward ideation. 

What I Learned

Using Learning Theories

Learning theories provide suggestions on what you can do, not mandates on what you MUST do. You don't have to do everything a theory suggests to be using that theory as a lens, and pulling together suggestions from a variety of learning theories can often be what makes things work.

Testing should be focused

It's perfectly fine to test bits and pieces of the design. Learning this helped me to be less overwhelmed through the design process. I was able to focus my testing on the things I was the least sure about, and in testing those pieces I could make better decisions about how to move forward.

Personal Connections

I'd always heard that being able to connect personally to the content supports learning. But in testing this design I was able to see just how true it was. The history of textile mills can be a dry topic, but as learners connected personally with their guides, they developed a curiosity to learn more. This became a crucial aspect of the design and has helped me to understand that making those personal and emotional connections are key.