museumsandtheweb.com - interaction

Levelling up: Towards best practice in evaluating museum games

dannybirchall — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:22:48 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

Levelling Up: Towards Best Practice in Evaluating Museum Games

Keywords:

games

Keywords:

evaluation

Keywords:

best practice

Keywords:

interaction

Keywords:

audiences

Keywords:

gamification

Abstract:

Games, and game-like experiences, are becoming increasingly important to museums seeking to engage new audiences and to provide deeper engagement with existing audiences. Demonstrating the value of commissioning and producing games as a core activity of museums is imperative. At the same time, the sector is encountering a new, cold wave of realism in evaluating its online presences. Old canards about new audiences are being thrown out the window, and a more rigorous focus is being applied to the business of gaining and measuring audience attention.

There is a risk, however, that these engagement metrics, oriented towards page-based content and measurable proxies for interaction in social media are poorly suited for the kind of immersive, deep engagement that good games can offer. This paper will identify and discuss best practice in the field of museum games evaluation in order that such evaluation might also move towards standardisation and wide acceptance, with the end result of improving games in our field.

Most museum games are web-based, and have an explicit educational intent. Examples from our own experience include High Tea, Memory (Wellcome Collection), Launchball, Rizk and Thingdom (Science Museum). These types of games will be the focus of this paper, though we expect the methodology to have applications across other gaming activities.

Drawing from our own institutional practices, across the cultural heritage and informal learning sectors, and looking at the area of ‘persuasive’ games in general, we will focus on initial objective setting and three areas of evaluation:

1. Quantitative evaluation: What are the best tools and methods to measure overall interactions, in-game interactions, and profile game achievement against audience segments?

2. Qualitative evaluation: How can we use interviews, surveys, and focus groups to gain a deeper understanding of player motivation and experience and are they sufficient? Can we find more useful and rich ‘in the wild’ where people freely discuss games? If we choose that route, what are the best approaches to gathering and analyzing that data?

3. Pre vs Post-release evaluation: How reliable or valid are expert reviews and user testing of games prior to release? How do these results compare with those from summative evaluations?

In each of these areas, we will also consider aligning evaluation approaches for different types of games: autonomous games, and gamified or gameful experiences. Technical appendices will describe both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Pervasive Fun

Authors:

Danny Birchall

Kate Haley Goldman

Daniel Evans

Martha Henson

Streetscapes

dbear — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:07:33 +0000

MW2011

Keywords:

soundscape

Keywords:

interaction

Keywords:

Visitor contributions

Keywords:

streetscapes

Keywords:

audio installation

Abstract:

Sound artist Halsey Burgund has set up a demonstration participatory audio installation for M&W. Based on his Scapes exhibit at the deCordova Sculpture Park outside Boston, this location-sensitive installation allows participants to wander around downtown Philadelphia while listening to (and influencing with their changing location) an evolving mixture of music and participant comments. Participants can 'tag' any location with audio comments which are immediately incorporated into the musical fabric for everyone to hear.

To give it a try, all you need to do is download the free 'Scapes' app from the App Store onto an iPhone, put on some headphones and walk around the city nearby the hotel where the system is activated. Scapes will be discussed as part of the "More Than Tours" workshop on Wednesday as well.

For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/scapesmw

Type:

Other Interaction - describe in notes

Streetscapes

Site:

http://bit.ly/scapesmw

Authors:

Halsey Burgund

My Great North Run: Facilitating rich audience participation

Rachel Clarke — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:44:09 +0000

MW2011

Keywords:

participation

Keywords:

interaction

Keywords:

multi-modal

Keywords:

digital pen

Abstract:

Digital media can create rich interaction spaces providing diverse and reflexive opportunities for participation from audiences. This demonstration will highlight the possibilities and limits of user-contributed content in distributed and multimodal interactive museum installations to support such interaction. The demonstration will showcase aspects of the ‘My Great North Run’ interactive, a museum installation and connected website (http://www.mygreatnorthrun.org/) that archived stories, photographs and drawings from the last thirty years of the Great North Run; the largest half marathon in the world which takes place in the North East of England. The installation was deployed between July and October 2010 at the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, as part of an exhibition and associated events and attracted an estimated 100,000 users and 13,000 contributions.

The design of the interactive was developed to capture and share the diverse ways which people have taken part in this event over the last 30 years. Familiar technology was deployed in innovative ways to create different opportunities for participation. This included a thirteen touch-screen map installation of the run in the museum with pre-loaded stories from runners, combined with digital (Anoto) pens and pads so visitors to the exhibition could contribute their own stories and messages. At the same time a complementary website was launched to collect stories about the run from online users. The pre-loaded contributions from runners and the user contributed material from online and on-site visitors were combined and delivered both in the gallery and via the website allowing users to become aware of each others’ stories of the Run. By seeking to facilitate a ‘virtuous circle’ of participation, the design helped to connect visitors in the museum and online users around an international annual event: the Great North Run.

The demonstration will showcase a single screen presentation of the system with digital Anoto pens and pads. The website will also be demonstrated alongside a video and two graphic banners of the installation in use at the Great North Museum.

My Great North Run was developed by Tom Bartindale and John Shearer through the Digital Interaction research group, led by Peter Wright and Patrick Olivier, as part of the School of Computing Sciences, Culture Lab, Newcastle University. The project was part-funded by SiDE, the RCUK Digital Economy Research Hub on Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy in collaboration with the Great North Museum: Hancock, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and Bupa Great North Run Culture.

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

Demonstrations III

Site:

http://www.mygreatnorthrun.org

Authors:

Rachel Clarke

Areti Galani

Mini-Workshop on Outdoor, Museum Interactions

dbear — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:05:45 +0000

Type:

Session

Programs:

Taking the Museum to the Streets

Date & Time:

April 8, 2011 - 3:30pm - 4:30pm

Location:

Commonwealth C/D

interaction

multi-user

interactive

user generated content

Required fields are marked with a red asterisk (*).

A confirmation of your registration will be sent to your email address. Please print it out and bring it to the conference.

You will not receive registration confirmation by regular mail.

If you do not receive your confirmation today, please contact us.

Archives & Museum Informatics EIN: 77-0708617; GST / BN 887978914

Description

In April 2010 the Museum of Copenhagen, in cooperation with Gibson Group Ltd and Spild af Tid/Waste of Time, launched a giant multi-touch multimedia installation in one of the central squares in Copenhagen. In the first half year of its 14 hour a day functioning, The WALL, as it is called, has attracted more than 400,000 users ...

Interaction – Thoughts on Encountering a New Organization

dbear — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 22:37:44 +0000

Type:

Session

Theme:

organizations

Programs:

First Impressions

Date & Time:

April 8, 2011 - 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Location:

Congress

change

transition

organizations

interaction

jobs

Required fields are marked with a red asterisk (*).

A confirmation of your registration will be sent to your email address. Please print it out and bring it to the conference.

You will not receive registration confirmation by regular mail.

If you do not receive your confirmation today, please contact us.

Archives & Museum Informatics EIN: 77-0708617; GST / BN 887978914

Description

We'll bring together museum technology professionals who have made a job change since the last MW, to hear first impressions of their new posts; consider how leaving one job and starting another may have influenced their thinking about their former positions; and discuss the different ways in which technology, change, innovation, and collaboration are approached in their past and present wo

Gaming the museum

dannybirchall — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:55:41 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Gaming the museum

Keywords:

gaming

Keywords:

interaction

Keywords:

new audiences

Keywords:

collections

Keywords:

education

Keywords:

education

Keywords:

exploration

Abstract:

Why, with the vast resources, and fundamental human subjects at our disposal, have museums failed to make more than a handful of really compelling games? Are we too wedded to the idea that games must be educational? Do we lack the in-house skills to make subject matter and game engines gel, or are we simply trying to enter an overcrowded marketplace with too few resources? Should we leave making games to the professionals?

At Wellcome Collection, we are beginning the process of making games for our website that put compelling gameplay at the centre of the experience, building our subject matter and resources around that experience. Games have their own logics and structure, and there's no reason these should be subjugated to narrow educational aims any more than the physical layout of the museum should determine the information architecture of our websites. The playful and exploratory impulses that draw gamers towards great games are still largely untapped as a means of engagement.

Using the mini-workshop format, we will present our progress to date and open up a discussion of other museums' experience, sharing our ideas and understanding of games. We will use simple exercises to look at matching our available resources (narratives, photography, object databases) to modes of gameplay, as well as investigating reusable game engines, game syndication, and building enthusiasm for games inside the organisation.

Type:

Mini-Workshop - teaches something or explores approaches

Mini-Workshop on Games: I

Authors:

Martha Henson

Danny Birchall

ArtPad: Here's the collection -- did we make a connection?

jtrant — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:01:03 +0000

Kjorlien, M. (2008). ArtPad: Here's the collection -- did we make a connection?. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web 2008. Proceedings.