The majority of work for SI to date has focused on the in gallery kiosks.  The next iteration of which are currently being installed in IWM North.

What we haven’t really discussed yet, is the mobile and online elements to this project. We’ve been busy behind the scenes, designing, developing and snagging both the android and ios mobile applications as well as the social interpretation elements of the Website, which will go live very shortly.

SI has been ambitious from the start; and combining, and synchronising, in gallery, mobile and online is hard.  But we’re getting there!

The mobile applications work by scanning on of the numerous QR codes in IWM London and IWM North, once scanned visitors can access the objects story, and share stories of their own memories and experiences about War and objects in the IWM collections. Visitors can also create and share their own museum collection.

With the website we have added social interpretation elements to over 750,000 collection objects! That’s quite a big deal (well we think so anyway).   Visitors can curate and annotate your own unique collection of objects and then share them with friends.  Visitors are also able to join the conversation, by adding comments to any item in the collection and read what other people have to say.

We’ll update on the individual elements of the mobile and website once we’ve gone live.

Floor projection at IWM North

So, we took Social Interpretation (SI) on the road yesterday. Up to Imperial War Museum North (IWMN). We are installing 4 SI kiosks against big objects and 9 QR Codes against smaller objects – one of which is a trunk in a vitrine a good 2 metres off the floor. This meant choosing the placing of the codes took a good bit of pointing and gesturing.

The north kiosks have become comment kiosks. In the south we had to make them digital labels and comment kiosks. Visitors often missed the distinction altogether. So, as well as appearing on much bigger touch screens at IWMN, a static comment screen is presented. Whether visitors choose to comment or not, still remains to be seen. The comment kiosks still present visitors with a provocative, evocative ‘prompt’ question to answer.

James McSharry, Exhibitions Manager at IWM North measures up for QR Codes

The QR Codes will be a good bit bigger in IWMN and will stand-alone. In south they are very small and hidden amongst long pieces of label text. We are also adding reference to the object name and directions to the object, if like the trunk up the wall, it is difficult to put the code near to the object. Again we’ll see if this enhanced presentation of SI engenders more engagement.

If nothing else, we are giving SI a much fairer chance of succeeding at IWMN. The next actual launch is the SI web pages, collecting and commenting-enabled. Looking neat and smart and coming soon to an IWM website near you.

However, all is not lost! There is a blog about us over on NESTA’s blog  instead! Check out the latest post on NESTA’s digitalrnd blog about the next steps for SI  up at IWM North.

NESTA have also created a feature on their website about Social Interpretation.

And, you can access the slides from the Museum Association Joy of Text event where the SI team were talking about the potential (as well as the challenges) of interactive digital labels on slideshare.

http://twitter.com/DavidBeavan/status/208209994221498369/photo/1/large

Yesterday we held an advisory board meeting for the Social Interpretation project, and we wanted our advisory panel to work for their tea and biscuits. After giving a good cop/bad cop account of where we were at we let the advisory panel lose on the Family in Wartime exhibition. It was great to get feedback on the work that we have done so far. We know it is a work in progress, and there is still a long way to go. We discussed the ergonomic problems of the placement of the kiosks, institutional differences, bugs in the software, atmosphere in the exhibition, size of the screen, and overall the quality of the comments we are getting.

We also set our advisory panel a challenge to find a SI kiosk and leave an ‘intelligent’ comment. My favourite being the image above.

One of the most discussed issues was about what we have termed ‘gardening comments’ but to put it bluntly it’s more a case of should we be ‘curating the visitor voice’ in order to improve the visitor experience? It’s a difficult question to deal with. Mia Ridge has pondered about it over on her blog.
We are at the stage where we really do want to respect the commenter, but also want to give other readers a high value experience. It’s a question of how we do that, and will it significantly change the project?

Gummed labels, perforated and numbered, found in possession of German spy, used as code

So now that we are well in truly on the road to delivery for phase 2 of social interpretation in July. I have been having fund with lots of data. At the beginning of April 6 Social Interpretation kiosks and 8 QR codes were installed in the Family in Wartime exhibition. We have been recording and tracking interaction with the devices for two months now. Its nice to see some numbers.  We have also been doing some observations and interviews in order to get more juicy qualitative data.  But here are some of the numbers first, from month 1 in gallery. 

The Digital Kiosks

Tracking data from month 1 (April 2012), the kiosks have recorded 5678 separate user sessions.  We can’t be definite on if that number equates to 5678 visitors as tracking has some unreliable elements  but still that’s a pretty nice high number of interaction sessions.
• Individual interactions 88109.
• Comments submitted 1553
• Comments liked 1630
• Comments disliked 1079

QR codes
Tracking data from month 1 (April 2012), the QR codes were scanned 131 times. We cant comment fully on QR code usage due to issues with wi-fi connectivity in the exhibition space, as i’ve mentioned in a previous post. Until the wi-fi is working consistently we can’t really say anything about QR code usage. But even with this difficulty QR codes have been interacted with, and the average time spent on the object page is 2.42 minutes.  We don’t really know if this is good, bad, or downright ugly.  Does anyone have any benchmarks for success on QR code usage that they would be willing to share with us?

Turner Prize exhibition comment card designed by A2/SW/HK

The preponderance of digital in this digital R&D project has been troubling me a bit. Ever since we installed our social interpretation kiosks in the A Family in War exhibition in early April, I have been remembering the various exhibitions I have worked on over the years and the various lo-fi commenting options that often drew more comments – and more engaged comments – from visitors than our SI technology is so far managing to do.

I think we might have missed a trick (and an opportunity for some A/B testing) by not also installing some comments cards and pencils. Many of our IWM visitors are a more mature lot, not always so comfortable with using their fingers to do their talking. They might have liked to use a postcard and pencil to record their thoughts. It would have been great to see if that was the case.

This image of a beautifully designed card and pencil comment system from the Turner Prize exhibition in 2008 remains one of my favourite designs. And the comments room was one of the busiest rooms in that exhibition. People reading, writing, or in my case pinching a blank card as it was such a nice thing. I also remember a lovely wall of pink heart-shaped post-it notes covered in comments at the Kylie exhibition at the V&A a while back.

And when I worked (way, way back when) on the Knit2Together exhibition at the Crafts Council in we had reams of great comments written down on cards. Stories of grandmothers teaching granddaughters to knit. Suggestions for good wool shops – you name it.  The problem was the cards then sat in an office for months, waiting for an intern to type them all up. The organisation had no way of utilising all that engagement. I dare say they are still in a corner somewhere.

So, where is the middle ground? Something digital that lets you comment in an analogue style?

Digital pens? Whiteboards? (please no). Answers on a postcard please..

A 'Basic Wireless' manual, belonging to SOE agent Mme Cormeau from wireless training.

One of the problems with R&D digital lifecycles and museum exhibition lifecycles is that they are completely different. The pace of technology change is misaligned with the fiscal, creation, development and installation cycles of museums.

In a climate in which new technology platforms emerge on a weekly basis, there is a dramatic mismatch between the cycle of technology and the long planning cycles that exist for most museums exhibitions.  Social Interpretation is no exception.  We came in very late to the build of the Family in Wartime exhibition, and it’s fantastic that we could incorporate SI into the exhibition.  It looks really good with the time and resource we had available. But it does mean due to this lack of time and resources that a few issues are now cropping up.

 One of the issues is the wi-fi connectivity; we worked really hard to ensure that IWM had free wi-fi access to the gallery space, but it is currently a little up and down . We also created some nifty postcards advertising the fact that you can get free wi-fi.  We believe it’s really important to advertise the availability of wi-fi to visitors.  And that it needs to be simple to access and very reliable.  From the observations and trails I have been doing over the past week, we aren’t quite there yet.  I’m sure it’s just a case of a few tweaks here and there.  But until the wi-fi is working consistently we can’t really say anything about QR code usage.  I’m sure you are all dying to know whether people actually use QR codes or not!  There is also an issue with 3G availability and slow loading times. So I’m not going to jump to any conclusions about the QR code data until we have fully reliable connectivity.  But from the visitors observations so far, there could be many other reasons for the results we are seeing. I’ll explain these in another post.

While this blog has been keeping you up to date on project development and how social interpretation fits into A Family in Wartime exhibition, we haven’t given you much info on how the project feeds in to the wider marketing campaign for the exhibition.

The truth is that it doesn’t. Or rather, it hasn’t. Yet. A visitor does not necessarily equal a user (which you may recall Tom has discussed previously).  It’s my job to attract visitors to the museum and the exhibitions. To promote A Family in Wartime we identified two target audiences. These were families with children aged 8 – 11 based in London and the South East of England, and adults aged 60+ who are interested in family history.  Through previous marketing research we know that these audiences like to engage with our collections through personal stories that enhance their visit, so are a perfect match for SI’s aims. But are they all users? No. Would they all be users if we changed our messaging to focus on social interpretation? No.

Why?

A new form of interpretation is usually not enough to encourage people to invest the time, money and effort to make a visit. Like all museums and galleries, it’s the exhibition’s content that is king.

But I think we’re all aware of this. One of the key points of Social Interpretation is to deepen engagement with the exhibition’s content using new technology that our visitors are comfortable using. The user-facing elements of Social Interpretation are embedded within the exhibition. Our audiences are already using the kiosks and QR codes. They are leaving comments and engaging with the exhibition and its featured objects as they would do with any other type of interpretation or interactive that seeks to generate content from its users.

When we start to roll out the mobile app later this year it will nicely complement the existing offer, and will be one of several messages already included in the campaign. To accompany A Family in Wartime there is new book, a new shop, a free events program running throughout 2012 and related social media activity. These all form key messages and it is up to us to consider each one as we further develop and implement our marketing campaign.

In the opening month we’ve successfully managed to attract many visitors, especially those from our target audiences. We’re now busy developing the existing campaign artwork and looking at the opportunities to promote the exhibition with all the high profile events and activities in London this summer.  A Family in Wartime will be open throughout 2012, and we will be keeping the momentum of the initial campaign activity going over the coming months. This is probably the most challenging part as we all move on to other projects now the exhibition is open.

However, the comments generated by the SI kiosks, plus press coverage, the events program and the launch of the mobile app will help create many opportunities over the coming months. So, keep your eyes peeled and let us know if you see the campaign on your travels. Better yet, come and visit the exhibition this summer to see what all the fuss is about.

David Salmon
Marketing Officer

A comment was just added on to our Social Interpretation kiosk, against the Gravy Browning box in the A Family in Wartime exhibition.

In answer to the prompt:

How important is it for you to be fashionable during a time of shortages and cutbacks?  During the Second World War there were many shortages, including clothes and make-up Women needed to be very inventive in finding alternatives to remain in fashion. Along with other ‘Make Do and Mend’ ideas, women used gravy powder to stain their legs to look as though they were wearing stockings.

 The comment reads:

“I think it’s a waste of gravy. And you could have dogs around your legs licking.”

The Crusader by Gerry Judah at Imperial War Museum North

It’s always nice to get back to the north. And it’s always nice to visit the IWM North. We went for our SI team meeting this week. Primarily to sort out the rolling out of SI kiosks and QR codes in to the radically different spaces up there. We get the chance to install bigger comment screens and hopefully bigger QR codes too. Size does matter.

If ever a project was a moveable feast staff-wise SI is it. Laura, Head of Exhibitions at IWWN is leaving and we welcome James in her place. He has to get up to speed at a fairly dizzy rate as we need to install SI in time for the summer holidays. We want to integrate their staff in the installation as soon as possible and so have invited James and Rick (Technical Manager) to come and see SI in situ in London and meet with Ben, the freelance SI software developer. It always worries me (as a freelancer) when you haven’t got internal staff involved in the making or development of your projects. As it’s internal staff who we have to hand it over to in the end. It’s often easier not to get internal staff involved – as they always have their 4p worth to add – but it’s a much more futureproofed way to work, if you bear with.

We’re starting to get interesting (if small in number) results from our SI kiosks and QR codes. And other staff at the museum are starting to get interested in the sorts of engagement coming out of SI. This week we’ve been discussing if the museum should, would or could edit out the spam kiosk comments. Thus leaving the more engaged comments for other visitors to read and respond to. At the moment we have enough spam to open a counter in Harvey Nichols food hall. And it’ll only get worse as we roll out the web pages for SI. But the museum editing and, as it were, moderating, the kiosk content wasn’t something we’d anticipated happening. Watch this space.

We had a great conversation at the end of the team meeting at IWMN – covering off a possible Phase 2 of SI, where we’d deliver personalised content layers to museum visitors through apps. Targeted museum content, related UGC / comments and related content elsewhere in the museum and online. Personalised by age group – child friendly for instance. Or personalised by visitor preference. For those who like: reading long labels, prefer art, want everything originating from a specific country, want to see all the tanks etc. etc. Preferably this would all be delivered through clever mapping of fields in the backend databases and so be eminently updatable and live and relevant. It’d be great.