Everything You Need To Know About Mobile Apps for Museums and Visitor Spaces

There are tons of ways to use mobile apps or tablets or other technologies in museums these days. What are these different ways? What are their pros, cons, and unknowns? Which one is right for you?

Those are the questions this blog will answer.

First, what can the mobile app do?

1.    Mobile apps can act as simply mobile versions of your website -- introductory information about your space, directions, contact info, events/calendar, and social media links.

2.    Mobile apps can be tour guides of your space. They would replace handheld audio-wands completely (and be cheaper and easier to maintain). They could also supplement docents (if you have staffing/volunteer constraints) -- and although nothing can be as good as a real person, the app can provide different benefits, such as flexibility in what the visitor wants to listen to, a consistent story for each visitor, etc.

3.    Mobile apps can be a game for your site -- children or adults can play a scavenger hunt, trivia game, or other type of game that gets them involved in your site.

4.    Navigation help - Mobile apps have a full map of the area and a guided tour with stop numbers in them to properly direct the traffic. It helps in controlling crowd and it also ensures that no one misses important stops.

5.    Multiple languages - Mobile apps are offered in several languages to help foreign tourists to listen to the story in their own language.

Second, how do visitors access this app?

1.    Visitors can either download a mobile app onto their own phones/tablets

2.    You can offer a phone/tablet to visitors in order for them to view a mobile app

3.    Both! You can offer a downloadable app to visitors who want to use their own devices or offer devices to those who don’t want to

What kinds of tours can I give on an app?

1.    Museum or historic house tour

2.    Interactive science center, aquarium, or zoo tour

3.    Walking tour of town or city

4.    Biking tour of town or city

5.    Self-driving tour of town or city

6.    Trolley, bus, or hop on/hop off tour of town or city

7.    Boat, river, cruise, or duck tour

8.    Garden, park, or hiking trail tour

How does mapping / GPS work?

   * Note that this does not require wifi, cell signal, or data to work!

1.    Static tour -- visitors can view just a static floor-map. This is a good fit inside a building.

2.    iBeacon tour -- app recognizes when visitor approaches an object and performs a predefined action. This is a good fit inside a building.

3.    GPS tour -- app tracks visitor as they move and performs an action when the visitor approaches certain areas. This is a good fit when distances are far apart.

Author: Ushma Shah is a founder of Action Data Systems, developer of Action tour apps on smartphones. Action Data Systems is headquartered​​​ in Barrington, Rhode Island with a regional office in Mumbai India. Action​ ​​Data Systems ​helps museums, attractions and bus tour operators to create Apple and Android tour guide apps to increase tourist engagement, improve ratings & reviews and generate new revenue from mobile e​-​commerce. For more information, please visit http://www.actionshowapp.com

Mobile tour guide app makes traditional museum audio guides obsolete!

We have all used audio guides at museums, historical homes and other such attractions in order to help us understand what we see around us. Sometimes they cost a few dollars, sometimes they are free. But, the writing on the wall suggests that these audio guides are on their way out. While they served their purpose well, a much better solution has emerged ... mobile tour guide apps. These apps are downloadable from Google and Apple store either before you visit the attraction or at the gate of the attraction. Once downloaded, they work with no internet connection and don’t burn through your data plan. You may still need to borrow headsets, if you don’t already have a pair of headphones handy. You get to walk around the attraction with your own phone and enjoy a self guided tour that has both video and audio.

Here is why we believe mobile tour guide apps are replacing the traditional audio guides:

1. Purchase and maintenance cost: Audio guides are very expensive to buy and also expensive to maintain. With mobile apps, the attraction has no cost of buying or maintaining the hardware. Tourists use their own phone to download the app and use it.

2. Take the story home: Since the traditional audio guide instruments are returned back, the story is no longer with the tourist. Once the tourist downloads mobile app on their own phone, he/she can use it at the attraction, and then, take the story home to listen to it again or show it to friends and families.

3. Multimedia experience: While audio guide provides audio, the mobile apps offer audio, pictures, video and transcript. Pictures ensure that you are looking at the right object. They can show old pictures, seasonal pictures, related pictures to give a fuller experience. And, they also provide a transcript to read for those who love to read. So, overall, a much better experience.

4. Multiple languages: Attractions end up reserving a certain number of audio guides for foreign languages. With mobile apps, tourist simply downloads the language they need or some Apps are intelligent and download the right language on their own. Not having to keep aside unit for foreign guests help save costs and you never run the risk of running out of guides with foreign support.

5. Navigation and map help: Audio guides have no screen to show a map. Apps show a full screen with all the rooms/objects/attraction points and also provide a sequence by guiding the tourist step by step.

Overall, a mobile tour app is a huge winner over the traditional audio guides.

Interesting Facts About Smart Museum Of Art Unveiled

Those individuals who are interested to explore masterpieces of art without spending a long day in wandering the major art museum, then Smart Museum of Art can be your right choice. The diverse collection of around 12,000 pieces of arts include craftsmanship of old masters, sculptures by Degas, Rodin, Matisse and Henry Moore; furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright, etc. The exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art is the best way of seeing good art in an intimate smaller space. This art museum is located within the campus of the University of Chicago located in Chicago Illinois, where you can see permanent collection of more than 12,000 objects crafted by masters. 

Smart Museum of Art was established in the year 1974 in combination with Art History Department of University of Chicago. In fact, it was gifted by Alfred Smart and his brother David A. Smart, who were the publishers of Coronet and Esquire. In the year 1983, this museum was separated from the University and was devoted for serving the community and facilitating various educational activities. In the year 1999, this Smart Museum of Art has undergone a renovation entailing $2 million. 

The best thing about visiting Smart Museum of Art in Chicago is that admission to this museum is absolutely free. So, groups of all ages can enjoy self guided tours to visit this small yet unique art museum. Moreover, one can also bring their kids at the time of visiting the museum. However, you need to make reservations well in advance and confirm your visit. To make reservation, all you need is to visit the official website of Smart Museum of Art and complete the reservation form available. Once you make reservation, the staff members will be contacting you within three working days for the confirmation of your visit to the museum.

Learn The Importance And Benefits Of Using Audio Guide Tour

Insights On Audio Tour:

If you have planned to visit attractions like museums, then it is better to plan for Audio Guide Tour which involves a recorded spoken commentary through a handheld device. This audio tour is also available as a part for self guided or an organized tour. In addition, it provides you with content, background and information on things that you explore. The most interesting thing about this audio tour is that it is available in multi-lingual versions. Traditionally, the audio guides were provided at the spot but now, they can be downloaded from the internet or even through mobile phone network. In some destinations, audio guides are provided at free of cost whereas in some other destination, a considerable amount of fee is charged. 

Captivating Experience: 

Those visitors who opt for Audio Guide Tour will be captivated by the appealing audio experience in their preferred language. You can also hear some interesting stories and educate yourself about the destination at your own pace during the tour. You will definitely reap maximum benefits and enrich your knowledge about the specific destination with this kind of tour. Moreover, these tours are influential, versatile and economic enough to know more about any museum, culture attraction or historic site. 

Tell Interesting Stories:

Audio Guide Tour is created in such a way that it will increase your interest, educate you about the destination and even brings smile on your face. In addition, it enhances and captivates your imagination and thereby allowing you to share some of the great stores about the places with your friends in an interesting manner. With perfect created audio guide tour, you can easily meet your goals of enjoying affordable entertainment. After understanding all these benefits associated with audio guide tour, many travelers have used it to make their traveling experience more memorable.

Prominent App For Gaining And Providing Best Visiting Experience

Touring to museum always account for best enjoyments of people as they can witness many historic collections through exhibitions. Hence renowned museums always receive huge visitors from different regions. Such people usually find difficulties in reaching the destination or finding appropriate ways of exploring it properly. The constraints of people are very much reduced with development of apps that serves a guiding tool through your mobiles. One such excellent design is ActionShow App which provides reliable multimedia content for mapping the particular location. The app also provides support in predominant foreign languages so visitors need not search for professional physical guides. Users can also share their unique experiences that they have gained while visiting the location.

Spectacular Features Of App

By making use of this application, you can share your photographic collections which you witnessed in exhibitions of museums. The information you revealed may also serve as guidance for others and therefore intended ones will get benefited. By this process you can actually improve visitors’ engagement through which you can generate revenue. When using this application, individuals can easily accomplish with the process of purchasing tickets for exploring desired exhibitions. The application actually functions on cloud and users do not need any support in terms of programming. This prospect also makes visitors to use the application without any upfront costs. Your multimedia contents for providing better guidance to visitors will be uploaded in the cloud environment. The intended application will be set up in desired stores of your mobile device. The apps are continuously upgraded with various specifications of operating system and software. Therefore your device will definitely support the application and you can proceed with process of experience sharing and revenue generation without any hassles. Hence if you are planning to tour museums, prefer using this app for getting navigated to the location conveniently.