IMPROVEMENTS TO BE MADE TO THE EXHIBITON

There are many improvements that me made to both the overall museum experience and specifically the one concerning whaling, I have described below the ideas that are both originally mine and also researched.

OUTDOORS
– Use outdoor building projection to project an underwater world to life.
– In the evening reactionary projections can be made onto the floor. This could allow people to look under their feet have the water react with their steps?
– Use holographic projections to mark every hour, the captain will shout “watch whale ahead”.
– Model boat outside with actor standing on top

INDOORS
– Allow the users to pick their topic first, and the level at which they want to learn (relate these with the 4 classes from research social, intellectual, emotional or spiritual?). This will directly impact the route they are given and the amount of information provided.
– Augmented reality can bring elements of the exhibition to life and add extra information about these things that can be explored (point a camera at the whale skeleton, the skin would appear on it, it would pop up as a 3D which can show the different elements within the animal, like skeleton, organs, muscles and skin. This will also have a more info button to allow you to compare the animal in size to other piscine creatures, it’s life expectancy, YOY breed estimations, are they endangered? It could also be used to scale the animal against other animals associated with it.(Use black & white for contrast on live camera, while the content that can be interacted with is in colour – example of this contrast working is http://latenightedm.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/alison_wonderland_run-new-edm-music.jpg)
– A mood board of a looped video of a whale user enhanced adaptations on each frame, see this music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nntGTK2Fhb0) and pause anywhere after 1:06 and notice it is all individual artwork (Also see image below). This creates a social bond between all visitors, old, new and future.

– Let the user know that there are more exhibitions to see if they were to visit again, it also suggests other places of interested around the city.
– In app voice commands (like Siri) could allow users to ask a specific question about the animal and get it answered immediately. These questions could be targeted at the stories fictional captain by saying “Hey Captain”
– A boat radar should be used for location within the museum relation to interactive elements, when clicked showing the floor plan of the museum and all the interactive elements across the museum.
– Sea biscuits as snacks should placed along the route for people to eat (Info about the Weevil)

EXTRA
– Moby Dick swallowed a whaler. (Could be the story in which the users travel the museum) & can be related to the outdoor hologram of the whale jumping from the ground on the hour.
– Visitor Number #9172/competition(With spending money for the gift store)
– Link with Facebook for competitions, and allowing the user to save information they want to read another time,or allow them to access saved information at their next visit? (Data collection & Improvement of services for user)
– Choice of Language
– Time sensitive responsiveness (Good morning/Good Afternoon)

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Questionnaire

This questionnaire was administered on 1/10/15 between the hours of 3-5pm and as a random sample should not be regarded as definitive. Speaking to people within the museum itself allowed me to understand my target audience better. Other surveys will undoubtedly refine the figures, but as an initial exercise this proved useful. Some conclusions are below.

56% of the visitors were over fifty years old, which suggests that while fulfilling a useful function as entertainment and education for the older generation, there is an opportunity to target younger visitors. There were slightly more men than women. Various methods of modernisation might be explored as to how to promote more youthful interest [see later.]

It was the first visit for half the visitors, which suggests that the museum has captured interest enough to encourage revisits. Of the remaining half, however, the majority were not inspired enough to want to revisit. 20% of the visits were impromptu. [See later.] Once again, the younger element needs targeting.

Only 16% of the visitors spent more than an hour at the venue. This was useful as an indication of what may be targeted for improvement. While the Heritage in St Petersburg and the Louvre in Paris are so well stocked with material it is not possible for it all to be displayed at any one time, the Maritime Museum is limited in the amount it can offer.
Suggestions submitted by the survey participants addressing this included a reconsideration of the layout and the addition of more “hands-on” features. Other suggested enhancements included the devising of a set route to slow down the visitors and encourage a more immersive experience, addition of olfactory and aural elements, video features, guides and information officers (“talks and discussions from professionals”) and the use of other languages. It was encouraging that many of these issues would be positively addressed by the use of iPad, Facebook or other media involvement, and that 80% of the participants would be prepared to be involved in some measure. It may be advantageous to consider different routes round the museum, targeting different features of maritime life; this could encourage revisiting.

It was felt by some visitors that regular changes to the exhibition might encourage repeat visits, and there was an indication that a cafe, possibly incorporating a lounge, would be an improvement.

Visiting might be improved by better advertising. This could not only be in terms of “Tourist Information” flyers available at targeted spots (other museums, The Deep, etc.) but on-site initiatives (possibly at set times, e.g. on the hour) such as screens attached to the outside of the building giving previews of the content inside, holographic projects of whales and ships
emerging from the floor outside the main entrance and/or a costumed nineteenth century sea captain standing outside performing, or as a photograph opportunity with children against a marketing backdrop for the museum [“Free photograph at the end of the tour.”] This might create much greater appeal, especially to the younger members of the public.

Learning PHP

The main part of this assignment was learning what the different code did. Understanding the different methods of bringing data from a table and presenting it properly on thew website was the main thing that I learnt.

My first attempt at a thematic php website was the following website.
http://www.dynamic.artdesignhull.ac.uk/abrodie/exp/tropicalfish01/retrievetropicalfish01.php
This was a template of a table that contained the content

My next attempt was to use the previous method but lay the content out slightly differently.
http://www.dynamic.artdesignhull.ac.uk/abrodie/exp/tropicalfish02/retrievetropicalfish02.php
You can see that I have removed the content from the table and gave it an improved structure using css.

My final attempt at the php Gallery feature was this one.
http://www.dynamic.artdesignhull.ac.uk/abrodie/exp/disney/disney.php
I was able to set up a database by myself and include the content entirely myself meaning I have at this point a much better understanding how the php works.

The next stage was to code and understand how a search function works, this was an easier concept for me to grasp.
http://www.dynamic.artdesignhull.ac.uk/abrodie/exp/animal/logo-search-01.php
You can see here a very basic example of a search function that I built.