Grampian Transport Museum

Goals, UX, & Content Strategy

The Grampian team’s goal was to create a “dynamic digital tool for all ages and visitors”. This translated to ensuring navigation on the app was simple and straightforward, while the app was also engaging and interactive. It also meant content was served up in bite-sized chunks and in a variety of formats to appeal to visitors with limited time as well as enthusiasts interested in a deep dive.

The main museum tour showcases highlights of the collection on display organised by the museum’s themed exhibit spaces. Each point of interest highlights practical details about the vehicles (make, model, year) as well as a description of the vehicle’s historic context (in general in culture as well as the specific vehicle’s history at the Grampian). Each page also features images, video and a variety of interactive modules.

Interactive Modules

The Grampian Transport Museum utilised interactive elements throughout the mobile guide to encourage engagement, learning, and dialog.

Each point of interest page leads with either an image or video of the primary collection object on display. In addition, the image mosaic module was utilised on the same page to display related photographs from their rich archive. For example, the image mosaic features the vehicle in movies or with notable cultural figures as well as historic photographs of the vehicles in context.

The interactive modules – the free response, voting, and quiz modules – were also featured on points of interest pages. These modules encourage dynamic interaction with visitors, asking for them to contribute their own experiences, stories, and reflections to the mobile guide.

Interactive Maps & Content Strategy

The interactive map helps visitors navigate the physical museum space in two ways:

• Beginning with vehicles discovered first in the app, visitors can then use the map to navigate the physical exhibit space to find that vehicle.
• Alternatively, visitors wandering the physical space may find a vehicle they want to learn more about and then find that information in the mobile guide by tapping the gallery on the map that they are standing in.

The interactive map is a clean and simple way to lead visitors to content. It’s also accessible from several places within the mobile guide so visitors can get to the map easily at any time.

Tapping into a gallery space on the interactive map takes users to a list of featured vehicles in the space as well as an overview of the space as a whole. This content strategy allows for the museum team to expand the content and add more vehicles to the mobile guide without the navigation becoming too crowded or complex. It’s also a structure that the Grampian team can use to adapt content for their regularly rotating exhibitions.

Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt features a series of ‘Photo Challenges’ to encourage younger visitors (and, frankly, adults too!) to find tiny model cars that are hidden throughout the space. The goal of the scavenger hunt is to encourage visitors to explore more of the exhibit spaces and look more deeply at the exhibits while having fun.

It has the added benefit of also prompting the visitor to take a photo or selfie and share it on social media through an integrated sharing feature in the mobile guide.

Design & Aesthetics

Axiell’s CultureConnect platform prioritises the ability for detailed, customisation around the look & feel of every element on every page (a nod to our many aesthetic minded art museum customers!). As such, the Grampian team wanted their mobile guide to feel like a seamless part of their brand across their digital properties (website, social media) as well as the physical museum space. We used the website as the main influence for font and colour selection.

We applied colour in a variety of ways to help signal different content elements (like a visual language), associations with what visitors may be seeing in the corresponding physical spaces (e.g. gradients used in the mobile guide to reflect gradients shown on the printed signage), and accessibility/readability on the digital medium (e.g. proper colour contrast).

What’s Next?!

The Grampian team plans to expand the app’s content and interactive features in the immediate future. They plan to take an iterative approach as well where they will adjust content based on visitor feedback and engagement. What’s next includes:

• Featuring the museums many events in the mobile guide’s events page feature
• Create another layer in the interactive map based on interpretation (vs. location based)
• Include a 3D scan of the inside of the engines of some of the vehicles
• Add additional thematic tours in addition to the museum-wide highlights tour
• Visitor survey in the mobile guide (web forms)

Interested in learning more about what Axiell offers in terms of mobile guides, scavenger hunts, in-gallery interactives, and online exhibitions? Reach out to us here