Museum & heritage website design & development

Museum gallery multimedia development

> Creating a better visitor experience using multimedia
> Delivering online and gallery information
> Create unlimited gallery space
> Museum accessibility through multimedia

Creating a better visitor experience using multimedia

Multimedia applications in museum galleries can range from a single interactive screen in a special exhibition to a totally integrated interpretive approach. Applications can be built to suit any budget and implemented in phases, making them accessible to small as well as large museums.

Multimedia interpretive approaches offer a cost-effective way to provide a broader range of information about the themes of an exhibition, and enhance visitors' experience by helping them to understand and appreciate more fully what they are seeing. Interactive applications make it possible for visitors to compare and contrast objects, to examine works in detail, to see views of an object otherwise obscured, choose to explore more information in a self-determined way, and test their knowledge through games and quizzes. Interactive multimedia encourages visitors to take an active role in the exhibition.

Interactive multimedia also allows museums to meet the informational needs of a wide range of visitors from children, casual adult visitors and enthusiasts to researchers. Interactivity can include being able to print out a general floor plan or identify the location of a particular work, as well as comment on their museum visit experiences.To find out more email > Richard.gray@footmark.com

Delivering online and gallery information

There are an increasing number of options for the delivery of gallery multimedia. CD / DVD delivered applications have the added potential of being a saleable product while web-based delivery has the additional advantage of allowing visitors to access information prior to their visit.

It is also possible to mix delivery online and gallery applications. For the Storybank project by the British Library, an in-gallery CD application allowed visitors to write a story and read the stories other visitors had created. The accompanying website displayed the gallery visitor’s stories and allowed online worldwide visitors to submit their stories.

Create unlimited gallery space

Limited gallery space often means that museums can exhibit only a small portion of their collections.

Multimedia applications increase the impact and worth of the museum to the visitor by making it possible to introduce items which might not otherwise be displayed such as additional collections, oversized objects, live feeds from external cameras, audio records, film archives, and items from other museum collections.

Museum accessibility through multimedia

Accessibility, whether physical accessibility within a location or accessible information delivery, is of vital importance for museums and galleries, and multimedia applications can help to address this issue.

The use of audio on a gallery installation or on a website can be relatively inexpensive. With the increasing use of mobile phones for information delivery, audio files supplied online can be easily be accessed by site visitors and online researchers. Where audio is inappropriate at the venue, resizable text on interactives can address visual impairment issues.

Accessibility also includes access to particular locations and multimedia installations can provide information on areas of a site (such as in heritage buildings) where the building of ramps and wheelchair access are not possible. 360 degree panoramas, walkthroughs and zooms can also be used to show areas of a site which are not open to the general public but which would enhance the visitor’s understanding, knowledge and visit experience.

British weather is not always the best, and interactives of outside items, views and areas of interest can help create a positive visitor experience even when the weather is bad.

To find out more about multimedia development for museums and heritage projects please contact Richard Gray 07809 524 300 > Richard.gray@footmark.com

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