Summer of AR
Four outstanding examples of cultural institutions putting augmented reality to work.
This roundup first appeared in our "Off the Wall" newsletter in late 2022; we've kept it here as a snapshot of the moment.
With that summer behind us, we had seen tourism skyrocket both domestically and internationally since the onset of the pandemic. Tourism predictions for the winter holiday season anticipated travel to be just as high if not higher, with many family and friends choosing to reunite for the first time since the pandemic. The question on our minds: how might this impact museums and cultural institutions, and how could teams prepare for 2023 given travel and tourism "is back"?
The Guru Experience Co. team had been busy helping museum professionals, from California to D.C., rethink mobile guides for their visitor experience. Here are some snapshots from those travels.
Some institutions have led the way in redefining and reimagining their visitor experiences with a heavy focus on digital. Here are a few projects worth a look to get your own creative gears turning.
Museum app use rates: App use increased significantly compared with the years prior to the pandemic. Whether it became a normalized human behavior or museums started putting more thoughtful and well-marketed apps forward, download rates were skyrocketing. If you're weighing what that shift means for your institution, see how a branded visitor app fits in.
House museums lose docents, but gain digital interactivity: this article from AAM explores how a house museum approached its struggle to staff docents on account of the pandemic, and dealt with the reckoning that in-person interpretation could no longer be the sole tour tool. A digital experience became a "must-have". For us, that's the balance to strike: technology that deepens the human connection docents provide, rather than replacing it.
Disney shows its hand on its plans for metaverse experiences: Disney is always worth watching for inspiration, given many of their innovations in storytelling drive audiences' experiential expectations beyond the Disney brand. Regarding plans for Disney+: "This is the so-called metaverse – which I believe is the next great storytelling frontier and the perfect place to pursue our strategic pillars of storytelling excellence, innovation, and audience focus."
Behind the scenes of how we turn museum stories into interactive, accessible experiences - plus what we’re learning along the way
