#03 how might we
Based on my previous post, I have decided to pursue idea #2. To recap, the idea was about elevating the museum experience for visitors, helping them learn more during (and after) their visits through hands-on activities and personalisation.
The National Arts Council (NAC) conducted a biennial national population survey on the arts to monitor the state of the arts in Singapore. It would help understand Singaporean’s perception of the value of arts and culture in Singapore, as well as, the changes in the engagement.
The 2019 survey reveals the top 10 motivations and barriers of visitors, as shown below:
Since my idea revolves more around museums than events, I’ve picked out the relevant motivations
- visitors found arts and cultural events to be a good way of spending more time with friends and family
- visitors find arts and cultural events/activities enjoyable
and the respective barriers,
- visitors are not familiar with the artists
- visitors found that arts and cultural events/activities are not relevant to their lives
- visitors found the arts difficult to understand
The survey also noted an increase in the consumption of arts via digital/online media:
With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic came drastic changes in the way we lived our lives. With the borders still closed, many Singaporeans looked to pass their time re-exploring Singapore. NAC conducted a survey on digital arts consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are some positive and negative feedback noted from the survey with regard to the digital experience:
Also, participants of the survey noted their top 5 reasons for digital arts consumption:
- wanting to learn something new
- seeing something they wouldn’t normally be able to see
- finding out more about an artist’s work
- seeing something they had wanted to see in person
- for their own mental wellbeing (more likely to be cited by those who consumed music and craft)
From this, it can be noted the lack of knowledge, familiarity and relevance are among the barriers stopping visitors from wanting to attend exhibitions/events.
Furthermore, research shows that active learning is key and people tend to learn more in-depth and retain knowledge longer when they are given the opportunity to engage actively with the information and experiences.
In addition, it was also found that visitors do enjoy the digital experience with the survey stating that 80% of digital arts consumers say that they would continue to use digital media (for arts) after the pandemic.
Hence, I want to create an experience that would elevate visitors’ physical museum experiences and a digital experience that would help them learn, understand, and familiarise themselves more with the art they would consume during and even after their physical visit.
My How Might We statement(s) are as follows:
How might we leverage on interactive digital media to engage visitors’ during their museum visits in order to help them learn, understand and familiarise themselves with the art?
How might we leverage on interactive digital media to elevate visitors’ learning experiences during museum visits in order to help them learn more and retain the knowledge gained from their visit longer?
How might we encourage visitors to interact with exhibitions without using their phones in order to create a more immersive experience for them to learn?
How might we leverage on (digital) interactive media to make museum experiences more engaging and educational in order to increase the overall interest in the arts amongst Singaporeans?
Also adding some answers to the 5W1H of my topic (for my clarity but also might change?)
Who: I’m thinking to target students/youths because according to the 2019 NAC population survey on the arts, they noted that those who had been exposed to the arts at a younger age were more likely to engage in it as an adult. Hence, targeting a younger age group would result in a stronger impact (I would think so).
What: Help them learn, understand and familiarise themselves with the arts. Help them retain the knowledge gained during museum visits longer.
Where: Physically during museum visits and then digitally after their visit.
When: During and after their museum visits
Why: As mentioned above, it was found that the lack of knowledge, familiarity and relevance are things that stop people from going to museums. Hence, by creating an engaging museum experience where visitors can digitally curate and revisit the information they pick up throughout their physical experience, it would hopefully help pique their interest in the arts.
How: A physical experience involving a card or wristband with a chip that would allow users to sync up with a specific item in the exhibition. This is how they would digitally curate their interests. The digital experience happens after the visit where users can access their curation from a certain exhibition via an app.
Food For Thought (copied from prev post):
- Some additional stuff I was considering to increase the appeal of downloading an(other) app… perhaps introducing rewards, collecting cards on the app, and thinking of a fun way to review information.
- I was thinking that the app can also allow multiple entries per exhibition which would allow visitors to revisit exhibitions OR the entries can be edited so that if visitors were to revisit an exhibition, they could easily add on to their existing curation.
