“So much of our future lies in preserving our past.”
— Peter Westbrook
If given an opportunity to save something from the fire, would you take it?
What would you choose to rescue?
“Museum of Choices” is a combination of an online game and an on-location interactive museum experience. In the game, the user will learn that the Museum is on fire – it's on the brink of destruction, among all of its valuable collections from all over the world, the user is given 3 minutes to choose one antique to save.
After saving the piece in the game, the user will be encouraged to physically be in the museum, users’ choices in the former will lead to which artwork’s immersive world they will experience in the latter. The piece the user has saved will guide the user through a treasure hunt, which leads to the destination of the journey, an AR experience in a museum space specially designed for this unique experience.
Hoping to make the museum more accessible and fun, Instead of identifying the most valuable work, we encourage the user to go with their instincts and find their personal relation with one among the many pieces, which will generate a more profound understanding when the piece's background and history are eventually revealed and used as hints in the treasure hunt, and visualized and personalized with the AR experience in the actual museum.
Why AR?
Learnings from user testing
We created a questionnaire based on this project and adapted our content based on the responses we received. According to the questionnaire, most people knew about the event of Notre Dame on fire before and felt sad about it. They visit a museum at least once a year, with many considering it one of their favorite activities. Still, they will depend on what the museum has to offer. Most people will be interested in arts and history, but if the content of the exhibition hall is boring, it is also the main reason why they do not want to go to the museum.
‘More immersive presentation that interlinks their experience as a visitor to the theme/work and makes people feel more involved in the exhibition.’
‘AR has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with exhibits, making them more engaging, informative, and accessible.’
In the meantime, the uneasiness regarding overusing technologies in the museum still remains. Some responders believe that although more dimensions can be displayed through AR technology which can make visitors feel more real, it cannot completely replace the existing exhibits, but is sufficient as a supplement to the exhibition environment.
Therefore, for participants who are not interested in AR technology, we set up The Treasure Hunt for their entertainment. Players can effortlessly utilize the mobile app to locate and scan their preferred artefacts, thereby completing a digital collection and enhancing their overall museum experience. Nevertheless, we recognize the public's weariness with traditional exhibitions; a mere stroll around is no longer sufficient for their satisfaction. They are looking for a more participatory experience.
At the same time, we want to prevent users from having negative visiting experiences, so we asked them to share their past frustrating experiences in the museum as references. Almost all the answers point to the following: being unable to be interested in the content of the exhibition, and even feeling abandoned by other people in the same space. Therefore, before designing to guide people to enter the museum immersively, we first contacted potential users who were interested in this topic through online interactions. We guided those interested in joining our offline activities. Meanwhile, users uninterested in this aspect could choose whether to participate in offline activities.