amuseapp, the University of Padua and the Museum of Archaeological and Art Sciences together for the evolution of the museum experience

Museums are custodians of humanity's cultural and historical heritage. But, in a world in constant evolution, the visit experience also needs to transform.

And, when the opportunity arises to put this mission into practice, amuseapp steps straight in: this is the case of the recent project carried out with the support of the University of Padua through the "Progetti Innovativi degli studenti-2021″ (Student Innovation Projects 2021) call.

The project, dedicated to creating and carrying out practical activities for the management, communication and museum enhancement through new digital solutions, involved 3 organisations (Larin Group, the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua and the Museum of Archaeological and Art Sciences) and the participation of 12 students; the 15 hours of training sessions, the first part of this collaboration, led to the identification and creation of two co-designed museum routes.

Let's take a closer look at how this shared project unfolded.

Analysing the context and defining the challenges

The first phase of work carried out together with the students focused on analysing the current museum context and the challenges it faces today.

This study clearly showed that the entire museum sector is undergoing major transformations due to new tourism trends, technological progress and socio-demographic challenges.

The ICOM (International Council of Museums) itself, aware of the situation, recently updated the very definition of museum, as follows:

“A museum is a permanent, not-for-profit institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage”.

The visitor increasingly looks for new ways to go through the different stages of the journey inside the museum, seeking an experience that is different from the usual and (for this reason) memorable. A picture also emerges in which the ageing of the population goes hand in hand with a gradual increase in the digital literacy rate and in connectivity, with all the consequences that follow: generational turnover, the search for new stimuli and a greater ability to use the most innovative technologies.

How can we respond to the needs that emerged from the analysis? A starting point for change, shared among the project's protagonists, is one of the most characteristic elements of the museum visit: the audioguide.
It was in fact agreed that the evolution towards a digital, experiential approach of these true cultural fossils could be the beginning of a general revolution in the concept of the visit: a tailor-made, personalised and engaging audio(visual) route; what is needed, therefore, is greater interactivity and engagement from visitors, for a journey that must go beyond simply being on site inside the museum.

And this is precisely where amuseapp comes into play.

The amuseapp framework: educate, enhance, build loyalty

amuseapp focuses on educating visitors before, during and after the visit, creating personalised routes and content. How? By educating the visitor before the visit, increasing the value of their experience and, finally, building loyalty among the target audience.

After presenting each of the stages that make up this framework, amuseapp shared with students and the museum the concept of the “museum avatar”: a representation of typical visitors, defined by a set of characteristics (demographic, hobbies, skills, etc.) that make it possible to create an overall experience suited to each of them, essential for later defining the different stages of the “visitor journey”.

Content and artificial intelligence

During the training (and before moving on to the co-design phase) amuseapp showed the project participants the potential offered by integrating artificial intelligence: thanks to the use of specific, well-defined prompts, in fact, AI is able to simplify and speed up the process of creating museum content, from text to audioguides.

This technology can prove particularly useful in rewriting content to adapt it to different museum avatars, in multilingual translation and in automatic voiceover generation: in essence, AI makes it possible to offer accessible and engaging content to a wide audience of visitors, modernising and evolving the concept of the audioguide and museum content.

The co-design phase

The knowledge shared with students and the museum during the training hours was used not only to identify the most useful information and to produce the content to be added to the profile of the Museum of Archaeological and Art Sciences on amuseapp, but also to co-design two routes dedicated to a specific visitor target.

In addition, to make the experience even more engaging, the guidance provided by the students and the museum allowed amuseapp to carry out a photo shoot of the visit route with purpose-built photographs.

The mobile app, updated with all the information, the photos and texts produced during the project, will let visitors easily access all the content and experience a museum visit different from the classic one. The WebApp available to the Museum of Archaeological and Art Sciences, on the other hand, offers the ability to independently manage content and activities, showing useful insights to improve and refine the visitor experience.

Next steps

The project carried out in collaboration with the University of Padua and the Museum of Archaeological and Art Sciences allowed amuseapp to gather information that will prove very useful for the future of the application.

In addition to monitoring visitor access and behaviour, the next steps will include improving accessibility and visual design, as well as carrying out online and offline promotional activities. In addition, the university's other museums will also be included in the network, expanding amuseapp's reach and contributing to the goal of involving an ever-growing number of cultural institutions.

amuseapp: the evolution of the museum experience

amuseapp makes the museum experience more engaging, accessible and suited to visitors' needs. Thanks to the students' contribution and collaboration between different organisations, the project has shown how revolutionising the way we interact with our cultural heritage is within everyone's reach.

With the expansion of the number of museums involved, now over 250, amuseapp will be able to enrich the knowledge of more and more people, helping to preserve and enhance Italy's extraordinary historical and artistic heritage.