Nik Honeysett Getty Guide

Nik HoneysettHead of AdministrationJ. Paul Getty Museum

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)

From Audiotours to iPhones - Tate ModernThursday 4 September 2008, Workshop, 10.00-18.00, East Room

Friday 5 September 2008, Public Conference, 10.00-18.00, Starr Auditorium

Just as valuable to talk about what not to do rather best practicesHH system launched in 2005, pulled from operation due to operational challengesMade mistakes but learned a lot

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Plan

• Works of art: image & stops• Events: tours & exhibitions• Map• Audio stops - keypad entry• Location sensing

• Download content• Wayfinding

• Integrate with kiosk & web

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Plan

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Execution

• Five internal departments• Five vendors

• None had a vested interest in the complete system functioning

Internal: Interactive Programs (interpretive content), Collections Information (object/registrarial information), Museum Information and Media Systems (academic programming and hardware), Web Group (academic programming), IT department (infrastructure hardware and software)Vendors: Server and application programming, location sensing hardware & software, handheld hardware & programming

Location sensing &Location-specific content

Streaming media – audio & video

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Architecture

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Flaws

• Complex design and usability• not your simple audio guide

• Pushed Content• disturbing to visitor

• Latency• confusing

• Access interference• WAP location – retrofitting technology

• Audio sampled to high• didn’t match rest of the technology

• Location sensing & Streaming Audio• too demanding on the network

• Fault-tolerance• Handle problems elegantly

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Future (part I)

• Reorganise departments and people• less management and coordination

• Handheld Evaluation• Broad gallery tour guide

• Rembrandt Evaluation• Targeted exhibition guide

• Handheld vs. Gallery X-plorer• Comparative device

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)Evaluations

Handheld Evaluation:

• Had to guess how to get started - wanted a "start from beginning"

• Terms like Gallery, Pavilion, Tour, Guide, Kiosk and Bookmark were not clear

• Location sensing set expectations, wanted the device to know more than was possible

• “Push" approach – confused by unprompted changes• Audio stop lookup number - most successful feature• More "important" paintings should have more in-depth content• Wanted to see more use of the device's visual capabilities

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)Evaluations

Rembrandt Evaluation:

• 16 paintings in one room; no wall text; paintings identified by supertitles; handheld free; no audioguide; printed materials.

• Overwhelmingly positive response - wanted more content, helped them enjoy the art; preferred to navigate by image - easy to recognize; loved the zoom

• Were there significant usability issues with the device?• How did the Rembrandt handheld affect visitor engagement with the

art?• Did handheld users learn more from the exhibition than non-users?• What were the expectations for technology?

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)Evaluations

Handheld vs. X-plorer Study Result:

1. 10 Parent/Child pairs; Getty handheld device vs. Gallery X-plorer; Touchscreen vs. Keypad selection

2. No demand for an abridged audio player targeted at families (the handheld) – nearly all the children preferred the X-plorer due to ease of use and variety of audio content

3. Touching text links for content and orienting using images of works of art – both caused confusion

4. Rather pay for an audio player with all audio stops than a free handheld with only family audio stops

5. Would approve of a handheld that had all our audio content with a touchscreen keypad entry & improved on-screen map

Inform the potential of handhelds – can we use them? How can the handheld and audio player be used in conjunction What to See guide

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Future (part II)

• Experiment• Cell phone tours, podcasts, smartphones

• Self-sufficient• In-house production & development• No: hardware, rental, printing (OD)

• Multiple ways to access content

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)The Future (part II)

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)iPhone Stats

Details (Thu. 1 May 2008–Thu. 31 July 2008)

    Operating System Visitors % Internet Avg %

1.   Windows XP 747,249 58.32% 64.77%

2.   Macintosh 222,542 17.37% 8.12%

3.   Windows Vista 141,361 11.03% 16.73%

4.   Windows 2000/NT 5 70,494 5.50% 2.13%5.   Media Center 2005 43,614 3.40% 3.72%6.   Linux 31,901 2.49% 0.65%

7.   Windows Server 2003 and XP x64 Edition 6,005 0.47% 0.76%

8.   Windows 98 4,876 0.38% 0.35%9.   Macintosh (iPhone) 4,646 0.36% 0.00%

10.   Not Specified 4,121 0.32% 1.47%

Cities Page Views

1. Seattle 6,883 46.62%

2. Dallas 1,347 9.12%

3. San Francisco 1,131 7.66%

4. Los Angeles 1,019 6.90%

5. Irvine 897 6.08%

6. Houston 270 1.83%

7. Bellevue 261 1.77%

8. Santa Monica 235 1.59%

9. St Louis 167 1.13%

10. Van Nuys 163 1.10%

Top Cities Sending Us iPhone Traffic (Wed. 1 Aug. 2007-Thu. 31 July 2008)

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)iPhone Stats

Site Sections Page Views

1. visit/ 6,936 46.98%

2. Root Directory 2,315 15.68%

3. museum/ 2,162 14.64%

4. art/ 1,610 10.90%

5. about/ 336 2.28%

6. Unspecified 333 2.26%

7. education/ 162 1.10%

8. research/ 161 1.09%

9. Search/ 157 1.06%

10. conservation/ 97 0.66%

Site Visits – Getty.edu (Wed. 1 Aug. 2007-Thu. 31 July 2008)

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)iPhone Stats

GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)A Cautionary Quote

There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris

- McGeorge Bundy