Use your app to make connections within different subjects
At Encurate, we’re always talking about the importance of making connections with the content in your space. But what does that mean, exactly?
A great example of how you can “make connections” in your space is the IMSS - our first client here in Chicago. This is a museum that never fails to make amazing content that their visitors love. And that’s because they understand that even though they are the International Museum of Surgical Science, not everyone who walks through their doors is there for science.
And that’s okay. But they still deserve to have the same great experience as those who came for the history of surgical science. And that’s exactly what they’ve used their app for.
Whether it’s a student on a field trip who’s more interested in the history or architecture of the building, a friend or spouse who was dragged there when they really wanted to visit the art museum, you have the opportunity to give them something uniquely tailored to their interests.
It all comes back to knowing your visitors - who they are, what they’re interested in, and why they’re coming to your museum.
In the IMSS’s case, they had a good sense of what their visitor was interested in, based on the analytics they received from their app on what the most popular tours and points of interest were. They were then able to create more tours with deeper connections and stories.
One tour tells the untold story of the woman who once lived in the home with her family. Another is dedicated to the architecture of the building. And now, they’ve begun making connections between the artwork (much of it completely unlabeled), and how it both influenced science, and was influenced by science.
When creating tours, we challenge the spaces we work with to think about the objects and art on display, and to make connections with content across time and space. So rather than simply placing a seemingly random artifacts on display, link that artifact back to the everyday people who used it and really show what that life looked like at that time. The idea here is to connect it to something your visitor knows and help them see into the past.
It is these connections, more than anything, that will spark curiosity and wonder in your visitors and leave them wanting more. Showing how different subjects are related, and they way they influence each other, is incredibly important and something that should not be overlooked.
