{"id":12182,"date":"2022-01-06T11:52:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T11:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=12182"},"modified":"2022-01-06T12:02:52","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T12:02:52","slug":"to-qr-or-nfc-that-is-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/2022\/01\/06\/to-qr-or-nfc-that-is-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"To QR, or NFC, that is the question."},"content":{"rendered":"

Do museum visitors use QR codes? What about near field communication? More importantly, would visitors use those to connect with creative digital content created by our community? Read on!<\/h2>\n

In the summer of 2020 we ran <\/span>Museum Remix: Unheard<\/span><\/a>, inviting our communities to make new creative content – films, audio and 2D works – inspired by our collections. This all took place remotely while the museums were closed. From the start of Museum Remix we committed to sharing content created by participants on our digital platforms, but we wanted to find a way to transfer this online project back into the museum buildings after lockdown. Our desire to do this came at the same time as an opportunity to be part of Culture 24\u2019s Let\u2019s Get Real programme, and so we joined the cohort to explore how to<\/span> evaluate online success<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our experimentation began by identifying 20 objects in 5 museums where we could add a label that directed visitors to the online community-created content. By producing these labels, we were able to bring different voices into the museum displays, and explore the impact on our visitors. Museum Remix is about letting go of the institutional reins, welcoming and listening to interpretation from voices beyond our organisations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The specially designed labels, created by our friends at Studio Carrom<\/a>, contained very little text, with most of the space given over to a large QR code. An attached electronic tag would enable those phones with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to access the content. We set up the analytics so that we could find out which method and label visitors were using, and created supporting promotional materials to let people know why they might want to try it out.
\n<\/span>
\n\"""\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \"""\"<\/p>\n

The creation and installation of these labels happened at a time when museums were reopening – a challenge in itself – so asking for the labels to be placed across 5 different museums was tricky. But thanks to staff in all the museums, these logistical issues were overcome, and most of the labels were in place by summer 2021. The labels have a consistent visual identity to be recognisable (and eye-catching) across the different collections. We also made sure they were available in multiple materials to ensure they worked for different museum displays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n