Keynote talk at Interactive Communication Technologies and Learning IMCL 2014, Thessaloniki November 2014.

1. 1
Designing Mobile Learning
Activities in Museums and
Sites of Culture
Nikolaos Avouris
[Univ. Patras, GR]

2. 2
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, photo Wikimedia.org
Thessaloniki, the castles (photo www.thepixel.gr)
museums
sites of culture

3. 3
Sites of informal learning
- How is learning supported
in such settings?
- How cultural institutions
may support their mission
with use of technology?

4. 4
Existing practices for digital
learning in museums
N.Nikonanou and A. Bounia, Digital Applications in Museums: An analysis from a Museum
Education Perspective (2014)
In a survey of major educational programs in Greek
museums, it was found that …
most digital applications seem to reinforce the model
of passive reception, where museum provides
cultural content and the user is expected to accept
and internalize the knowledge.
Multiple interpretations, individual meaning making,
encouragement of alternative ideas, social interaction
are not encouraged or supported.

5. 5
Learning in Museums
- Learning does not take place through
words in the “shadow of objects” (like in
schools) but through objects (experiential
approach)
- Active participation in meaning making,
knowledge needs to be constructed by the
learner (constructivist approach)
- Learning as Social experience (learning
from each other)

6. 6
Games in Museums
• Games are effective ways to
learn in an informal way both
for young visitors and for adults
• Proliferation of game culture in
modern societies (ludic society)
[ D. Norman,The Future of Education: Lessons Learned fromVideo
Games and Museum Exhibits, www.jnd.org, 2001 ]

7. 7
The audience: living in a
ludic century
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html
E. Zimmerman: Manifesto for a Ludic 21st Century

8. 8
Bridge between “High” and
“popular” culture
• Young generations are attracted by
“popular” cultures, like the game culture
• However there is a distance of young
generations from “high culture”, e.g. the
official cultural institutions, monuments,
heritage *
• This gap may be bridged by mobile games
with learning potential
* EC.Access ofYoung People to Culture, Final Report EACEA/2008/01

9. 9
Games as interactive exhibits
Images: http://www.jnd.org/images/
LondonSciMuseum-2for-web.jpg
http://dananderica2010.blogspot.com/
A quiz discussion
table at the London
Science Museum
D. Norman,The Future of
Education: Lessons Learned from
Video Games and Museum
Exhibits, www.jnd.org, 2001
Play the orchestra
conductor at Mozart’s
house inVienna
http://dananderica2010.blogspot.com

10. 10
Location-based mobile games

11. 11
Location-based mobile games:
moving about in the site
• Multiplayer games that take place in an
extensive space.The action is affected by the
players’ location.The game involves
embedding location specific and contextual
information in physical spaces, so to create an
interlinked physical and digital space .This is
achieved through the use of mobile devices,
wireless and sensing technologies.
• Alternative terms used are hybrid reality games (emphasis in the
interlinking of physical and digital realities), augmented reality games, or
pervasive games (emphasis on the extension of game in temporal, spatial
and social dimensions).

12. 12
Hybrid game spaces
Physical space
Game
space

13. 13
Hybrid game spaces
Physical space
Game
space
Virtual (Digital)
space

14. 14
• QR codes/ NFC scanning
• Image recognition
• Gestures
• Location-based instructions
encoding
Intra-spaces connections

15. 15
Intra-spaces connections
NFC (Near Field Communication)
Source: Google Goggles at the Getty
Museum (Youtube)
http://amt-lab.org/
QR codes
Image recognition

16. 16
Scan an image
Invaders Zone usingVuforia
framework
Gesture-based
interaction
Source: Rexplorer(Youtube)
Intra-spaces connections

17. 17
Location-based instructions encoding
for progressing narration
http://www.whaiwhai.com/en
Ruyi from whaiwhai
Intra-spaces connections

18. 18
Primitive player actions
The players - through a mobile device -
perform actions (selection of an item, reply to
a quiz, etc.) that affect the state of the game.
The context of actions in game & physical
space, and the player identity, give meaning to
the actions.
e.g. proximity of two players may allow some
possible interactions between them, based on the
fact that they belong to the same or competing
teams.

19. 19
Examples of actions meaning
• Collecting a piece of information
• Unlocking next part of a story
• Receiving further instructions
• Replying to a question (part of a puzzle )
• Linking objects (action as part of a sequence)
• Transporting “virtual objects” between
positions (action as part of a sequence)
• Modifying the state of an object, i.e. locking
or unlocking it

20. 20
Location-based mobile games
examples
MuseumScrabble
BenakiMS
CityScrabble
Invisible City
Invaders Zone

21. 21
MuseumScrabble

22. 22
MuseumScrabble
link exhibits to themes/concepts
http://hci.ece.upatras.gr/museumscrabble/

23. 23
MuseumScrabble
Hints
Links
(exhibit
description)

24. 24
MuseumScrabble
Design rationale
MuseumScrabble is based on the idea of the
popular Scrabble word game. In Scrabble,
the aim is to arrange tiles (letters) in
meaningful sequences (words).
In MuseumScrabble, the letters have been
replaced by exhibits to by arranged in
topics.They can be linked using hints.

25. 25
From a board game to
location-based game
• A topic is a concept or field of knowledge or
category, related to parts of the museum
collection or the themes of the museum.
Examples are geography, feminism, religion, art
etc.
• Each topic contains several hints. A hint is a short
sentence that can be applied to exhibits in the
museum related to the topic.
• The challenge to the players is to link an exhibit to
a relevant topic by discovering which exhibit fits
the particular topic-hint pair in a meaningful way.
Evaluation of MuseumScrabble: [Sintoris et al. 2010]

26. 26
Playing MuseumScrabble: findings
• The game was designed with a top-down
strategy in mind, where the players pursue
their goal by selecting a topic, searching for
objects of interest, creating links and so on.
• However, some of the players switched to
bottom-up strategies, first scanning an
object and then flipping through the topics
searching for a hint that can be used in a
meaningful link.
Based on Sintoris et al. 2012, evaluation of MuseumScrabble

27. 27
MuseumScrabble: factual
information- disconnected objects
Exhibits as cut
out letters
(Yiannoutsou et al, 2012)

28. 28
Visual vs cognitive hints: preference
to visual hints that were consumed
faster in the first part of the game
Preference for visual keys

29. 29
Invisible City:
Rebels vs Spies

30. 30
Invisible City:
Rebels vs Spies (RvS)
www.invisiblecity.gr
Inspired by: Mafia game,
aka Night in Palermo,Werewolves...
a social game of trust,
deception, observation and
performance
http://hci.ece.upatras.gr/images/Papers/j62_sintoris_et_al_2013.pdf

31. 31
tasks and game activity are
spread in the city
Expanding the concept
Invisible City:
Rebels vs Spies (RvS)

32. 32
A leader is selected, then the leader
assigns missions to the players and
becomes a normal player.
Some missions are critical, some are
not.
If a critical mission fails, the round
goes to the spies
Invisible City:
Rebels vs Spies (RvS)

33. 33
Spatial expansion
From the room →To the city
Locations are spread out
Players cannot observe each other
Backstory for the action (rebels, spies)
Situated play and contextual knowledge
Incorporate historical (factual) information
Engagement through physical involvement
Integrate a coherent narrative
Expanding the concept
Invisible City

34. 34
[ Extract 1 ]
R. Did you learn something about the city that
you didn’t know before playing the game?
A:We didn’t know any of it…. it was all new.
S:Yes, everything was new ….
M: …. we walk every day by these sites but we
had no idea of all these things about them
Invisible city findings:
Familiar places seen
through a new perspective

35. 35
[ Extract 2 ]
R: So, what would you say that you learned?
S.That the church of Pantocratoras was an ancient
temple before.
M: I was impressed with the information about the
Mayor (information about an ex Mayor during the
period 1949-1967)
Invisible city findings:
The historic layer

36. 36
[ Extract 3 ]
R: Do you think that the game would be useful for
a visitor who doesn’t know the city?
A:The game is not about “getting to know” the
city, it is about “discovering the city”. The game
is not designed for a visitor who wants to learn
the main sites of this city are.The questions are
about discovering the invisible city- things that
were hidden and not obvious when you look at
the buildings for example.
Invisible city findings:
Visitors vs locals learning

37. 37
Invisible city findings:
Selective attention
[ Extract 4 ]
R: Did you have the chance to look around when
you were playing?
K: I knew the surroundings more or less. ….
Engaged in the game activity, they missed the
no-game related activity

38. 38
Invisible city findings:
Fragmented experience
• More interesting were the meeting
points where all players gathered than
executing the tasks when learning about
the city takes place.
• Tasks interrupted by city events
• Tiring experience

39. 39
Taggling

40. 40
Mobile Learning in a Museum:
at the Macedonian Museum of
Contemporary Art (MMCA)
Hands on experience
This afternoon at 7:00 pm
Taggling

41. 41
Taggling
Players are given
sets of tags that
need to untangle
by placing them
to the
corresponding
artwork

42. 42
Taggling
Action: tags attached and
moved between exhibits

43. 43
Taggling
Guided group
discussion on the
tags- exhibits
relations
Exploring these
relations,
rediscovering art

44. 44
On designing
mobile games

45. 45
Designing for-with culture sites
• Design in respect to the organization.
Technology embedded smoothly to the ecology
• Design for engaging the users, or viewing the
exhibits vs “playing with them”
• Design for unobtrusive presence. Not to isolate
the visitors.
• Design for enriching interaction between the
museum end the user
• Design for collaboration between users

46. 46
Viewing vs Playing : situating
exhibits in the context of a game
The difference between viewing and
playing with the exhibits would be
something like learning geometry for
knowing it or learning geometry
because you need it to construct
something (Papert 1993).
Yiannoutsou et al. “Playing with” vs “Viewing” museum exhibits: designing
educational game-like activities mediated by mobile technology (2009)

47. 47
Design decisions
• Types and strength of links physical-to-digital
i.e. One to many, Paths: A is linked to B, then to C
etc,Thematic lists: linking concepts to objects
• Content: selection themes and objects
– Selecting the places of the site that will become
part of the game – analyzing them according to
the structure of the game and the site narrative
• Rules: how you win points, what to do next, when
do you win (score)
• Events (surprise elements, dangerous zones etc)

48. 48
Design guidelines

49. 49
Collaborative study of U.Patras and
U.Bari 2010-2011 (networkTwinTide)
• Followed a ‘case study methodology’ of
analysis of published papers of 3 mobile
games
• Identified game design issues (317 issues)
• Through focus group analysis the issues were
reduced to 94 related to design of location-
based games and learning
• Card sorting techniques for grouping the
issues in 5 design dimensions

50. 50
Design Dimensions (Ardito et al. 2011)
• Game General Design, which refers to issues related to the
overall game design process;
• Control/Flexibility, which is a basic dimension of system
usability, that with respect to the games considered in this paper, also
refers to helping players to be aware of the effects of their choices on
the game execution;
• Engagement, which informs on how to provide an experience that
captivates the players, by providing hints on how to structure the
game, which tools to adopt, etc.;
• Educational Aspects, which informs on interweaving of
learning content into the game context, so that the game can have a
valid learning influence on the players;
• Social Aspects, which concerns the interaction among the
players, role allocation etc. (the underlying assumption is that social
activity, e.g. competition, can act as a motivational factor).

51. 51
4.1 Design guidelines /
educational aspects
Consider to include a pre-game
activity to prepare players (e.g.
some lessons in classroom
explaining the historical context
in which the game is set)

52. 52
4.2
Game should emphasize either
vertical or horizontal exploration
of a place/topic, i.e., deeply
exploring a limited space (or few
objects or a specific topic) vs. more
superficially exploring a broad
space (or many objects or several
topics)

53. 53
Balance between competition
and knowledge acquisition.
Too much competition may have
a negative impact on knowledge
acquisition
4.4

54. 54
Include a debriefing phase after
the game to allow players to reflect
on the game experience.
Design it as an individual/
collaborative game/activity that
supports players to clarify and
consolidate the game experience
4.5

55. 55
Open Design Patterns
An open repository of design knowledge for
location-based games
Similar to: Pervasive Games Design Patterns
Davidsson, Peitz, & Björk, 2004, Björk &Peitz, 2007
Game Ontology Project (Hochhalter, Lichti, &
Zagal, 2005)
hci.ece.upatras.gr/pompeiigame/

56. 56
Pompeii Game
DesignWorkshop
• The task is to design a game for the
archaeological site of Pompeii, given
design material and a design framework
• Objective is to observe design activity of
different design groups and deduce
common design patterns for this class of
games

57. 57
The Pompeii DesignWorkshop

58. 58
Pompeii Design Workshop: theWorksheet
The objective
What is the aim of the game? What
will you explain to the players that
they have to do? How will the player
know about success?
The rules
What are the basic rules? How are
they guide the game to the end? Are
there roles? Is there a narrative?
Use of tools & technology
How will the mobile will be used? As
information screens, communication,
barcode scanners, GPS, maps, radar,
compass, flashlight...?
Mechanisms
How are the rules enforced? How is the
game paced? Is there immersion in the
atmosphere of the game?What about
player communication? Awareness of the
actions of the other players? Competion?
Cooperation? Deception?
Location and real-world objects
How are they involved in the game?
How are the players interacting with
them?
Behaviors and aesthetic result
How do you expect the game to
evolve over time? How will the players
feel playing it?

59. 59
32 game designs were produced in 6
workshops in 4 different countries
Zakynthos, GR :
Summer School
onTechnologies
for Cultural
Heritage

60. 60
Design workshops
Pecs, HU,
Erasmus IP on
cultural heritage
management

61. 61
Using design patterns
• Using it as a checklist
• Getting new ideas
• Refining an initial idea
• Checking old solutions to new
problems
• Relating structure of the game to
game elements

62. 62
Participatory
design

63. 63
Players as Designers
• Contributing content
• Modifying game elements
• Using existing design patterns
–Previous design knowledge is re-used
in new design problems

64. 64
Learning through participation
in design
• Active –constructive learning (users: co-
creators of new ideas, knowledge and
products, public meta-artifacts)
• Rich learning opportunities: analysis and
synthesis around the city space and the
spatial content that is going to be integrated
in the game
• Ownership of information

65. 65
Support for participation
in game design
Sintoris, et al. 2014
(e.g. a school teacher can
design a specific version
of the game for a school
visit)

66. 66
TaggingCreaditor: a tool to edit
content for location-based games
Physical space
Virtual space

67. 67
Name: Retort house (D6)
Information: Black coal was carried
here by stokers in order to be
overheated and generate gas.The
procedure lasted approximately 5
hours and the black coal was heated
in a temperature of about 1000 °C.
Radius: 10m.

68. 68
Reflection

69. 69
Location based Games mostly
focus on factual information →
games as vehicles for transferring
new information to the players.
Yet searching for this information
in an intriguing, engaging and
pleasant activity.

70. 70
In the context of this type of games
exhibits or buildings are often
treated as a bunch of disconnected
and de-contextualized things

71. 71
Game vs Fun: Players observed that
the needed attention on the place and
on factual information is “the price
they had to pay” in order for the fun to
continue

72. 72
However information is
all there is to learn about
a site?
e.g.
Embodied experience
Location narrative

73. 73
thank you
hci.edu.gr
Designing Mobile Learning Activities in
Museums and Sites of Culture [N. Avouris]