Multimedia Interactive View of the Thames Tunnel Bazaar
| Sponsor: | The Brunel Museum |  |
| Sponsor Liaison: | Dr. Jack Hayes | |
| Student Team: | Tyler Allison, Amelia Collard, Hung Dao, Quinn Williams | |
| Abstract: | Digital interactives are an enticing way to increase visitor engagement and accessibility for museums. Our project’s goal was to develop a digital interactive for the Brunel Museum’s website, displaying the Thames Tunnel bazaar from 1843 to 1865. We met with museum experts to learn best practices for developing interactives, interviewed Brunel Museum staff and volunteers to identify their needs for an interactive, and developed a prototype of the digital interactive. We recommend the museum continue to develop and use this interactive to enhance their engagement with younger audiences, increase accessibility to the museum’s knowledge, and expand the educational resources the museum offers. | |
| Link: |
Designing a Multimedia Interactive View of the Thames Tunnel Bazaar – Final Report |
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Executive Summary
The objectives and goals of museums have changed throughout their existence. They
began as collections of artistic or scientific materials that were open to the public, but have since
shifted toward creating experiences with visitor engagement as the primary objective. This shift
in perspective has led museums to explore new ways to effectively improve visitor experience.
Interactives, a system designed to involve the user directly, are one of the many tools that
museums use to increase visitor engagement by having the user be directly a part of the
experience they create.
The Brunel Museum, opened in 1975, tells the story of the Thames Tunnel, the first
tunnel in the world to be built under a navigable river, and its creators, Marc and Isambard
Brunel. The museum’s physical exhibits focused on the story of the Tunnel’s creation, but they
were interested in expanding to tell the story of the Tunnel after its creation. The Thames Tunnel
operated as a bazaar from 1843 to 1865, with tourists visiting shops inside the Tunnel. To tell this
story, the Brunel Museum was interested in developing a digital interactive of the Thames
Tunnel bazaar.
Our team was tasked with the planning and development of this prototype interactive for
the museum. To accomplish this goal, our team developed three objectives:
1. Evaluate the current best practices in museum digital interactives
2. Consult the Brunel Museum staff and volunteers to determine the preferred design,
content, and audience of the interactive
3. Design, build, and test a prototype interactive through an iterative development process
that incorporates regular feedback
For the first objective, we interviewed museum and interactive experts and did field
research on museum interactives to determine potential pitfalls in development as well as best
practices for prototype development. Next, we surveyed and interviewed Brunel Museum staff
and volunteers to understand what they were looking for in a digital interactive and to get key
information they would like included in the interactive. Lastly, we used an iterative design
process to develop a series of lo-fi and hi-fi prototypes of the interactive to enable continuous
feedback and ensure our developments were in line with the wants of the museum.
The interviews with experts and field research at museum interactives highlighted the
strengths of interactives at museums as well as key ideas to incorporate in the design process of
our interactive. The field research revealed the strengths of self-paced interactives for enhancing
visitor experience at museums. The interview with the Postal Museum’s Head of Exhibition,
Access, and Learning emphasized the need for clear communication on the interactive goals
during design and further demonstrated the benefits of interactives. The interview with a
Museum Interpretation Consultant focused on the design process and showed the need to
simplify the final interactive to adjust for shorter attention spans.
In working with the Brunel Museum staff and volunteers, we were able to identify the
content they were most interested in including in the interactive. Our conversations determined
that the interactive would feature both characters and objects from the time as focal points for the
interactive. Interviews with Brunel Museum volunteers clarified the look of the Thames Tunnel
and helped to decide the specific objects we would use in the interactive.
Using the research and information, we determined that a point-and-click style for the
interactive would be the best choice. We identified five characters that would effectively show
off the kinds of people who would work at the Thames Tunnel. These characters were merchants,
a constable, and a toll collector in the tunnel to highlight how the tunnel operated at the time. We
also included a number of objects such as medallions, peep shows, and a guide book to show the
kinds of things that were sold at the time. We then developed the art, dialogue, and systems to
create our interactive, ensuring we consistently met with the Brunel Museum to receive their
feedback on the prototype.
The final prototype was received well by the Brunel Museum and met their needs. The
prototype was developed in Godot because it was free and open source. The prototype included
well-documented code to ensure that any future development can begin smoothly with these
guidelines for future developers. For future development, we recommend the inclusion of more
female characters to more accurately match the demographic of vendors in the Tunnel and the
inclusion of an achievement or goal system to encourage players to spend more time in the
interactive.