Weston Museum Digital Engagement Project Design Brief
April 2017
Weston Museum Refurbishment Project Background
Weston Museum has a long history as a local history museum, which was saved from closure by Weston-super-Mare Town Council in 2011 with the ambition of developing it through a refurbishment project. The museum was awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2015 and has been closed for a major refurbishment for over 2 years, ready to reopen in August 2017. The refurbishment has seen a complete change of both the gallery displays and building facilities, as well as a shift in its aims with engaging the local community and providing accessible provision for an increased breadth of audience type.
Key Objectives of Digital Engagement Project
As part of Weston Museum’s refurbishment project, there is an aim to increase engagement with and access to both the permanent displays and temporary exhibitions. This has been a core aim within the creation of displays, outreach provision and programming. It has also been identified that extra provision in the form of digital content and hardware will help to facilitate engagement with a number of user groups that are key to the museum’s audience development aims. Much discussion has taken place that has identified a number of key user groups and possible avenues for creating digital engagement provision to enhance their visits. This project brief seeks to take these aims and ideas and develop or alter them to propose a mixture of digital platforms that can be created and sourced by a developer ready to be installed in the new museum space in time for the reopening in August 2017.
Whilst a number of forms of digital provision have been suggested below, it is also recognised that developers will have other suggestions and knowledge for engaging the particular user groups listed below. These ideas and suggestions are encouraged for this design brief and the specifications outlined below should be treated as a starting point.
Users
A small number of key user groups have been identified within this project, as follows:
- School groups visiting either as part of a learning session or as a self-led group
- Visitors with additional needs, particularly visitors on the Autism Spectrum
- Visitors with visual impairments
- Visitors with English as a secondary language (particularly polish to link in with future community exhibitions celebrating cultures in the local area)
This project aims to create different types of primarily digital provision for these groups to enable extra engagement with the permanent and temporary displays. Some basic research and discussion has taken place, which has identified possible provision types for the different groups, but these are not set in stone and suggestions are sought as part of this brief. The different suggested types of provision are as follows:
- School groups visiting either as part of a learning session or as a self-led group
Tablets with extra interpretation and trails linked to session topics. These tablets might be handed out to school group leaders to enable them to use the trails and interpretation during a visit. It has been suggested that this might work well as a hidden or password protected set of pages within the existing museum website.
Background on other provision for this audience type already taking place – the museum has a developing learning programme of learning sessions and hireable handling boxes. Trails and relevant objects will tie in with these in order to support existing provision. There are various activities within the learning programme that content could be adapted from or be an extension of.
- Visitors with additional needs, particularly family groups with children on the Autism Spectrum
An information pack in the form of a walk through is being prepared by museum staff, which will be available on the museum website. This will contain relevant information and imagery to familiarize visitors with the building and its facilities ahead of the visit. It has been discussed that a link with a pre existing app focussing on this audience might be beneficial, advice on this is sought as part of this brief.
- Visitors with visual impairments
A form of audio guide has been proposed for this audience group, such as something similar to the Discovery Pens ( currently in use at Bristol Museums and Art Gallery. If an audio guide style provision is chosen, the software and hardware must be easy to use and simple to alter the content, in order to accommodate changing exhibitions.
Background on other provision for this audience type already taking place - Volunteer gallery stewards will be receiving some audio description training for standalone events and gallery tours as part of the ongoing volunteer training plan.
- Visitors with English as a secondary language (particularly polish to link in with future community exhibitions celebrating cultures in the local area)
If audio guides are chosen as a provision, these could also be used for this audience group. The museum will have a community gallery space, which will house changing displays focussing on and guided by different cultural groups in the area. If these audio guides are simple to alter, they could be used with the different displays to encourage visitors from these groups to visit and see not only their own cultural display, but also visit the permanent displays.
Included in this gallery, we also hope to have a standalone kiosk housing a large touchscreen tablet, which will feature an interactive of images, audio and video clips. During the creation of a display, some oral history and related content will be gathered, for which this will be an ideal platform. This could be a specialist unit or be a touchscreen hooked up to a locked down computer. The stand needs to fit within an already small space and be very hardwearing, the software also needs to be simple to alter the content with pre-existing but customizable templates.
Usability
All software and hardware should be simple to use by the visitors, as well as being simple to alter the content at regular intervals without large amounts of specialist knowledge. The museum already has a wordpress website, which at least one member of staff is familiar with changing content on.
Specification
Whilst a number of digital platforms have been discussed above, suggestions and the development of ideas are sought within this design brief. Ideas for the specifics of both software and hardware are encouraged to be presented for discussion, but must always keep in mind the usability and ongoing alteration of content. As the funds for this project have come from a one-off Heritage Lottery Fund grant, any provision chosen must be long lasting both in terms of being physically hardwearing and able to be updated easily alongside changing exhibition and event programming, with minimal ongoing costs.
Branding
The museum logo should be displayed prominently on all interpretation, as well as Heritage Lottery Fund branding where applicable (following branding guidelines for both logos).
Training
Some basic training in the form of a training session at the museum for museum staff on how to alter content on any devices or software will be required as part of this contract. This will need to be carried out before the end of 2017.
On-going Costs
The first year’s maintenance of the provision will need to be included within this contract and we would like to be given quotes and a breakdown for maintenance in subsequent years.
Budget and Payment
The budget for this whole project needs to include both the designing of software and the purchase of hardware. The maximum amount for this contract, including VAT, travel and expenses is £10,000.
Weston-super-Mare Town Council will have copyright over all content produced as part of this contract.
Suggested Timescale and Sign-off
Weston Museum will be reopening to the public on Saturday 26th August 2017 with at least a week of soft opening events prior to this date. With this in mind, the following timescale is proposed:
- Tenders will need to be received by Friday 19th May
- Tenders will then be presented to the Weston and HeritageSub-Committee who will decide on an appointment based upon the quality and suitability of the proposal
- The appointment will be decided by Friday 26th May and feedback on ideas presented will be provided to the developer to begin work
- Content will be discussed and provided to the developer throughout June
- First draft of software to be presented for discussion by Friday 30th June
- First round of amends to be sent to developer by Friday 7th July
- Second draft of software to be presented by Friday 14th July
- Final amends to be sent to developer by Friday 21st July
- Hardware will need to be installed or provided on site by Friday 28th July
- Sign off will take place by Friday 4th August, a meeting can be arranged within the museum building during this week
Contact
The main contacts for this contract will be Katherine Bell () and Sarah Pearse ()
Weston-super-Mare Town Council, Grove House, Grove Park, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 2QJ
Please copy both Katherine and Sarah into any email enquiries.
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