Museums and interactive gaming

QR tags facilitate location-based gaming

Smart phone applications such as FourSquare and Gowalla—popular among the hip, wired, highly-socially networked crowd—encourage users to check in via their mobile devices by posting their locations and activities to a web site. The more users post, the more points or badges they win. While these web sites are games in the most basic sense, new software is allowing game designers to build on location-based game concepts to create more in-depth and complicated experiences. Location-based gaming is emerging as the latest interactive trend to be powered by mobile technology. Rather than only encouraging users to check in from anywhere, interactive location-based experiences link information, instructions, or an activity to a specific site to create a game. The user receives information instead of or in addition to sending it. QR tags are the current technology that allows users to access the critical information.

What are QR tags?

A QR tag, short for Quick Response, is a matrix or two dimensional bar code. Rather than the traditional collection of vertical, black lines, QRs are composed of small black squares on a white background. The design allows for a much higher amount of data storage than a traditional barcode, and it can be placed in any orientation. A Microsoft tag uses colored triangles to accomplish the same objective. In order to read a QR tag, the user downloads a reader program to his or her web-enabled, mobile phone. When s/he snaps a picture of the tag, the reader automatically links to the web to reveal text, see an image, play an MP3, or open a web page. Designers compare the experience to opening a physical world hyperlink.

QR code was invented by Denso-Wave, a Japanese company, which still sets the standards. Several companies offer QR generators and readers on their web sites. Designers can easily generate tags, and many free readers are available to the public for download. I-Phone, Android, and Nokia's Symbian operating systems offer the best platforms for QR tag readers. QR readers are available for a limited number of Windows enabled phones and Blackberry, and developers are frank in saying that developing for Blackberry is a low priority. 

(Microsoft tag for www.Re-LivingHistory.com)

QR tags and location-based gaming in the real (museum) world today

While Microsoft’s code is gaining in corporate popularity for magazine and on-product placement, SCVNGR is the largest software developer to make QR code-based games work in a real world environment. The company, venture-capital funded by Google, develops games for cities, conferences, universities, museums, and others. SCVNGR developed GoSmithsonian Trek for the Smithsonian Institution. (Active until July 24, 2010.) Googling “SCVNGR museum” will bring up a list of museums currently offering SCVNGR experiences including the MFA Boston, Franklin Institute, and Science Museum of Virginia. SCVNGR markets itself to museum clients with a promise of delivering information about how visitors use the mobile web, how long they spend in one location, and the paths that they travel through an exhibition. These geo-analytics are available to purchasers of  the full software development tool kit. SCVNGR has announced that it will offer its software tools for free, without the analytics components, to small businesses and individuals to develop more real world games. The readers are already free to users, but the drawback to SCVNGR is that it is not available on Blackberry, only I-Phone and Android. Other companies will surely enter the market soon, and museum clients may find themselves with more vendor choices. In the meantime, museums can make their own location-based games by generating QR tags using free software from Zxing, i-nigma, or BeeTagg, and linking them to special sections of their web sites. (FYI: this requires a working knowledge of IT.)

Today’s challenges in QR tag mobile gaming: a case study

On the weekend of July 24-25, 2010, the Boy Scouts of America hosted activities related to the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting in the United States on the National Mall in Washington, DC. All, even non-scouts, were invited to participate in Adventure Base 100 ScoutQuest. Participants picked up a map from a central location and received web addresses for three QR readers to download to their phones. Twelve primary QR tag posters were hidden in locations on and off the mall. Each tag revealed a secret word. Those who collected all of the words could upload them onto a web site  to enter a contest. The potential audience for the activity numbered in the tens of thousands. Ironically, the most limiting factor of the Scout Quest QR code scavenger hunt was that one did not actually need a QR reader enabled device to participate. The Scouts planned to provide phones at each location, though several stations did not have functioning phones. In those situations the volunteers simply gave participants the secret word. The BSA’s caution was validated by Smithsonian technology experts who spoke at a mobile learning summit only a few weeks before. SI technology experts explained that it is their practice, when a program absolutely requires a piece of technology, to provide the equipment. This ensures that the technology will work consistently for all participants. To emphasize their point, the mobile technology summit participants used Smithsonian-provided mobile phones. The Boy Scouts of America arguably represents the most mainstream audience in the United States, and the event designers seemed acutely aware that many would not have access to the necessary technology. Their solution was to design a technological experience that eliminated the need for technology.

Concluding thoughts
In designing location-specific experiences for museums that link to web content, designers have many factors for which to account. The simplest museum application is to add a real world hot link to a location where additional information may be desirable but is not required. For example, QR codes could be added to a label to give visitors an opportunity to click to learn more. However, the museum must assess the value of the learning experience against the costs of implementation. The IT infrastructure must allow for wifi access. The museum’s web site must be optimized for the content. The program must be communicated to visitors upon arrival, and guest services staff should be knowledgeable in how to download and use the technology. Museums must be prepared for visitors who do not have the equipment to participate. Finally, the experience itself must be worthy of the visitor’s time, attention, and data plan. Like all new technologies, interactive gaming has its challenges; however, it has an awesome potential as an interactive learning tool, and museums should seize the opportunity to lead the way.