Museums and digital devices: Towards the open access of museums and user engagement through digital devices.

Abstract

This thesis presents a design proposal for a mobile application for museums to give users open access to their material.

First, the origin and current context of museums and digital media were studied. In addition, as a way of proving and finding more details on the implementations of digital technologies in the museological space, this research takes the Helsinki City Museum as a case study. In this case study, different points are proven and discovered to be taken into account for the design proposal.

After studying the current context of museums and knowing more details about the reality that museums face after the case study, this thesis proposes to design a digital service that runs under three main views: open access for museums, accessible for users and the relevance of this service as a cultural source.

The proposal consists of the workflow and wireframes of both ends and a prototype that uses data gathered from the Helsinki City Museum.