Iron Insight

We are working on a mobile web app which helps everyone to experience the site of Coalbrookdale. Here is the link http://ironbridge.herokuapp.com

Scenario

We are developing a mobile web app to be used on site and in the local surrounding area.

Look out for posters around the site and museum on how you can download the web app. Front of house are around to give you more information if you have any questions.

While you walk around please look out for the plaques to hear and see insights into stories related to the Ironbridge Gorge Museums.

Using your Smart Phone you can:

  • Listen to peoples stories and insights
  • Ask questions to curators
  • Add personal experiences
  • Send comments to give feedback to the museum

Intentions & Processes

Our goal is to create a tool for visitors which helps to explore the site in a very friendly and exciting way. We have stories, videos and rare pictures (for everything else there is Wikipedia) and we’d like to share our view and listen to your stories.

Day 1, November 8th

For our research we went to the museum library and archive to get some books, digital images and oral histories for content (thanks very much to Jo for her support!)

Before MuseoMix

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We spoke to members of the public visiting the museum as tourists in order to understand which information they are looking for, which questions they could ask and which stories could be interesting for them. This helped us to shape the narrative for our app.

We also visited Coalbrookdale with Tamsin and selected a number of places of interest which could be later added to our mobile tour.

Ironbridge_19

During the first day Frankie developed the very first draft and tested it using different devices. We started to develop content using online help on Twitter (thank all including @pinkeyegraphics)

Day 2, November 9th

We went on a tour with Coalbrookdale curators Tamsin, Shane, Katie and Tracy, where we took photos and asked questions about the site. We recorded four videos.

We also talked to Matthew from History Needs You project about some specific things (such as workers clothing and the Great Exhibition). We recorded these stories and will use them in our app.

Frankie continued programming the app, while Matthew created a logo for the project. Our logo was also used for creating plaques (thanks to @fablabmcr for cutting them, @mirubes and @robertdjlaing for their help in paint and assembly), and the poster was also designed with the help of Louie from the Web Team.

We filmed the promotion video for our app 😉 Thanks Jess who was the amazing actress! And we’d like to thank Joe, Paul (@vshropshire), Derek (@derekhoughton).

We started analyze bugs by asking people on Twitter to test our app. We even got responses from Morocco, Australia, the US and Russia!

We ended day 2 in the Coalbrookdale Inn near the museum.

Day 3, November 10th

We put up the welcome poster and plaques around the site. We also took a group picture (a lot of them – to choose the best!) and we did a lot audio editing!

After MuseoMix

IMG_20131110_141131-1

Hardware

Physical materials:

  • Paper and pens, pencils, markers;

Mental materials:

  • Brainstorming ideas;

Historical resources:

  • Library and archive materials;
  • Oral histories;
  • Films and photographs.

Hardware:

  • cameras
  • laptops
  • all possible mobile devices
  • flash drivers, etc.

Creative tools:

  • textured spray paint,
  • paint
  • brushes
  • laser cutter
  • glue gun
  • cable ties
  • plywood

Software resources

  • Github (code repository)
  • Google Maps (geolocation)
  • Sinatra (Ruby framework)
  • Leaflet (javascript map framework)
  • HTML/CSS/javascript
  • Javascript Geolocation API
  • Inkscape
  • Garage Band
  • iMovie

Experience

Team building

We came to this project with different understanding of how the process could be organized. Some of us suggested “to-do-first” strategy, while others wanted to produce a kind of general structure for the whole project (before doing something). So the first challenge was to find a way to be a really good team. We had found it by the end of the first day.

Tasks

Everyone in our team had individual tasks, which included content analysis and producing texts and images, oral history audio editing, prototype promo filming and video recording of curators stories, branding, logo and posters, plaques and the mobile web app.

FAQ

The best way to answer many of the questions we have been asked it to have a play with the webapp itself. Go to http://ironbridge.herokuapp.com and have a go!

To access WiFi whilst at Coalbrookdale, turn it on and connect to IGMT Guest. The IT team here have done a great job on site-wide coverage

Team

@IronInsight #mmuk2

From left to right:

Tamsin – Content @blistshill

Anna – Communication @Madlena_P

Jessica – Communication @JessicaStarns

Frankie – Tech @frankieroberto

Matthew – Making @mattdawhit