Escape The Musuem

A Post-Visit Tangible Escape Room with AR for Mobile

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Escape The Museum is a mobile app designed for the Cork Public Museum. It bridges the on-site and post-visit experiences using interactive, tangible elements and AR. Targeted at primary school children, the app enhances engagement, sustains interest, and encourages return visits.

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Escape The Museum: Main Interface

The Problem

The Cork Public Museum, like many small museums, face challenges in maintaining visitor engagement both during and after the visit, particularly among younger visitors. The post-visit phase presents significant potential for enhancing engagement, yet current tools are generally static and lack the interactivity needed to foster an ongoing connection with visitors.

This gap offers a valuable opportunity to strengthen engagement by focusing on the post-visit stage and introducing an interactive tool that keeps visitors connected after they leave. Addressing this need could not only encourage return visits but also establish a model for similar institutions.

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The Goal

The goal was to create an engaging, interactive post-visit app that bridges the on-site and post-visit experience. Designed as a fun, game-like tool, the app aims to enhance on-site engagement, sustain interest after the visit, and encourage visitors to return.

The Process

To develop this concept, I conducted user research, including curator interviews, on-site observations, and a comprehensive literature review of prior work. The insights were synthesised using affinity mapping and MoSCoW prioritisation to define key design requirements.

Early design concepts were shaped with user flow diagrams and low-fidelity wireframes, leading to an interactive prototype built with Unity and Vuforia. This prototype underwent evaluative testing, revealing several areas for further development.

The design process diagram
UX Design Process

Research

Research Gap

The literature review highlighted a clear gap: the need for a dynamic, interactive post-visit tool for museums. The post-visit phase has great potential to sustain engagement and existing tools mainly focus on either interactive on-site experiences or static post-visit resources, revealing a distinct opportunity for a more engaging, interactive post-visit tool.

Approach and Methods

To ensure credible findings, I applied triangulation — combining curator interviews, on-site observations, and academic research to identify patterns and solidify insights. This triangulated approach grounded the design decisions in comprehensive research and cross-referenced data.

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Analysis

Techniques: Affinity Mapping and MoSCoW Prioritisation

Using affinity mapping and MoSCoW prioritisation, research data was synthesised into six primary design requirements.

Visualization of the usability problems in hotel booking sites Visualization of the usability problems in hotel booking sites

Key Findings: Primary Design Requirements

The design should aim to fulfil the following objectives:

1.

Bridge The Gap Dynamically

Create an experience that spans both phases.

2.

Encourage On-Site Exploration

Foster curiosity and active engagement during visits.

3.

Reinforce Visitor Memory

Strengthen visitors' memories of their experience to build emotional connections, promote return visits, and deepen engagement.

4.

Minimise Distractions On-Site

Ensure tools focus attention on exhibits without unnecessary distractions.

5.

Ensure Cost-Effectiveness

Keep solutions affordable for small, publicly funded institutions and its visitors.

6.

Include a Challenge

Add playful elements to enhance engagement.

Design

Design Concept Overview

Escape The Museum was designed to engage primary school children by bridging on-site and post-visit experiences. Each design decision focused on enhancing engagement, sustaining interest, and encouraging return visits.

Centered on the War of Independence exhibition, the experience spans two phases. In the museum, children receive physical clues to locate artefacts. Post-visit, these tangibles unlock features in a mobile AR escape room, linking the museum visit with an interactive digital experience.

User Journey Mapping

I mapped the user journey to refine the transition from the on-site experience to the post-visit app, emphasising how the tangibles collected on-site would guide children’s interactions within the app.

The design process diagram
User Journey
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App User Flow

The app flow was developed through storyboards, which helped visualise and refine the sequence of interactions and allowed me to work out issues early on in the process.

Sketches and Prototyping

Early wireframes helped shape a user-friendly layout that would appeal to young users, supporting intuitive navigation and interaction.

These initial designs facilitated rapid iteration, leading to a playful, engaging interface aligned with design goals.

The design process diagram
Wireframes

Prototyping and Implementation

The app was developed in Unity which was used for its robust game development features, and Vuforia to enable AR functionality.

Figma Prototype
Final Prototype: Main Interface

Design Solutions Breakdown

The design solutions directly address the museum’s primary needs: connecting the on-site and post-visit stages, enhancing engagement, encouraging exploration, reinforcing memory, and ensuring cost-effectiveness for a small, publicly funded institution.

Bridging the On-Site and Post-Visit Experiences

The game bridges the museum and home experience. Tangibles guide children to artefacts on-site and act as AR keys at home, unlocking quiz questions in the app. Their design reinforces memories, seamlessly connecting the museum visit to the digital game.

Tangibles

Each low-cost, hand-made tangible resembles a museum artefact.

On-site: They act as clues, guiding children to specific artefacts while keeping them focused on exhibits through a clear, tactile task that enriches the experience.

At home: They function as AR keys, unlocking quizzes and serving as memory tokens to reinforce the museum visit. Designed to be budget-friendly, they effectively connect physical and digital interactions.

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Tangibles comprise of:

  1. Material Token: A crafted miniature resembling the artefact, reinforcing its significance through touch.
  2. Cryptic Clue: A text hint guiding children to locate the artefact in the museum, encouraging exploration.
  3. AR Code: Links the tangible to app features, integrating digital interactivity with the physical museum experience.
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Post-Visit App Features

The app further sustains engagement with an escape-room-style game, fostering ongoing interaction in a playful, competitive way, accessible directly on visitors' own mobile devices, ensuring cost-effectiveness by eliminating the need for extra equipment.

App Interface Design

A cartoon-style 2D room with hidden clues, interactive furniture, and a camera for AR mode provides a vibrant, intuitive layout that keeps children engaged.

Improved search functionality with interactive calendar and map

AR Feature

Improved search functionality with interactive calendar and map

The camera enables users to scan tangible AR codes to access artefact-related quiz questions, linking physical items to digital content and reinforcing the museum experience.

Quiz

Each AR code scan prompts a quiz question. Correct answers allow the user to continue through all questions, while incorrect answers lock the game, encouraging a museum revisit.

wrong-answer return-museum

Escape Mechanism

Solving all four clues provides a virtual key, allowing players to “escape” and complete the game in a satisfying way, further encouraging participation and engagement.

Improved search functionality with interactive calendar and map

Timer And Scoreboard

A 5-minute countdown and scoreboard add a competitive edge, motivating players to improve their scores with each play.

Evaluative Testing

User Feedback

At the Cork Public Museum, two parents and a speech and language therapist participated in usability tests, completing on-site activities and post-visit app interactions to evaluate the experience’s usability and engagement through observational feedback and interviews.

1.

Tangibles’ Effectiveness

Engaging and bridges the on-site and post-visit experience; however, some found them bulky.

2.

Engagement Across Visits

Effective, though quiz content could be simplified for younger children.

3.

Home Environment Constraints

Distractions at home impacted app focus.

4.

Player Lockout

Lockout feature was occasionally frustrating

Further Development

Further Development

Based on user feedback, I identified several key areas for future development:

1.

Tangibles

Redesign for compactness and durability.

2.

Engagement

Simplify quiz questions for younger users.

3.

Home Constraints

Explore platform integration with existing gaming habits.

4.

Player Lockout

Consider positive reinforcement instead of lockout to promote revisits.