chris-alexander.com

I recently started reading a book that was edited by handheld guide expert Loïc Tallon and fellow Londoner Kevin Walker.  The book is a collection of essays by prominent technologists in the museum space writing about mobile guides in museums.  The range of information is extensive ranging from best practices to research in the field.  The book is highly recommended to those with an interest in this area of digital museum interpretation.

Purchase the book here: Digital Technologies and the Museum Experience: Handheld Guides and Other Media

I am currently working on a prototype multimedia tour for the San Jose Museum of Art. The tour makes use of the iPhone or iPod Touch and the Safari Mobile Browser that comes standard on it. It is fairly simple to design for because you are simply designing webpages. Because you are designing for one specific browser you are not constrained by the bugs and troubles that other browsers contain.

If you would like to see the iPhone prototype you can see it on an iPhone or an iPod Touch at www.sjma.mobi

Operation is easy. The user is presented with large buttons, each denoting an exhibition. The user selects one of the buttons and is presented another list of button with all the artists in the exhibition. Selecting one of thoses will present the user with additional digital information, i.e. digital images, video, audio, etc.

Here is a video of how the tour operates:

Updated iPhone/iPod Touch Museum tour info: 

http://www.chris-alexander.com/2008/10/ipod-touch-tour-update

iPhone Museum Tour Prototype at the San Jose Museum of Art from Chris Alexander on Vimeo.