This thesis presents four case studies from the Finnish museum sector that are using mobile technologies in diverse ways to enhance the museum experience. At the National Museum of Finland, the mobile solution functions as an aid for providing translations in different languages and thus improving the aesthetic appearance of the exhibition. At Tampere Art Museum, the outdoors mobile tour extends the museum visit outside the physical walls of the building. At Helsinki City Museum the mobile phone is perceived as a communication tool. At Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum the Augmented Reality game combines digital narrative with real-world events, creating a solution that is both entertaining and informative.   These solutions are analysed in terms of the Contextual Model, developed by Falk and Dierking. The model divides the museum visit into three overlapping and interacting spheres – personal, social and physical. This thesis looks at how mobile solutions may enhance or hinder the museum experience in regards to each of these three spheres. Additionally, the model is compared with the results of a visitor research conducted at the National Museum of Finland in October 2013. The aim of the thesis is to identify the most successful features of these solutions and to explore how the field could be developed in the future.

Museums play a vital role in society as institutions that bear the cultural and historical heritage of the public. In the last decade, visitors' digital habits have steadily been increasing as well as the digital technologies available for museums to use in their exhibitions. Some museums have the desire to accommodate the changes in the visitors' behaviours and embrace new technologies, but they often do not know how to do this sustainably. Previous research indicates that there is a need for guidelines and standards in building digital strategies for museums, this research investigates this issue within Swedish art museums. The purpose of this study is to give a background on digital technology strategies employed by art museums in Sweden. Exploring how the relationship between current strategies and previous research on visitor experience, could benefit the management of art museums and their visitors. A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was carried out with seven art museums across Sweden about their use of digital technologies and their strategies. The data was then thematically analysed, resulting in five common themes: (1) Prolonged digital development, (2) Digital technology should be purposefully and logically used, (3) Adapting to digital habits as an institution for public access, (4) Museums have limited knowledge of the potential benefits of digital technologies and (5) Museums are trying to meet the visitors' needs and expectations. The research findings show that museums are struggling with the adoption of digital technologies, despite wanting to meet the expectations of visitors, having budget issues, lack of in-house expertise and having difficulties with the complexity of technology. The  data also suggests that Swedish museums need guidance for developing their digital strategies, though the extent of that differs from museum to museum. Museums need to be informed of the possibilities of digital technologies in enhancing visitor experience. Moreover, how digital technology can be used in their specific organisation. Further research can build upon the findings of this study to create guidelines for museums and explore how the research questions can be applied to other countries.

Hearing impairments are a sensitive component of our society. Lots of people are affected by them and considering this aspect in imagining and designing how the future will sound like is important. In this research project, a suggestion on a soundscape design tool to be used and manipulated by people affected by hearing disabilities is proposed. Together with this, it will be described as well how to implement and define a user interface with the scope of managing and manipulating these soundscapes. This project also faces the task of creating a setup oriented towards a museum setting: this carries with itself several variables to be kept in account, such as an unpredictable and quite broad users' range, and a special consideration for the lower-age range users. These have been found to be the most attending the museum environment, as far as it concerns Tekniska Museet. A three-phase experiment was then carried out. It involved a class of hearing-impaired pre-teenagers, the visitors of Tekniska and other hearing-impaired testers. Both qualitative and quantitative data about the interaction with the interface and the perceptual experience with the soundscapes were collected. The final assessments are that a focus on a playful aspect and the simplicity of shapes was the key for a suitable interface design focused on children, and that the contribution of the hearing impaired is relevant, at least in the later stage of the soundscape design process. / Hörselskador är en känslig del av vårt samhälle. Många människor påverkas av dem och det är viktigt att tänka på den aspekten då man föreställer sig och designar hur framtiden ska låta. Inom det här forskningsprojektet ska ett förslag på ett ljudlandskapsdesign-vektyg, ämnat att användas och hanteras av människor påverkade av hörselskador, framföras. Tillsammans med detta så beskrivs också hur ett användargränssnitt, med omfattningen att hantera och manipulera dessa ljudlandskap, fastställdes och implementerades inom systemet. Det här projektet möter dessutom utmaningen av att skapa ett system byggt för en museiutställning. Med detta tillkommer några variabler som måste hållas i åtanke, som en oförutsägbar och ganska bred användarskara. Speciellt stor omtanke läggs dock på yngre användare, som visade sig vara majoriteten av besökarna hos museet i fråga, nämligen Tekniska Museet. Ett experiment bestående av tre faser utförs, bestående av en skolklass av hörselskadade elever i tidiga tonårsåldern, Tekniska Museets besökare samt andra hörselskadade användare. Efter en insamling av både kvalitativa och kvantitativa data på interaktionen med gränssnittet samt den perceptuella upplevelsen av ljudlandskapen, dras slutsatsen att ett fokus på lekfullt utseende och enkelhet inom formerna är nyckeln för en lämplig gränssnitsdesign som har i åtanke barnens deltagande. Dessutom dras även slutsatsen att bidraget av hörselskadade individer är relevant, åtminstone i senare skeden av ljudlandskapsdesign-processen.

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This paper discusses factors that affect engagement during a museum experience with a focus on applying gamification into a museum application. At the center of this paper, the educative and engaging purposes of a museum visit are situated and analyzed in the form of design research. Following the design thinking methodology, first a background study with relevant literature, theoretical framework, and related studies on existing museum experiences using games and mobile technology is presented. Moreover, in order to narrow down the perspective of the study a case study with an existing museum application is selected. As a result of this research, a prototype of a game within the Visitor Guide application of the Nationalmuseum of Sweden was created and tested in a showroom environment, in a museum exhibition. The aim of this study was to find out if a game within a museum application could engage the visitors while educating them. The findings create space for discussions about several topics, including different factors affecting engagement and how gamification can help to educate the museum visitors in a non-gamified environment.

Museums contribute to the cultural landscape of a country. To attract visitors, museums should embrace new technology and constantly expand their offerings. This projects desired outcome was to develop a post-visit experience that would enhance visitor satisfaction, increase the likelihood of revisits, and encourage visitors to share their experiences with others. The design concept heavily relied on the principles of Experience Economy theory. In the proposed study, visitors at Tekniska museet in Stockholm got to, for 48 hours, farm a cell at home using an Augmented Reality (AR)-based smartphone application. The proposed application’s effectiveness was compared to that of visitors who did not utilize the application during the same 48-hour period. However, based on the study’s findings, there was no statistically significant improvement in overall satisfaction, short-term or long-term revisit intentions, or word-of-mouth intentions among the participants who engaged with the AR experience. Several factors could have contributed to this outcome, such as suboptimal user experience within the application, technical difficulties, and the limited duration of the testing period. Nevertheless, the results did indicate a positive attitude toward the general concept of "bringing the museum home." This suggests that museums should further explore the potential of such approaches, despite the specific implementation in this study not yielding the desired outcomes. / Museer bidrar till ett lands kulturella landskap. För att locka besökare bör museer omfamna ny teknik och ständigt expandera sitt utbud. Projektets mål var att utveckla en upplevelse som skulle förbättra besökarnas tillfredsställelse med besöket, öka sannolikheten för å terbesök och uppmuntra besökarna att dela sina upplevelser med andra. Designkonceptet byggde starkt på principerna i Upplevelseekonomi-teori. I studien fick besökare på Tekniska museet i Stockholm möjlighet att, efter sitt besök, under 48 timmar odla en cell hemma med hjälp av en AR-baserad smartphoneapplikation. Den föreslagna applikationens effektivitet jämfördes med besökare som inte använde applikationen under samma 48-timmarsperiod. Studiens resultat visade ingen statistiskt signifikant förbättring av total tillfredsställelse, kortsiktiga eller långsiktiga återbesöksavsikter eller avsikter att rekommendera upplevelsen till andra. Flera faktorer kan ha bidragit till detta resultat, såsom bristande användarupplevelser i applikationen, tekniska problem och den begränsade testperioden. Trots detta visade resultaten en positiv inställning till den generella idn om att "ta museet hem". Detta tyder på att museer bör fortsätta utforska potentialen med sådana tillvägagångssätt, trots att den specifika implementationen i denna studie inte gav ö nskade resultat.