NaturePlus - Developing a Personalised Visitor Experience Across the Museum's Virtual and Physical Environments
Ailsa Barry, The Natural History Museum, United Kingdom
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/index.jspa
Building on the concept of a virtuous circle, as presented at the 2006 Museums and the Web proceedings, the Natural History Museum has continued to explore ways in which it can extend its relationship with visitors, to gain greater insight into visitor interests and to enrich and personalise the visitor experience across both the virtual and physical spheres. With the opening of the new Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in September 2009, the Museum created NaturePlus, a personalised visitor experience that drew on its expertise in developing integrated virtual and physical offers, and that used the latest social media platforms for delivery. This paper will look at how this project was developed from initial evaluation to implementation - the objectives, benefits, lessons learned - and look at how the system is being used and what has been achieved in the five months since launch.
Session: Social Media: Reconstructing the Elephant [plenary - social media]
Keywords: natureplus, virtuous circle, personalization, museum, social media, bar coding