Designing Digital Exploration Games for Automated Exhibition Sites

This paper presents a mixed-reality, location-based game for mobile devices, Discover the Redoubt, designed to support users in an automated, self-facilitated exhibition site-that is, a site where there are no personnel present, free admission, monitored through security cameras and time-locks to open/close the building. The game has been designed to accommodate an exhibition that has a combination of indoor and outdoor areas by utilizing Bluetooth beacons. The game is designed to investigate how museum communication can be mediated through an equilibration of ‘fun’ and ‘facts’ in an automated exhibition. Exhibition sites are widely regarded by scholars from multiple disciplines as environments where informal learning can take place and link educative and entertaining content. However, the challenge of balancing education and entertainment remains a debated topic in museum research. Users’ expectations are often tempered by traditional museum communication that is reflected in exhibition design that uses glass displays with labels, signage, posters and looping audio and video content. Existing games in exhibitions, such as scavenger hunts and quizzes, provide a way of playing through an exhibition visit, which can support the users in a self-facilitated visit while providing active and interactive modus for the user. However, the design of these games is relatively unexplored, when factoring in automation and self-facilitation. The design process here details user research, lab and field test which entails co-design with museum professionals and studying visitors in the exhibition. The aim is to support the user in automated sites by enabling exploratory behaviour through the gameplay.