The Pocket Museum concept has come a long way since its inception and looking back on the post in Week 7 titled Pocket Museum I have realised how far we have come in terms of achieving our goals. We achieved our goal of creating a website, application, audio artefacts and a webisode. The audio artefacts (first referred to as podcasts) are effective and engaging and could be listened to in one sitting due to the short length and interesting content of the stories. The app, website, webisodes and audio artefacts work well together and disseminate information in different ways. For example, the audio artefacts present the information as a recollection from the point of view of Christie’s wife, however if users want to read the full story they can visit the website to read the case file. The fluidity is also emphasised in the Pocket Museum branding as the fonts, colour scheme, logo and background images were kept the same over all platforms including the website, app, Vimeo channel, YouTube channel, Sound Cloud, Facebook and Twitter. This makes the brand easily identifiable and establishes connections between each platform.

The section that requires the most work is the video content which I was overseeing. Due to time restrictions and the time that the website and application took up, we were able to film much video content. We wanted to provide a prototype for the webisodes, an example of one of the cases that would be been re-enacted and associated with a particular location. Instead, we managed to film an introductory webisode about John Mitchell Christie, which was inspired by a historical article about how Christie prepared his disguises with the assistance for J.C. Brown. After we shot all of the content, I decided to make two versions of this webisode so that users experiencing the webisode on smaller screens would not be disadvantaged. This was done by selecting tighter shots, and zooming in on footage for the application version. Also, after consultation with Amy, we decided to make a short teaser trailer for the home page of the website.

The website and application design were by far the most challenging processes of the production. In response to the presentation feedback we received, we developed the hook,  Australia’s Sherlock Holmes, and included this in the teaser trailer on the home page of the website. Amy also designed a picture of John Mitchell Christie and a speech bubble containing text to encourage further exploration of the website. We also developed the “Continue” button which links to the case files. The app contains more interactive elements and engages the user’s sense of agency. The map function works better on the app as opposed to the website because of the navigation function and ability to easily access location data in the real world. The website was suited to more extended pieces of information and instead of displaying the stories in clumps of text, we decided to display this information in interactive book format, so that users can scroll through books online and see images and text associated with Christie’s cases.

It has been a challenging process, however I have developed skills and knowledge pertaining to creating applications that I am sure to use in the future. This is a project that as a group we have found valuable and hope to continue working on it in the future.

Explore Pocket Museum through the below platforms: