Problem Statement: As someone who is very directionally challenged, whenever I’m in a big museum or even a medium sized museum (MFA in Boston), I have a lot of difficulties knowing where I am. Sometimes I find myself going back to the same section of the museum all the time unable to find the sections I actually want to go to. I think it would very helpful to have a mobile app that maps out different recommended route of the museum. In addition, if the party is separated during the visit, it is often awkward to call each other in a quiet museum. If there is a way to connect friends’ phones, it would be much easier to find each other in a museum.

During my visit, I would love to not have to worry about getting lost and focus on the exhibit itself. For someone like me, it is hard to do so without a good real-time map.

Approach: I envision this being a mobile app with the layout of the museum pre-loaded and can track the location of the visitors by use GPS. Users can also tag their location on a map by scanning a QR-code, bar-code or taking a picture of the nearby exhibit. If the users tag a certain exhibit, they will also be given additional information about the exhibit.

I don’t think we will be able to implement this part in this class but it would be cool to give children some kinda of braclet that has a GPS tracker or a scanner in case they get separated with their parents in the museum.

Audience: The audience would be anyone who wants to stop scrathing their heads trying to understand the paper maps of the museums and anyone who has trouble finding their way around in buildings with complex layout. It will also help people who want to get more information on each specific piece of art or artifact.

Skills needed: Mobile app development skills especially with GPS location tracking, UI/UX design, and maybe data scraping as well.