Creating Points of Interest for Your Mobile App.
What do we mean we say ‘point of interest’? At Encurate, we use the term ‘point of interest’ to mean any thing in your space that you want to highlight and include in your mobile app content. Some points of interest might be:
An object or artifact
A work of art
An architectural feature
A collection item that isn’t currently on view
A gallery
A hidden staircase
A promotion going on in your gift shop
A comfortable place for visitors to pause and rest
All point of interest pages in Encurate apps have the same format. Using the Encurate Content Management System, upload an image of the point of interest, create a title, and then describe it in a short paragraph; just like writing a label for it! You can also add additional media to any point of interest like images, audio, and video files.
You can choose to create a push notification for certain points of interest too. A push notification is a short message that will pop up on the visitor’s screen when the app is minimized or their phone has gone to sleep. This is one of the features that make Encurate apps valuable: your visitor doesn’t have to stare at their phone the entire time they’re at your museum! If they’ve put their phone in their pocket, the app will alert them when something interesting is nearby by popping up a push notification that comes from a beacon.
Your mobile app is an extension of your museum space. You may only be able to fit so many artifacts or works into one gallery, but maybe there are a few more pieces in your collection that would add to the narrative of the exhibition. That is where your mobile app comes in; include them as points of interest in the app so your visitor can access that additional content.