Papers: An Artwork Communication System Using Mobile Phones

1. Museum Services on the Internet

Only reading the caption of an artwork, a beginner, unfamiliar with viewing art, sometimes may pass it by. As various contemporary arts (movement and artworks) have been created, many works are too difficult for a average viewer to understand.

The museum is also asked to perform various additional functions. ICOM (ICOM 2005) defines a museum as follows:

A museum is a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for the purposes of research, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.

Japanese law (Museum 2005) defines a museum as follows: “A museum is an organization that collects, keeps and exhibits data about history, art, folk customs, industry, natural science, etc.”

In many museums, various trials are performed to improve services for the viewer. A remarkable development of digital media is its ability to spread quickly into our everyday life and become familiar. Especially remarkable are the permeation of the Internet and changes in the usage of mobile phones. The percentage of households with Internet is 82.8%. The percentage of households with Internet that use a PC is 54.9%; the percentage of households with Internet that use mobile-phones and PHS is 55.6%. Finally, the total percentage of Internet user who use a mobile phone and PHS is 66.1% (Impress 2005).

However, because priority has been given to the technical development of systems, otherwise technically effective systems cannot function effectively because design has been considered. By adding content and functions, the interface becomes complicated and the system becomes too hard for the user to understand and use.

2. Purpose of Research

In this research, we propose for general public use a design for a system allowing the sharing of comments about artworks using mobile phones.. Further, we discuss feedback from a test of our prototype in the Toyota art museum. This system is for beginners, new to viewing artworks, and aims at deepening the viewers’ understanding of artwork by allowing them to record their experience while in front of the artwork and to share their data with other viewers. The system has two goals: observation and expansion. One is to promote deep observing by allowing the viewers' experiences to be recorded and input into a mobile phone while in front of the actual work. Another is to extend the viewers’ perspectives by referring to others' viewing records.

3. Present Conditions and Former Research in the Assistance of Work Appreciation

3.1 Present Condition in the Assistance of Work Appreciation

Various services aid the viewing of artworks in the art museum. Human services such as the distribution of worksheets or description cards, gallery talks, guided tours, and lectures are often offered. Furthermore, the use of guides, using digital media, has spread quickly. However, worksheets or description cards are only for main artworks, and their use in installation spaces is a problem. Moreover, the gallery talk and the guided tour have individual variations in the content and quality of the guide. They also suffer from limited appreciation and time restrictions. Since a lecture is performed in a place different from the exhibition hall, it becomes a problem for viewers. Furthermore, a guide using sounds and images by way of digital media disturbs the display (Fushimi 2005a, Fushimi 2005b).

3.2 Former Research

The three following cases are mentioned as former research on the use of mobile phones in the art museum. Toba Aquarium (Toba 2005) in Toba city, Mie prefecture has been performing guided tours via mobile phones since 1999. Their device corresponds to a mobile phone’s i-mode, EZweb, Vodafone, and L-mode, Web-based communication for mobile phones. This device allows media in the form of still pictures and video, and also supports QR code now. Guides for this system correspond to an exhibition label (about 400 kinds) inside the hall. The navigation method allows for ‘search by place’ commands, by which a map inside the hall and the figure of a tank number are displayed. This method is useful and allows users to input the name of a thing directly, in a ‘search by name’ function.

The VANGI MUSEO Sculpture Garden Museum (VANGI 2005) in Nagaizumi-cho, Shizuoka prefecture, has offered guides by mobile phone since its opening in April, 2002. This system only used i-mode from NTT DoCoMo, and Web for mobile phones (X navi). The number of works used by the system was ten works at the opening. Presently, this system uses NTT DoCoMo, au, and Vodafone, and corresponds to 44 works. (2005. 12).

The medium for communication is text. A service (British 2005) connecting museums and libraries in Britain was started in August 2005. However, these examples only allow for guides for works or exhibitions. In order for viewers to deepen their appreciation and to broaden their view, these systems are not very useful. As mentioned above, a viewer’s own language can allow for semantic attachment to a work. Further, there is no system that allows for avoiding time restrictions and sharing information and experiences with others.

4. Design Proposal

When communicating information through a mobile phone, the information used must be intelligible for users and must allow communication of information without stress.

4.1 Concept of Design in this Research

In this research, based on User-Cantered Design (USD), users are placed at the centre of the design process (Norman 1996), (Nielsen 1994). This system conforms to ISO 13407, the standard regarding human-cantered design, called the ‘Human-cantered design processes for interactive systems’. This standard was enacted by ISO in 1999. Japan, without changing the contents of ISO13407, translated it into J I S (Japanese Industrial Standards) (JIS 2000), which is a domestic standard translated as ‘a human-cantered design process for an interactive system’, enacted in 2000.

4.2 Function and Composition of this System

This system aims to help art-appreciation novices to deepen their appreciation experiences and to extend their perspectives by allowing them to write comments and read comments while in front of artworks.

4.2.1 Function of this System

To realize this purpose, the process of this system is as follows: recognition with a password, selecting works, writing comments, reading comments, work description, artist description

a) Recognition with a password

In order to promote a “real” art experience in front of actual artworks, the password system, provided upon entry to the museum, can be changed daily.

b) Selecting works

This function allows users to choose works to write comments about, and to read others' comments. In this experiment, we employed the following two works, Attempting the Impossible by Rene Magritte and Portrait of Eugenia Primaves by Gustav Klimt.

c) Writing Comments

In every work, a specific section of the artwork can be selected for a comment. In the case of Attempting the Impossible by Rene Magritte, available options are: artist, model, background, picture, colour, material, and other.

d) Reading Comments

Observing points are the same seven observing points offered when comments are written. There are eight options for reading comment, comments regarding the seven observing points and a read all function in addition to these. Newly written comments are displayed on the upper part of the screen. The maximum number of comments displayed at once is five. About ten characters of a comment are displayed at once. If you select either of these, the whole sentence of the comment will then appear. For another comment, the return button allows users to return one page.

e) Work description

The work description for every work is displayed in one screen, without the need for scrolling.

f) Artist description

The artist description for every work is displayed in one screen, without the need for scrolling.

4.2.2 Composition of this System

In order to realize our functional goals, we have built our system using Web technology.

Fig 1: The Function and composition of this system

Viewers can accesses a Web server through the Internet from a mobile phone. Text data is saved and loaded in a server by the CGI program. The Web server uses Apache software for personal Web Sharing, stored on a 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4, using OS X10.4. The software used to create the interface was Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1. In order to create a system capable of displaying graphics, such as the artist, model, and background, as a button, Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1, which allows high flexibility in interface design, was effective. Other software utilized included Adobe illustrator CS2, Adobe Photoshop CS2, macromedia FLASH MX, and CGI using the perl language.

The target user of this system is a viewer unfamiliar with artwork appreciation. Important points for the design of this system are the following:

• The design should be easy for beginners to write their appreciation experiences and accelerated so that users can write comments in natural language while in front of works.
• The design should allow easy reading of comments, and, again, accelerated to allow reading and sharing comments with other viewers.

4.3 Interface design of this system

Software utilized included Adobe illustrator CS2, Adobe Photoshop CS2, macromedia FLASH MX, and CGI using the perl language. The screen of a mobile phone is small. Therefore, the following designs were created in order to decide on an intelligible screen display that is easy to use, and intuitive.

4.3.1 The display of a page

We divided the area into three sections: the upper part is the category area; the central part displays the contents; and the lower part gives operational explanation. By unifying these positions, we created an easy layout display for viewers to master the operation.

Fig 2: The display of a page

Moreover, the work selection screen shows the hall plan view as a base, and the works are arranged by displaying their thumbnails. This allows for easy understanding by viewers.

Fig 3: The hall plan view

4.3.2 The display colour scheme

We utilized a display that shows a work, or the thumbnail of a work, in order to enable intuitive understanding by a viewer. Because of the small screen, and in keeping with our goal of intuitive understanding, we made the keynote colour of a work coordinate with the background colour of a page.

Moreover, the a greeting and gratitude pages are separate from the pages of the main part of the system; changing the colour tone differentiates this. Common pages, such as an error screen, made the background colour of the category portion colourless (R110/G110/B110), and thereby attained differentiation from the screen related to a specific work. The colour red was chosen for the error.

Fig 4: Examples of the display colour scheme

4.3.3 The design of instruction

By putting an explanation of the operation method in the second half of the login scene, a part of the top page, the system allows for efficient, system-wide explanation to viewers. Moreover, viewers can always check the paper operation of a screen by inputting the operation method into the lower part of each page. The (*) button returns one page, the (#) button returns to the end, and movement is determined by using the upper and lower sides of the cross key and the central button.

Fig 5: The design of instruction

4.4.4 Font and Text

Since size differed with style, the comment depending on the carrier was made into the GIF, and was fixed, except for the input space and a keyword. The font style used was HIRAGI KAKU GO Pro W6. The reason for this choice was its simple and easy-to-read style. Moreover, since a potential user is often unfamiliar with viewing works, it was chosen so that it would not impart a feeling of difficulty and coercion. The category portion is 11pts, the contents 10pts, and the operation display area is 9pts.

Spacing was the same height as a character and designed on the basis of 200 characters on the whole screen.

Fig 6: An example of the font

4.4.5 Login Screen

This system meets our goals of allowing for an appreciation experience by means of language, and sharing it with other viewers while recording viewer experiences and deepening the understanding of works. At the hall, the chosen password of the day is input at login. If login goes wrong, the system will show an error screen and a password will be prompted again. The greeting screen, after login, changes to a selection screen automatically after 30 seconds.

4.4.6 The Screen for writing Comments

Since the user is typically a beginner in the viewer of an object, the user is prompted with the simple question, ‘Please write what you felt.’ In order to appreciate a work at hand and to write comments, a user observes and thinks about the work’s details. This induces deep appreciation. Although a handle is sufficient as a name, filling in the name and accepting responsibility for one’s comments provides a feeling of familiarity. If transmission goes wrong, an error message is displayed, after which the system returns to the screen for writing comments and attempts to re-transmit.

Fig 7: The screen for writing comments

4.4.7 The Screen for reading Comments

We chose the expression ‘Please choose an observing point and read a comment’ so that a feeling of coercion might not be given to the user unfamiliar with art appreciation. Observing points are the same seven observing points offered when comments are written. There are eight options for reading comments: the comments regarding the seven observing points and a read all function in addition. When displaying comments, new comments are displayed on the upper part of the screen. The maximum number of comments displayed at once is five. About ten characters of a comment are displayed at once. If one is chosen, the whole sentence of the comment will then appear.

Fig 8: The screen for reading comments

4.4.8 Work Description and Artist Description

We determined one page of comments to be equal to 80 characters. One page’s layout was 14 characters x 6 lines.

We chose this layout so that neither reading difficulty nor shrinking difficulty occurs.

Fig 9: Work description and artist description

5. Actual Proof Experiment

At the permanent exhibition hall of the Toyota art museum in Toyota city, Aichi prefecture, we conducted a test experiment with general viewers for two days, from December 17th to 18th, 2005. We used two NTT DoCoMo Foma SH901in mobile phones, and prepared one Vodafone 903SH as a reserve. The Web server used Apache software for personal Web Sharing, running on a Power Mac G4, using OS X. The Web server was located in Nagoya University.

5.1. The experimental process

a) Permission for photography of subjects and observation of subjects’ actions was simultaneously obtained while the experiment was explained to a participant.

Fig 10: An explanation of the experiment to a participant

b) A viewer then input the password of the day and started the experiment.

c) Moving freely, a viewer then could write in comments or read others' comments.

The staff accompanied an experiment participant and observed actions while being unobtrusive.

Fig 11: A viewer writing comments

Fig 12: Viewers reading comments

Fig 13: The behavioural observation

d) At the end of the appreciation, a viewer filled in a questionnaire.

Fig 14: Viewers filling in questionnaires

e) An interviewer then interviewed the subject, eliciting information about write-in contents and opinions that were hard to investigate by questionnaire.

6. Evaluation Of An Actual Experiment

A questionnaire, an interview, and behavioural observation were used to evaluate the system. Each advantage is shown in the following.

Advantage of questionnaire:

• This allowed us to discern individual characteristics and background, which could influence behaviour factors.
• (motive, demand, expectations, past experience)

Advantage of interview:

• This form is more adaptable than the question form, and allowed us to investigate an indefinite point more deeply.

Advantage of behavioural observation

• A change in an external condition and resulting change in the viewer’s reaction could be recorded simultaneously.

The total number of subjects was 37 persons in two days.

6.1 From Questionnaires

6.1.1 Results of the questionnaire of the entire system

a) The whole evaluation

(Q1) How often do you visit an art museum?

Fig 15: How often do you visit an art museum?

(Q2) For art appreciation, was it useful for you to write comments while in front of works?

For this question (Q2), 70% of answers were “very useful” and “useful”.

Fig 16: Was it useful for you to write comments while in front of works?

(Q3) For art appreciation, was it useful for you to read comments while in front of works?

For this question (Q3), 75% of answers were “very useful” and “useful”.

Fig 17: Was it useful for you to read comments while in front of works?

(Q4) On a 100 point scale, how satisfied were you today with this comment-sharing system using a mobile phone?

The average answer was 72 points.

Crossmatching and corelating of (Q1) with (Q4) was done.

Fig 18: Satisfaction level: Frequency of art museum visit vs. the system/

b) About the design

(Q5) Was the arrangement of the screen easy to use?

For this question (Q5), 70% of answers were “very easy to use” and “easy to use”.

Fig 19: Was the arrangement of the screen easy to use?

(Q6) Was the arrangement of colour on the screen easy to see?

For this question (Q6), 92% of answers were “very easy to see” and “easy to see”.

Fig 20: Was the arrangement of colour on the screen easy to see?

(Q7) How was the size of the characters on the screen?

(Excluding the input column and the display column from your answer)

After cross tabulation with regards to evaluation and age, it became clear that the older the user, the smaller the characters seemed

Fig 21: How was the size of the characters on the screen?

(Q8) How was the font style of the character on the screen?

For this question, 81% of answers were “very easy to see” and “easy to see”.

Fig 22: How was the font style of the character on the screen?

(Q9) How was the character interval on the screen?

For this question, 81% of answers were “very easy to see” and “easy to see”.

Fig 23: How was the character interval on the screen?

(Q10) How was the spacing of the characters on the screen?

For this question, 84% of answers were “very easy to see” and “easy to see”.

Fig 24: How was spacing of the character on the screen?

(Q11) On a 100 point scale, how satisfied were you with the screen of this system?

The average answer was 77 points. Crossmatching of (Q1) with (Q11) was done.

Fig 25: Satisfaction level: Frequency of art museum visit vs. the screen

(Q12) If you don’t mind, please tell us your age (by 10 year intervals). The crossing total of (Q11) with (Q12) was done.

Fig 26: Satisfaction level with the screen design by age

6.1.2 Value of the Questionnaire

It was possible to attain good rough results from the questionnaire.

The satisfaction level for this system for appreciation beginners was obtained by corelating the total of (Q1) with (Q4). It was quite high.

From relating (Q7) with (Q12) it became clear that for older persons, character size becomes a problem. By relating (Q1) with (Q11), we were able to obtain a satisfaction level for the design of the screen for novices to art-appreciation.

6.2 Action Observations

6.2.1 Result of action observations

a) Males in their 50's and 60's hardly answered the questionnaire despite our request.

b) Many answerers compared the work with the mobile phone to answer the questionnaire.

Some were appreciating the work reading others' comments. This can be considered key to broadening their horizons in appreciation of art works.

c) Many seemed to think while looking at the work.

They were thinking in order to answer the questionnaire. This can be considered deeper thinking about the work.

d) Many couples, parents and children etc. were talking with each other when they were appreciating the work.

There are many people who were sitting on chairs and talking with a smile. This can be considered key to broadening their horizons in appreciation of art works.

e) A large number of subjects were standing much closer to the work than a normal distance of appreciation.

By this action, it appeared that subjects were trying to see details of the work.

f) Many elementary school students who used the mobile phone were operating it without any question.

Some commented that they happened to make mistakes in operation since they acted based on their habits in using their own mobile phones. Therefore, it could be said that the design we used this time was easy to operate for the viewers who used these cellular phones for the first time.

6.2.2 The Value of Action Observation

Appreciation while reading others' comments can be key to broadening horizons in appreciation of art works.

Thinking about answers can lead deeper thinking about art works.

Sharing feeling with others can be key to broadening horizons in appreciation of art works.

Viewers were trying to appreciate more minute details of the work They commented that they made mistakes in operating the buttons on the mobile phone because they had acted based on their habits in using their own cell phones. However, it also showed that the design we used this time was easy to operate for the viewers who operated cellular phones for the first time.

6.3. The Value of Interviews

6.3.1 Result of the Interview

a) I would be happy if this kind of system were introduced for appreciating contemporary arts, which are sometimes difficult.

b) My mobile phone has a different system of operating from the one I rented this time. So I found it confusing at first to learn how to use the rented phone

Since we received many opinions that it is difficult to grasp how to appreciate works of contemporary art, it is desirable to continue using this category of art as material in future. In our future experiments, it is advisable to use each viewer’s own mobile phone.

6.3.2 Opinions related to the evaluation of the design of the website

The screen is simple and easy to see.

The colour of the screen is recognizable.

The thumbnails used to display the works are useful

The map of the works shown in plain view is useful.

It was suggested by the collected comments shown above that what we had originally planned was reflected in the design of the site.

6.3.3 Comments to be considered as we tackle our future design plan

The characters are small, especially so for senior citizens, though it is OK with me.

(I think that seniors won’t participate in this experiment even if they are asked to, but this can be solved when we narrow the target viewers)

The Return button is hard to find.

I was puzzled when I had to use the up and down buttons to move the works right to left on the screen.

(We need to re-examine this button operation so that the viewers can operate them more intuitively.)

You could use the scroll bar when there are too many characters in one page.

(Using scrolling bars has become more popular since the spread of e-mailing by mobile phones. Therefore, we can use scroll bars in the next experiment.)

7. Summary and Future Prospects

This system is for beginners at viewing artworks and aims at deepening the viewers’ understanding of artwork by recording their viewing in front of a piece artwork and sharing the experience with other viewers. The system has two goals: observation and expansion.

One is to observe viewers deeply by recording their experiences which can be input into a mobile phone as they are in front of the actual work. Another is to extend the viewers’ knowledge by letting them refer to others' viewing records. To achieve those purposes, this system was designed.

The important thing for the design of this system is the following.

The design should make it easy for beginners to write their experiences in front of works. The design should make it easy for users to read comments by other viewers, to share their record of appreciation with other viewers.

In this research, we proposed the design of the comment sharing system using mobile phones redesigned for general public use, and tested the experiment in the Toyota art museum. The questionnaires, interviews, and behavioural observations were the base for the evaluation of the experiment. On the whole, the experiment gave good results. We agree that we are to carry out the next experiment using viewers' own mobile phones for appreciating works of contemporary art. We are also considering using scroll bars. After the above-mentioned tasks are completed, we will carry out another experiment in some other art museum in 2006 or later years.

References

British 2005, “Public Libraries: Efficiency and Stock Supply Chain Review” http://www.ala.org/aaslkcTemplate.cfm?Section=tasteofkc&template=/ContentManagement/ ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=101365

Fushimi, Kiyoka, Kazunori Okumura, Yurie Iribe, Kiyofumi Motoyama, ‘Design of PDA Guide for viewing art works’. The Japan Society for Exhibition Studies “TENJIGAKU” Vol.39. 2005.

Fushimi, Kiyoka, Kazunori Okumura, Yurie Iribe, Kiyofumi Motoyama, ‘Experiment and Evaluation of PDA Guide for viewing art works’ The Japan Society for Exhibition Studies “TENJIGAKU” Vol.40. 2005.

ICOM 2005. The International Council of Museum. “Definition of a Museum”. http://www.museum.or.jp/icom-J/definition.html.

Impress 2005, Mobile Contents Form 2004, “The Internet White Paper 2005” impress

JIS 2000.The Japanese industrial normal investigating committee, “JIS human-centered design process for interactive systems?JIS Z 8530” Association of Japanese Standard.

Museum 2005, Japanese Museum’s Law, “Definition of a museum”, http://www.houko.com/00/01/S26/285.HTM

Nielsen, Jakob. 1994, Usability Engineering, 1994.

Norman, Donald A. The Psychology Of Everyday Things 1996.

Toba 2005, Toba Aquarium. http://www.aquarium.co.jp/keitai/index.html.

VANGI 2005, The VANGI MUSEO Sculpture Garden Museum. http://www.vangi-museum.jp/i/

Cite as:

Fushimi K., Kikuchi N., and Kiyofumi M., An Artwork Communication System Using Mobile Phones, in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the Web 2006: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published March 1, 2006 at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/papers/fushimi/fushimi.html

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published: March 27, 2006
analytics code updated: Oct. 28, 2010

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