Running head: A BRIEF LTEC CASE STUDY OF HOMA

A Brief LTEC Case Study of HoMA

Jonah A. Preising

LTEC 643

02/27/2017
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Introduction

When first researching the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) on the World Wide Web,

the search engine Google provides a healthily populated series of links that takes the one to the

HoMA homepage as well as a series of subsections. The subpages direct web users to the

museums gift shop, the hours of operation and admission page, a section offering classes

oriented towards different facets of the arts, and finally information on the current exhibitions

open to the public.

When searching for HoMA on an iOS device such as an iPad or an iPhone, the browser

suggests viewing the Apple App Store where a HoMA app is available for download at no cost.

The HoMA app is also available for Android devices on the Google Play store, yet it does not

readily appear as hyperlink within Google Chromes mobile browser search results.

For the purposes of this case study, there is an assumption that the typical mobile device

user would perform these searches and installations. There would also be an assumption that

these Android and Apple HoMA apps have some functionality within the walls of HoMA. This

last assumption would be dead wrong. The HoMA apps were simply web apps known in as

brochure-ware that functioned no more interactively than browser based desktop experience

(Dietz, 1998). As a matter of due diligence, the HoMA desktop website functioned far better

than the museums aforementioned mobile web apps.

When considering the 2012 Standards for Museum Exhibitions and Indicators of

Excellence website (aam.org, 2012), HoMA appears to generally align the broad strokes

concerning standards, although no information is available with respect to how success for any

particular exhibit is measured. Commitment to public engagement is demonstrated by a robust

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and well planned out schedule of upcoming events and a commitment to interpretation can be

seen in numerous docent guided tours and a robust volunteer training program.

With all these factors in consideration, HoMA is an ideal candidate for a case study of a

non-example of a museum that does not employ mobile technologies for the purpose of

engagement with the public or interpretation of exhibits to its full or even partial potential. For

the sake of economy, this case study will focus on the museums wing devoted to Modernist,

impressionist/post-impressionist, portraiture, Renaissance, 17th-18th century, and European

paintings. What follows will be a description of the site, narratives relating the experience and

analysis of the site visit and a discussion sharing the logic and conclusions of the researcher,

including instructional design recommendations employing mobile technologies that could

potentially improve visitors experiences and expand educational opportunities so that visitors

may find deeper meaning in the exhibits featured at HoMA.

Description of Site

The HoMA is located at 900 South Beretania Street, in Honolulu, Hawaii. The architect,

Bertram Goodhue designed the HoMA using elements of Mediterranean, Chinese and local

architecture. These influences include numerous French glass doors, arches, stone slabs, and

ubiquitous stucco surfaces.

Inside, the majority of the rooms depart from the atypical flat-white painted walls with a

count of no less than 20 distinctively themed colors throughout the various exhibitions. The

entrances to each climate-controlled exhibition are tinted French glass doors

The entire site takes advantage of the tropical climate with its featured Mediterranean and

Chinese courtyards as well as a surprisingly non-descript courtyard and outdoor caf for rest-
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weary visitors. The latest installation is seen stage right of the Beretania Street entrance of

HoMA. It is both surrounded by rebar and encircled in neon yellow caution tape. The exhibit

features a pair of objects created by Chinese artist Zhan Wang, entitled Artificial Rock No.133

from 2007 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Artificial Rock No.133

The HoMA complex (Figure 2.) takes up a city block and houses no less than 24 thematic

exhibitions at any one time. The ground floor and second floor exhibition halls are accessible to

the public.
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Figure 2. MoMA Map

The entrance fee for the general-public is $10.00, but there was no fee for those presenting a

school ID.

Record of Experience and Analysis Narrative

When I first entered the museum, both volunteers and staff warmly greeted me. I was

graciously welcomed me into the museum, where I spent the first several minutes interviewing

the cashier about whether or not the museum used mobile technologies with any of the exhibits.

Her answer was immediately a concerned no. I explained that I was there performing an onsite

analysis and case study of HoMA for a graduate class I was taking. The cashier replied by

saying that she hoped I would good recommendations for the museum in the future. Since this

was my first time in HoMA, I asked if any brochures or maps were available. The museums
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curator happened to be at the front counter and briefly annotated a museum map with the latest

exhibits with a ballpoint pen for my convenience and sent me on my way.

As I wandered my way through the museum, my internal motivations oscillated between

ideas on how to make the exhibits more engaging. Csikszentmihalyi and Hermanson thoughts

on motivations prompted me to reflect on whether or not I was skewing my intrinsic motivations

by viewing this site visit through the lens of a mobile devices and educational technology per the

nature of this assignments extrinsic motivations (Hemanson, 1995).

As I made my way through the paintings wing of HoMA, I was pleasantly surprise by

both the quality and diversity of the featured and mostly European artists. It was within the

painting wing of HoMA where I noticed the decidedly different colors of each room that

prompted me to speculate on the best way to design an interactive strategy of presenting

interpretive and instructional design materials on mobile devices (McLellan, 2000). Because the

wall color in some of the other exhibition rooms followed the tradition of flat white walls such as

the South-East and greater Asia exhibits. I have elected to focus on designing a mobile interface

and navigation design that features the thematic color schemes found in the painting wing of

HoMA that may improve the quality of the interactive experience (Dierking & Falk, 1992).

Since much of my instructional design experience has focused on working with the

elderly and speakers of English as a second language, the motivation for my design (Figure 3.) is

to make information normally featured upon the 12-point type text the placards situated next

each painting to make individual pieces far more accessible to the visually impaired. The

interface that I propose would feature a grid of colors that correspond colors to each painting

exhibit room. For example, the orange square would correspond to portraiture painting room and

the yellow square would correspond to the Renaissance painting room as pictured below.
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Figure 3. App mock-up

Individual paintings in each room would be fitted with CR codes or NFC tags that would

link to voice-over narrations that describe the interpretive materials based on the museums

research and application of interpretive standards (Weaver, 2012).

Discussion/Conclusion

It is clear that the gap between appropriate educational technologies and the complete

lack of any interactive on-site technologies is as wide a gap as one could bear, I find myself

asking why HoMA would not use any technology in their exhibits? Looking back on one of my

first questions as to whether or not I was missing some particular aspect of this museums

experience by being mobile device-centered evoked an image of how would the management or

even a member of the public feel about patrons looking at their mobile devices rather than the art

on the walls. This scenario was first on my list of reasons not to employ mobile technologies in
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HoMA. For over 100 years, HoMA has operated much in the same way they do today, short of a

website and virtually useless brochure-ware Android and Apple apps. The harsh reality of this

thought is that the visually challenged, who are primarily the comprised of the elderly, are

missing out on experiences such as these to get the most out of their museum visit. Although I

did not read every placard in the museum, when I did, I had to bend over, put on my reading

glasses, and use my mobile devices flashlight to read the paintings placard.

References
aam.org. (2012). 2012 Standards for Museum Exhibitions and Indicators of Excellence.pdf.

Retrieved from http://name-aam.org/uploads/ downloadables/NAME%20Documents

/2012%20Standards%20for%20Museum%20%20Exhibitions%20and%20Indicators

%20of%20Excellence.pdf

Dierking, L. D., & Falk, J. H. (1992). Redefining the museum experience: the interactive

experience model. Visitor Studies, 4(1), 173176.

Dietz, S. (1998). Curating (on) the Web. Presented at the International conference, Museums &

the Web, for the panel Cultural Competition.

Hemanson, K. (1995). Intrinsic Motivation in Museums: Why Does One Want to Learn?

McLellan, H. (2000). Experience design. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 3(1), 5969.

Weaver, S. (2012). Creating great visitor experiences: a guide for museums, parks, zoos,

gardens & libraries. Left Coast Press.