This is a really interesting discussion, and for what it’s worth here’s my two penneth.
We’ve been developing a mobile app platform called Situate that uses iBeacons and GPS for auto-triggering content. We’ve used it in quite a few venues now so have built up a fair bit of experience about what works well and what doesn’t. You can see some of our examples here: https://situate.io/casestudies/
Quickly running through the options:
NFC tags are not really a viable option at the moment because of the lack of support from iOS devices.
QR tags are clunky to use. They are not supported ‘out of the box’ by phones so require an app to read them which is immediately a barrier for many users. They're not great in a crowded environment and typically require an internet connection to take you through to an external URL. The advantage is that they are very easy to set up and link to existing web content - but in my view they give a rather sub-standard experience at best.
In my opinion iBeacons are the best option at the moment. We have found that the best approach in a museum or gallery context is to set the power of the output signal quite low so that the beacon range is limited to between 2 or 3 metres. This helps prevent interference between beacons. It can be a good idea to display some sort of prompt close to where each beacon is installed - this reminds users to check their phone, or to install the app if they haven’t already. Of course it also means users are encouraged to check their phone at the ‘sweet spot’ for each beacon. Beacons are very easy to install and configure, don’t require external power or an internet connection - and can easily be moved around as exhibitions change.
The Eddystone flavour of beacons could become quite interesting but at the moment isn’t really offering any particular advantage over the iBeacon protocol - other than the ability to push out a notification linking straight to an external URL. But limited support for this functionality restricts its practical applications.
If anyone wants to give iBeacons a try but isn’t sure how to go about it then I’d be happy to give any member of this group free access to our Situate platform to have a play, and provide whatever advice you may need. It’s very easy to get an iBeacon-enabled app set up to see how the technology works. Just let me know and I'll do what I can to help.
Stephen Elliott
Llama Digital
https://situate.io
0114 307 2340
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
|