The journey as concept for digital museum design

Abstract

This article discusses The Journey as a metaphor for design and development of the app Kunstporten (Art gate) for mobile and iPod. The goal of the project was to go beyond traditional mobile guides and support young visitors' various and contiguous experiences with art. The project involved seven Norwegian art museums over the period 2012–2013. The article focuses on the choices and challenges we as museum professionals met during the design of the app. It reports on how the dialogic concept of museum communication, integrated in the metaphor of The Journey, was shaped and adjusted in the design, planning and development of modules, multimedia content and procedural structure that may support art experience as a journey. The article describes considerations undertaken by museum practitioners in processes of creating museum communication that goes across multiple mediational platforms.