We profiled the audience groups and means of delivery in projects to look for any patterns or trends in the ways that museums think about their development, what they think appeals to funders, and how they interpret what “digital innovation” means.
Note that classifications are quite broad and only represent what was explicitly mentioned in applications; and one project may have multiple categories.
In terms of audience groups, the most common audience was young people (c.18-30), which may be expected from a fund seeking digital engagement. Many applications also wanted to work with more diverse audiences, such as black or Asian communities and people from lower socio-economic groups.
There was also a large representation of projects wanting to work with schools, often these met other audience criteria too, for example working with schools in areas of multiple deprivation. 10% of applications were aimed at reaching these audiences through formal education settings.
Applications to work specifically with audiences who cannot easily access physical museum spaces, such as those with mobility issues, were lower than expected at 7%.
Delivery methods varied widely across applications with the most popular being development of games and apps, learning programmes or platforms, AR and virtual exhibitions and tours.
A large proportion of applications defined their delivery methods too broadly to categorise, although it many cases this was a positive point that came from a desire for genuine co-production within projects that meant outputs could not be defined.
Within our categories a huge array of digital technologies and engagements were proposed, from QR code digital trails, podcasts and soundscapes; to escape rooms, coproduced videogames, and robotics; to crowdsourcing, mining big data and online forums.