Web and mobile: February 2014

Rebecca Atkinson on an ambitious app on the history of science

The Journeys of Invention app is the result of a partnership between the Science Museum in London and Touch Press, a developer that recently won Apple’s iPad app of the year award (for Disney Animated). This high-spec app features 80 objects from the museum’s collection, which users can explore, rotate, and interact with.

There are 14 journeys that aim to tell different stories around the history of science. Some, such as Mass Production and Secrets of Life, have been curated around a specific area, while others, such as Dangerous and Horizons, are more thematic.

The app is the digital equivalent of a major physical exhibition, with each story accompanied by short and long text explaining their significance, and supplementary audio, archive material and photographs.

Highlights include the Apollo 10 Command Module, which has been photographed to give people a 360-degree view inside, and a working Enigma machine that users can use to type and share coded messages.

Elsewhere, Robert Hooke’s 17th-century microscope is fully interactive, allowing people to zoom in on a flea, a nettle and a needle.

As well as conveying a serious message, the app is fun. Where else can you watch what happens when you put a CD or bar of soap in a microwave oven and press of the start button?

The app is free to download and two journeys (Connected and New Science) are free. But access to all the content is only available as an in-app purchase of £6.99.

There is plenty of appeal in this app. But only time will tell whether people are willing to pay for this type of experience.


Henge at dawn

To promote the new Stonehenge visitor centre, English Heritage has launched an app-based competition and social media campaign. The app (from stonehengenewdawn.com) allows users to superimpose a silhouette of the stone over a photograph.

Users are then encouraged to share their images on Facebook, Twitter (using the hashtag #newdawn) and Instagram for a chance to win tickets for a sunrise experience inside the stone circle.

The number of photographs already submitted suggests there is public appetite for this prize. The app has social media sharing buttons. It may not have long-term appeal but the initiative is a nice example of tying apps into marketing campaigns.


Using the web to promote the local archives and records offices

Explore Your Archive is a new campaign by the Archives and Records Association and the National Archives to raise awareness of archives, their value to society and impact on individuals.

The accompanying website is bright and lively, and aims to offer a central point where people can find out about different archives and their collections. Although it has a traditional navigation bar, the site is single page so users can scroll down to find more information. It’s an unusual design and can be a bit confusing when first visiting.

Under Featured Archives there is a carousel promoting different collections. “Were your ancestors criminals?” is the heading of the Suffolk Record Office’s archive, while Hampshire Archives and Local Studies simply invites people to explore their family stories. From here, users can click through to an archive’s own website and continue their research from there.

The large photographs are attractive, but it could be made clearer to people how many archives have been featured and why.

The next page allows people to view forthcoming events and exhibitions that are associated with the campaign. Again, it would be more useful to allow people to search rather than forcing them to scroll down, and down, and down.

My favourite bit of the site allows people to search for archives using Google maps.

It’s a shame you can only search by postcode rather than search term, but it’s a good way to help people connect with the archives on their doorsteps.