A nationally recognized museum and educational institution deploys an integrated mobile and web-based solution to capture data about the 1.6 million people that visit the museum each year.

Overview

Attendance at the Museum of Science was at an all time high, but the administration, constantly committed to providing an entertaining and educational experience, wanted to create a new tool for teaching tourists about the power of data collection and analysis. In a world where polls, quick surveys, and data charts have become integrated in our daily lives, it is useful and important to have the ability to decipher and understand how the process works in data collection and analysis. However, this also presented an issue to the museum – how could they create an innovative and interactive exhibit that’s based on something found in everyday life? Administration felt that existing pen and paper data collection methods would not be an effective way to accomplish their objective of creating and interesting, innovative and engaging exhibit for visitors. Instead, their vision for the exhibit was something that would utilize the latest technology to create a centralized and integrated solution that would fit in with the rest of the Museum’s exhibits and give the Museum the flexibility to change the way the exhibit works.

The Museum’s project and IT teams began by conducting considerable research into data collection and survey software solutions. Looking for something that was scalable, high-speed and flexible to their unique needs, the Museum of Science evaluated a variety of companies and tested trials of several off-the-shelf products. At this point, it became evident that Prezza Technologies’ CHECKBOX® Mobile Solution was the best choice suited for Museum of Science.

With the assistance of Prezza Technologies, The Museum of Science’s project team was able to make their unique vision come to life. Together with Prezza, the Museum’s team designed a one-of-a-kind exhibit that would run in the Museum’s Discovery Center areas, which are some of the most popular areas of the museum.

Using Prezza’s centralized CHECKBOX® survey and data collection platform, the Museum’s administrators and researchers design the surveys in the back office using a standard web browser. Once the surveys are designed and approved, they are then deployed to the Museum’s customer relations representatives. Using Symbol wireless-enabled Pocket PC handheld devices, the Museum’s representatives collect data from one or more visitors simultaneously as they walk the museum’s exhibits. Each time data is collected into CHECKBOX® Mobile, it is wirelessly transmitted back to the server using the built in 802.11 wireless card, which connects to Cisco Aironet access points that are installed throughout the museum.

Usability has been key to the success of the exhibit. The easy to use, highly configurable interface of Checkbox allowed the Museum of Science to use the product with minimal training. “Prezza has created an easy to use tool that allows us to quickly get information in an often hectic informal teaching environment.” Tim Kardatzke, Senior Information Architect, stated. “Visitors are often just as interested in the survey forms as they are the data.”

The data that is collected varies based on the particular survey, but generally includes behavioral information about visitors’ interaction with a particular exhibit, including time spent at a given exhibit and the visitor’s reaction to it. In addition, certain profile data, such as sex and age category, are often collected in order to determine trends in exhibit popularity.

Once the data has been gathered back at the server, the Museum’s researchers use Checkbox to obtain the data and prepare it for analysis. Once analyzed, the results are published back to the Discovery Centers, where large LCD displays visually display the results to the museum’s visitors.

Overall, Checkbox Mobile Solutions, built on the very same architecture as Prezza’s scalable CHECKBOX® Web, gave the researchers at the Museum of Science the features and flexibility they needed to create what is rapidly becoming a popular exhibit.

About Prezza Technologies
Based in Cambridge, MA, Prezza Technologies is a leading developer of survey and data collection software and has an installed base of customers around the globe, including major organizations such as Microsoft, Deutsche Bank and Vodafone. In addition, Prezza Technologies has recently launched CHECKBOX®, a comprehensive suite of modular applications designed to meet highly demanding requirements of enterprise-level installations. Modules include a powerful server application featuring workflow and routing, a flexible handheld application for Pocket PC and a desktop application.

For more information, contact Prezza Sales toll free at 1-866-430-8274 or +1-617-715-9605
Email: info@prezzatech.com.