Square Root Solutions are proud to present the Donaghmore Museum app, developed with the ultimate visitor experience in mind. This app has allowed the local Co Laois museum to open its doors to a new way of experiencing history.

App brings famine life into the 21st Century

A rural museum will always find it difficult to promote themselves outside of the local community. To attract visitors from all over is the challenge. How is a small, off the beaten track museum supposed to offer something new and exciting to experience. A digitally enhanced, user friendly experience was to be the solution.

We built the app to allow visitors to scan the artefacts and provide them with detailed descriptions with images, videos and audio. Through augmented reality and 3D technology, we have shown the possibilities through which museums can grow and promote themselves digitally, while also ensuring that visitor numbers grow.

One key facet of this project was to make the museum experience as accessible as possible. A goal of the museum is to promote their app to tourists of other nationalities. With this in mind, they enlisted us, Square Root Solutions, to provide them with the method to do so.

In order to enhance the visitors experience of the workhouse museum, users have found that with the app, they can bring alive the way of life that the inhabitants endured. Donaghmore now offers its visitors to download and use their app to interact with the workhouse.

We have developed the app so that users can scan the artifacts and display models to view the details and stories behind them. This allows the user a way to absorb the information while performing the same action as they do every day.

We added a special feature by including a number of 3D models which can be viewed through the augmented reality technology. It shows the high authenticity of the models on display as well as their various uses.

For the museum this was a completely new venture, and one that would not have been possible if not for some excellent work by their team. Their risk has paid off and the museum has been increasingly busy ever since, with the locals also seeing the benefit to the surrounding area.

One problem that museums have had, especially in recent years, is the way in which they can reach and relate to a younger population, ever obsessed with mobile devices. We wanted to address this issue and offer a viable and practical solution. With the interactive model within the app, it has led directly to an increase of both visitor numbers and the amount of hours that users spend within the museum, being increased to upwards of 1.5 hours on the grounds.

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Inaugration

We created the Donaghmore Museum App with authenticity, immersion and accessibility. With this approach we are able to proudly present a fresh way for each and every tourist experience to be a memorable one, solving a problem faced by the museum.

In late 2019 the app gained National recognition when Sean Canney, Minister for Rural affair and Communities, launched it in the workhouse. The first of its kind in rural Ireland. Our award winning apps have gained national recognition and been endorsed by our users and clients. This is something which we are very proud of and continue to build on as we meet the new decade head on.

Users have been hugely in favour of the app, showing how it’s features work well with the museum. While experiencing the workhouse physically, they have seen the advantages of combining the digital aspect while interacting with the models up close and personal.

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Future of AR Apps

We here at Square Root Solutions are always looking to the future to see where we can enhance and improve app based experiences. This project was a keen favourite of ours as we can see the clear benefits of using augmented reality within the realms of an education based institution.

The future of apps like this is boundless. While Virtual Technology is being explored and used across a broad range of subjects, we believe there is still room for the technology to be harnessed and introduced to the spectrum of museum based apps. As the app continues to grow in popularity we can explore the options available to us, as we believe that the use of virtual reality can greatly enhance the scope of users.

While we expand our horizons to app usage with more virtual reality, we also look at other possibilities for our technology. We want to apply the virtual world to benefit the apps of any partner who chooses to work with us, strong in the belief that it can help that business grow far beyond what they previously thought possible.

Results

As the Donaghmore Museum increases its daily footfall, so too will it experience more positive reviews from our groundbreaking app. Our team is always looking at the potential of our award winning applications. We believe that with the inclusion of virtual reality technology that the Donaghmore app can improve even further.

Users can truly delve into the troubled story of the workhouse and immerse themselves in the conditions which inmates endured. Developed with user interaction in mind, the app allows visitors of all ages to enjoy the remarkable history of the 19th-century workhouse.

Commissioned in 1850 and opened three years later, the workhouse was home to hundreds of impoverished and starving locals of the Laois community. Built with funding from a local property owners tax, the landowners of the area desired to see the starving off of their land.

Before the apps launch and implementation the museum was experiencing a lull in numbers. Their committee had a decision to make as to the museum's future. Since our app has been in use the museum has been rejuvenated, leading to a more secure future for the tourist attraction.

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