Whilst engrossing, this format presented a challenge to younger visitors, for whom the most intriguing and exciting stories were being lost in the fabric of the building as they wandered on by. Historic Royal Palaces wanted to change this by creating a scalable, digital experience that would help reveal the palaces fascinating past. Hampton Court Palace was chosen as the pilot site for the project.

Audience

HRP had two key audiences in mind they wanted to support:

• School Groups (Key Stage 2): Visiting in large numbers over the week, schools were looking for a well organised, guided experience that was curriculum aligned and offered tangible learning outcomes which could be developed further in the classroom. In a competitive market, HRP wanted to offer an experience which would encourage schools to return year-on-year.
• Young Families: Often coming for a full day visit, families wanted to make the most of their time and keep children excited and engaged for as long as possible. For Families, HRPs goal was to encourage repeat visits other nearby sites and increase sign-up to a season ticket.

Design Process

We started by observing existing school groups on tours in the palace. We saw how, starting with small innocuous objects, palace guides would use storytelling, collaborative learning and humour to engage young users and hold their attention. We also learnt the practical the steps required to keep groups on route, together and on time.

Together with HRP’s learning team, we developed a game concept and structure around ‘Digital Missions’. On a mission our protagonist - the Time Explorer - would help a historical character resolve a pressing problem. To do this, Time Explorers would have to complete a number of challenges, located around the palace, before completing a final summative challenge to decide their characters fate.

Aligning with HRP’s vision to launch Time Explorers across all their sites, all challenges were based around a few reusable frameworks. These needed to be quick, simple and encourage the viewers to find the answers in their surrounding environment. We created a series of high fidelity prototypes and conducted numerous moderated usability tests to evaluate their effectiveness.

Look & Feel

For Time Explorers, HRP wanted to create a rich, magical and playful experience. Visually they wanted the experience to allude to the textures, materials and symbols present throughout their palaces. Building features including Hampton Court Palaces solar clock became prominent features within the app.

To cater for differing audiences, the experience was designed responsively. Young Families would play primarily on their own mobile devices, whilst school groups were provided tablets at the beginning of their experience.

Impact

Since its launch in late 2015 Time Explorers has been rolled out across four HRP sites including Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London and Kew Palace.

To date, metrics and user evaluation has scored resounding and encouraging feedback with an average 95% hit rate against audience rating, parental satisfaction, engagement, value, and learning outcomes. The game was also the recipient of Learning Technologies Gold Award, for for Best Use of Mobile Learning in 2016.