Bringing Michigan Central to life with a Digital Visitor Guide

Overview

A ruin for 40 years, the iconic former railroad station in Detroit reopened as The Ford Motor Company’s brand-new multi-billion dollar Innovation Center. The core spaces of the old station - including the concourse, waiting rooms and former restaurants have been restored to their former 1920s glory as a cultural centre with public access. 

Smartify delivered digital visitor guides that facilitated engagement and accessibility in a high-volume visitation scenario. More than 20,000 people accessed the custom web app in just the first two weeks of opening. 

The Brief

For the grand reopening, a solution was needed to help what was expected to be many thousands of visitors engaging with and rediscovering these massive, iconic spaces.  

A key challenge was providing a world-class welcome and engagement for all visitors, without impeding visitor flow and pressurising the logistical operation of the building. 

The Solution 

• Smartify created a Digital Visitor Guide that includes an audio guide to help visitors navigate the spaces; Object Recognition scanning to increase engagement with the museum and the community-focused exhibition Faces of Michigan Central; and an accessibility solution for the Story of the Station exhibit in the main waiting room.
• We made the experience available as a Custom Web App, which drew together the experiences under the Michigan Central brand, and by linking this to the visitor flow, ensured that they were made visible to visitors at the right time.
• The Custom Web App was made available in a 100% Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) format; removing the need for onsite devices and the associated additional resources in money, space and personnel.
• Our approach to atomic design in the content creation meant that visitors could either access the entire guide at the beginning of their experience, or via QR codes in specific locations with content engagement opportunities available. 
• This was successful (33% of all engagements were via QR code during the visitor journey, not at the start) by effective and clear signage in each of the main locations.
• Smartify also tailored its onsite team training to ensure that all volunteers and visitor-facing staff were familiar with the guide, FAQs and were able to positively promote it.

What made our solution unique

In collaboration with the Michigan Central team and agency Civic, we designed the user experience with a focus on how visitors would use the Digital Visitor Guide to access content. 

The audio guide featured archival interviews and music by Detroit musicians, bringing each space and story to life. 

• Smartify scanned the entire object collection in the new museum providing engaging Object Recognition that prompted deeper exploration; and the portraits in the Faces of Michigan Central exhibit, activating audio interviews for each portrait. 
• The solution also made the central Story of the Station exhibit accessible to sensory-impaired visitors via phone-activated text-to-speech.
• Best practices in promotional signage were applied, using queue management to encourage visitors to access the app while waiting and offering dedicated content to engage them during their wait.  In addition, QR codes leading to location-specific content were located in highly visible positions throughout the site.

The Impact

• Between June 10th and mid September, 48,000 people have so far engaged with the experience. Almost half of these during the initial two week Open House event.  13,000 visitors were able to access the experience in a single day without any problems.
• Presenting the experience as a Digital Visitor Guide, rather than an audio guide and using the Custom Web App format presented an attractive and varied list of options and got a much higher take-up-rate.
• 33% of users in the first two weeks were using the geo-located QR codes to access content. These are visitors who did not access the audio guide at the start, but changed their minds mid-way through.
• Visitors appreciated the content in the guide, and the ability to dip-in and out without having to follow a prospective route. 

Image courtesy HistoricDetroit.org