NFC in Museums: Uses, Testing and Practical Trade-offs

In museums today, there are all sorts of technologies that are able to merge the real-world experience of visitors with enhanced information from the virtual world. Systems like QR codes and Augmented Reality where visitors can access additional content in the virtual realm via their smart device are now not uncommon in many of the world’s leading museums.

Near-Field Communication is another technology that is worth talking about from a visitor perspective.

What is NFC?

When data passes back and forth wirelessly, there are a number of different protocols that could be used. Some like WIFI or Bluetooth are well known. NFC is another form of this technology which was developed from radio-frequency identification, a microchip identification system which is used in retail for scanning items. The technology relies on relatively modest electro-magnetic fields which can be detected only when the scanning equipment is close to the item which has the chip within it.

Nokia, Philips and Sony were among the early organisations involved in NFC’s development. NFC can be used in several operating modes, including contactless payment and reading tags. The security arrangements for payments should not be confused with the simple act of opening a museum web address from a tag.

What an NFC tag does

NFC is a very short-range wireless technology operating at 13.56 MHz. Its working distance and data rate depend on the mode, equipment and installation; a single fixed range or speed does not describe every use. Passive tags can be read without a battery of their own. The NFC Forum’s technical overview distinguishes the different modes and tag uses.

An NFC tag can give a compatible device a short piece of information, such as a web address or an object identifier. It is a trigger for the experience, not the audio, interpretation or social interaction itself. Decide what should happen after the tap before choosing the tag.

NFC and Museums

Test the label with the phones and settings visitors actually use. Make the action visible, explain where to hold the device and provide a QR code or short URL as another route. A dedicated reader, such as a handling-object system, has different support requirements from a visitor-owned phone.

See the guide to planning QR codes as another access route.

In a gallery, NFC could offer more information about the work of art a visitor is looking at. You could use it to produce a biography of the artist or to provide additional context for the piece, such as more historical information. There again, you could use NFC to show visitors the location of other works by the same artist within your collection. However, it is important to note that providing text information is only one way that museums can take advantage of NFC. It is just as likely that a museum might choose to provide a video or audio when an NFC chip and a phone are brought together, for instance.

An NFC-triggered page might offer audio in several languages or links to the museum’s social media. A tap does not itself create a follow or increase the museum’s online presence. The destination page, device support and the visitor’s choices determine what happens next.

The Museum of London: a historical example

The original 2019 article described an earlier NFC deployment at the Museum of London. Its examples included additional information about the Lord Mayor’s Coach, medieval jewellery and a painting of Ronnie Kray. The Nokia system and social platforms described below belong to that historical case, rather than a statement of what is available at the museum today.

In that account, Vicky Lee, then the Museum of London’s marketing manager, described NFC tags rolled out throughout both the museum’s venues, allowing visitors to delve deeper into London’s story in what she refers to as, “an immediate and engaging way.” Lee said that the powers-that-be at the museum recognised how NFC technology had the potential to change how the institution interacted with its visitors whether they were present or not. The reported aim went beyond adding information to exhibits: it also included helping visitors keep in touch with the museum online.

The historical account described links to Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare as possible destinations after a tap. Visiting such a destination is distinct from choosing to follow, like or check in, and those actions may require the visitor to sign in.

Other uses described for Nokia’s NFC Hub included links to café vouchers, shops, temporary-exhibition bookings, a “Soundtrack to London” download and the museum’s friends scheme. These were proposed or reported access routes in the historical case; the article did not provide measured evidence of a membership increase.

The Museum In a Box Model

A visitor-owned phone is only one operating model. The Museum in a Box example uses a dedicated reader with handling objects, so it has different support requirements from supporting visitors’ own devices.

The Museum in a Box model described in the original 2019 article was designed to allow people to experience certain aspects of an institution from elsewhere. The idea is, therefore, primarily designed to appeal to schools and other organisations which will add to their educational offering without the benefit of an in-person museum visit. As such, it could easily serve as a part of an institution’s community outreach programme. When a Museum in a Box is sent out, it comes with a miniature PC, a speaker, a small amplifier and an NFC reader.

When the box is put together, cultural institutions can add whatever they like to make the device their own. As such, the recipients are not simply learning about the technology itself but of the subject matter of the museum concerned. Typically, museums include 3D-printed versions of some of their artefacts but it is equally possible to add puzzles or information sheets – or, indeed, anything else that might work – to the kit. All that is needed is an NFC tag with these items so that when they are placed on the NFC reader, a recording will start to play via the computer’s speaker. These are pre-recorded and held on the PC’s memory. The NFC technology acts as a trigger for greater educational context about the objects concerned. They tell their own story. As such, anyone using it gets something like a museum-like experience even if they are not present at the institution itself.

Horniman Museum and Gardens

In the Horniman example reported in the original 2019 article, according to museum professionals at the Horniman Museum, situated in south-east London, both QR and NFC technologies had been deployed there in order to compare their relative strengths and weaknesses. One of the applications that they wanted to use these wireless communications systems for was to allow visitors to experience more of the books they had on display. After all, as the museum pointed out, behind a display cabinet only one page of a book can be presented at any one time. Initially, the museum used QR codes for visitors to scan. When they had done so, further pages could be read on their smart device.

Having put this in place, the museum wanted to do the same for another of the books in its collection, this time using NFC technology instead. In terms of the two technologies, it is fair to say that they both functioned well and did what the museum wanted – to provide a better user experience of the books concerned. What the team at the Horniman Museum found was that NFC tags were cheap, easy to put in place and simple to operate. That said, they did not work on all of the smart devices visitors took to the museum.

Place and maintain tags safely

Keep tags on an appropriate label, mount or purpose-made replica unless a conservator has approved another method. Record the destination, inspect the tags and assign someone to maintain the linked content. Evaluate recorded use and visitor feedback without assuming that a tap caused a follow, membership or learning outcome.