1 West 12+

Fascinating with tons of potential

A museum can’t house all the items that it needs to show you, nor can it provide you with the things that make the experience contextual like hearing the voices of the creators or explanations of the significance of certain items - this app fills the gaps. It can play you music that would have been played during the era the house was built. It can show you artifacts that can’t be on display and you can move your phone around to see all sides of them. The photos inside of the inhabitants, as well as paintings on display, are of a great quality that gives you a greater appreciation of what’s around you. And interviews with the artists and curators offer even greater depth to the exhibits. I can see this app getting chock full of neat tools and tricks, some kinks exist, but I think this is an amazing first step towards newer innovations.

I hope this app was a donation

This is a second draft of this review. The first draft had me going on and on about how much I like the Museum and the occasion for my visit and trying the app. I’ve spared you all that.

I absolutely hate the App; it was such a disappointment. It is designed as if new app developers were trying to squeeze in all the neat tricks they learned from their book on iOS Apps.

Full confession: the app was so poorly done, I did not try all of its “features.” So I’ll give you a catalog of the things that went wrong until I gave up.

* To start, there’s a pointless launch page with the doors of One West opening. It gave me such high hopes for interactivity but those hopes were quickly dashed.

* Each room of One West has a QR code that activates an animation in the app. However, the animation is as pointless as the opening doors that start the app. In one room, the animation is pictures of the building from the past; however, you can’t pause the animation to study the photos. Moreover, the photos are small because they’re one a phone screen. In another, there is an animation of another door opening to slightly ajar; however, the door next to the QR code is locked. I am still puzzled regarding why the code was there.

* The final annoyance was that the geolocation was inaccurate. So, as I stood still in any given room, the app would randomly ask me if I was sure that I wanted to leave the room. That’s what make the app intolerable and make me stop using the app.

There’s a lot more that this app could be but I left my suggestions during the app survey at museum already. I just hope they didn’t pay so much for the existing app such that they can’t completely redo it.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed review. We always appreciate feedback from users, as it helps us improve our products.