Tours

Tours use audio clips to guide visitors on a path through a group of items.

In This Article

Tour fields

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Title: The tour's title.
Display period: Choose a display period.
- None: Hide the display period entirely when the tour is no longer available, or when a display period doesn't make sense for the content.
- Ongoing: Indicate an ongoing or permanent tour.
- Date range: Define the specific dates on which the tour starts and ends.
- Expiration: After the tour's end date passes, the map location and lookup numbers for the tour (and its stops) is removed. You can choose whether to automatically unpublish the tour after it ends, or keep it published in your guide. If you choose to keep it published, it converts to an exhibition, and its stops convert to items without locations.
  
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Duration: Enter the estimated duration of the tour, in minutes. For example, if you think it takes someone about an hour and a half to walk through your space and listen to the content, enter "90."
Description: Add a description that gives an overview of the entire tour. For example, introduce the story, explain how the items work together to tell the story, or suggest how your audience can best enjoy the content.
Audio: Add one or more audio files to the tour landing page. This audio should apply to the entire tour. For more, see Add audio to the CMS.
Video: Add one or more video files. This video should apply to the entire tour. For more, see Videos.
Lookup number: To associate the tour with posted signage in your physical space, select or enter a lookup number. For more, see Lookup numbers and QR codes.
Tour stops: Add items to the tour. In your guide, these items (stops) appear in a list, in the order in which a visitor experiences the tour. All tour stops must have location pins.
Related: To highlight similar content at the bottom of the tour screen, update the Related section. For more, see Related content and links.

Note: The Related section appears at the bottom of the tour's landing page so you can promote other material that a visitor might enjoy. However, the Related section does not appear on any of the tour stops.

There are a few reasons for this:

Tours are designed to guide visitors through a curated journey. Hiding related content on individual stops helps keep visitors from getting distracted in the middle of the tour.
Most visitors experience the tour in a map-driven format, where they see only a brief snippet of information at each stop and primarily engage with the audio. Because many visitors never open the full item, they're unlikely to see the related content on the item screens.
Excluding related content from tour stops results in cleaner usage data, making it easier to see how visitors engage with the tour as a whole.

Content recommendations

If your education team already gives scheduled, live tours with docents, a digital tour can be an excellent addition. It's for visitors who prefer to explore on their own schedule, in their preferred language, or from home.

For more ideas and inspiration, see Develop your audio tour concepts.

Details

Make it easy to find the tour in your guide. For example, consider adding "tour" to the title of the section on the Home screen.
Help visitors decide if the tour is right for them. For example, provide the tour's duration, a preview of the content that you'll cover, or both. You can also summarize the path through your space, including possible barriers like stairs or rough terrain.
Set the tour's context. For example, use the tour description or an introductory audio to give background or explain why you chose certain objects. This helps visitors enjoy the content, whatever they already know about your subject.

Content and strategy

Most visitors will expect an audio tour. To align with visitor expectations and provide a consistent experience, include audio in all items used as tour stops.
Focus on your storytelling. Early in the tour development process, think about the pace and the structure of the story. Then use those decisions to choose which items and stories to include.

On-site experience

Double-check that all featured objects are on view and accessible to the public.
Add all items to the map, including the introduction and conclusion items, if you have them.
Organize items in a logical order. Remember that visitors physically move between stops.
Help visitors locate each stop. You have two options.
- If you're creating audio specifically for a tour, and the items rarely move in your physical space, consider adding detailed directions to your audio clips to guide visitors to the next stop. For example: “Now, go through the double doors to Gallery 101 and stop in front of the main display case. We’ll continue there for the next stop in the tour.”
- Some items move around a lot, and some stops reuse audio files from another purpose. For these, consider adding short location information in the location Name field of the item's pin (for example, Gallery 101 main case, top right).
Avoid adding location information to the item description, because that information doesn't appear on the map view and visitors might miss it.
Make it easy for visitors to connect what they see in your guide to what they see in your physical space. For example, a small object in a display case might be hard to find. In this case, include images that show the object in the case, and studio images of the object on its own.