11 rules that an audio guide should follow (Nubart's Manifesto)

Visitors have varying levels of digital comfort. An audio guide should be designed on the principles of elegant simplicity. We are committed to providing an intuitive user experience that avoids navigation levels or key strokes. Our goal is to assure that visitors young and old can have an immediate and effortless experience without reading instructions or asking staff for assistance.

Some visitors may have limited time to enjoy your facility in its entirety while they are there. For others, their thirst for information may exceed their capacity or time to absorb and appreciate it. Nubart is the audio guide your visitors keep! Portability of the Nubart Audio-Card provides an experience that keeps on giving.

Used properly technology should be a servant of visitors, not their leader. The use of technology should be based upon necessity and relevance and guided by minimalism. Nubart supports the relationship between a visitor and facility, without interfering with it.

We believe too much in the value of an audio guide to accept that only a few visitors use it. That’s why our audio guides are accessible and very easy to use. At Nubart we are proud of the extraordinary takeup-rates of our cards and we will work continuously with you to find the best way to increase them even more.

We can produce content for you to have it integrated into Nubart’s system. But if you ever decide to change towards another system, we will not keep you from taking the content with you and to reuse it. We know that, without your exhibit, that content would never have come to life anyway. We also trust that you will want to stay with us, but we see no point in forcing you to do so.

A lot of effort goes into a special exhibition and it is sad to see it’s over. Our audio guides for temporary exhibitions will be accessible to the visitor long after the exhibition closes. You can also convert our cards into a kind of publication by adding downloadable PDFs with relevant press-reviews or academic articles and sell it on your museums-shop during or after the exhibition. For small exhibitions, our cards can even be an audio guide + catalog in one.

At Nubart we believe that your visitors should also have a word about how we do. That's also why we incorporate a feedback form and we check every day in real time the comments that your visitors leave about the audio guide. If they ever detect a mistake due to us, we will correct it at our cost before you have even time to request that. We also analyze the visitor’s use of the audio guide together with you with the aim of perfecting it every day a little more.

At Nubart we believe that an audio guide has to be like a living organism and has to grow over time to adapt to the changes in your museum. We don’t want a frustrated visitor because the artworks highlighted in the audio guide are not on display due to a busy program of loans. That’s why our CMS makes it so easy to make changes.

Historically, due to high acquisition and maintenance costs, only about 10-15% of museums and attractions have been able to provide visitors with an audio guide experience. Nubart is committed to democratizing the audio guide experience by making them available and affordable for facilities regardless of their size or budget.

Audioguides are too great to be offered only to museums. Since you don't have to pick up devices, with Nubart you can audio guide your company, your shop, your factory, your zoo, your city, your natural park, your college, your event or your congress. Wherever visitors are interested in learning more about a physical space, audioguides will have a place.