Illustrative engagement. A representative scenario showing how we approach this kind of work in culture & heritage. It does not describe a specific client; outcomes are described qualitatively.
Industry overview
What is shaping culture & heritage
Museums, festivals and heritage sites need to understand visitors, build new audiences and show the value of their work to funders and communities.
- Funders expect evidence of impact
- New audiences need different programming
- Heritage tourism depends on visitor experience
Client background
A heritage conservation trust, working in Hyderabad. This is an illustrative engagement: a representative scenario showing how we approach this kind of work, not a named client project.
- Organisation
- A heritage conservation trust
- Sector
- Culture & heritage
- Team engaged
- IT & Development
- Services
- Mobile app development, Custom business applications
Client challenge
Volunteer guides were scheduled on WhatsApp, causing missed walks and double bookings.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: a volunteer coordination app for heritage walks.
- Design around the real needs of volunteers.
- Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
- Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.
Target audience
The work focused on 300 volunteers.
- volunteers300
Audiences we typically reach in culture & heritage
VisitorsNon-visitors and new audiencesLocal communitiesArtists and performersFunders and partners
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Hyderabad. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.
- 1Brief
- 2Volunteer scheduling
- 3Walk check-ins
- 4Insight
We built a simple app for volunteers to sign up for walks, receive reminders and check in, with a dashboard for coordinators.
Mobile app developmentCustom business applications
Sampling strategy
- volunteers
- 300
- Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.
Data collection
- Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.
Data quality & validation
- Peer code review on every change
- Automated and manual testing
- User-acceptance testing with the client
- Release checklist and rollback plan
Data analysis
- Usage and performance monitoring after launch
- Defect and support-ticket trends
- Process time before and after
Key findings
- Volunteers stay when coordination respects their time.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: volunteers stay when coordination respects their time.
- Track adoption and support tickets, and plan the next release from real usage.
Business impact
- Missed walks became rare, and coordinators spent far less time on scheduling.
Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Deployed solution with documentation and handover
- Support and maintenance plan
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: what impact did the festival have?