The itinerary of paintings in MNAC that feature dogs is merely one of the proposals made by users of Unique Visitors, a startup set up by Ana Basso and incubated in Barcelona Activa. The aim is not to spend a whole day in the museum, but rather to make a much more specialised visit. Basso says "we are looking for transversal visions and other themes, such as current affairs, music, history, dress, etc." Users can choose between five different categories when creating or following itineraries: masterpieces -for the must-see works-, families -for parents with children-, personal -the favourite works of the user who created the itinerary-, in-depth -focusing on an aspect of a collection-, and special needs -itineraries made in cooperation with groups with special needs.
Easy and trustworthy
To do one of the itineraries all you have to do is go to the website or download the free app. You then search among the itineraries available and choose the one that appeals to you most without the need to even become a registered user. To create an itinerary is also very easy: "We wanted to find a balance between very reliable and high-quality content but without asking a lot of effort from the person who creates it," says the entrepreneur.
It includes a search tool that contains all of the works in the museum's collection. Navigating between the works or with filters, the chosen work is added to the itinerary in question. Each description includes a photo and the name of the piece, the author's name, the specifications and a text. What's more, a personal comment can be added to the chosen work. "In the dog itinerary, for example, if a dog appears in a work by Ramon Casas the museum does not mention it, which is why there is the possibility of adding information to each work," says Basso. Once the desired works have been chosen, the app puts them into the optimum order for the itinerary.
 |
| Two works by Ramon Casas in which dogs appear |
More museums, more itineraries
Currently the startup is only working with MNAC for which it has 93 posted itineraries and 1,500 registered users.Nevertheless, Basso is in talks with other museums to be included in what Unique Visitors offers.
The company was set up at the beginning of the year by Basso and her business partner, Felipe Becker. They already had a company providing digital solutions for the cultural sector, producing websites and mobile apps. The entrepreneurs took part in the Apps & Cultura contest organised by the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona with a basic prototype of Unique Visitors. They won two prizes and "that gave us a great boost." With this initial guarantee, they continued to work on the idea and even went to the Museum Next congress, a fair in London on technology for museums. "There was a need and interest," says Basso. After finding funding they registered the company in January 2015.
However, they still needed to build a team and find premises. This is where Barcelona Activa gave them a hand, "as well as providing us with mentoring, advice, support, guidance and a lot of technical and legal help," says the entrepreneur. For now, Unique Visitors is focused on widening its offer, both in the number of museums and itineraries, as well as publicising the app in museums so that visitors can make use of it.