Android Tablet & Heavy Duty Handsets – Witney Museum

By combining thoughtful design, digital technology and community collaboration, the project demonstrates how museums can collect and share contemporary heritage while creating accessible, engaging experiences for audiences of all ages. The redevelopment has transformed the museum into a place where Witney’s story continues to grow, ensuring today’s memories become tomorrow’s heritage.

– Hannah Cushion, Project Manager at Witney Museum.

As part of the Witney’s Got Wool and What Else? redevelopment project, Witney & District Museum worked with designers work-form and Sam Brown to redevelop their upstairs gallery including integrating two new digital experiences that connect visitors with the people, places and stories that have shaped Witney in the twenty-first century. Supported by a £198,096 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the wider redevelopment explores how Witney has evolved since the closure of its last blanket factory in 2002, ensuring the town’s recent history is collected, celebrated and shared alongside its industrial past. 

Discover Witney is an interactive digital map – using a 15″ POS Android Tablet with Heavy Duty Handsets – that encourages visitors to explore the town beyond the museum walls. The map links significant buildings, landmarks, businesses and community stories, helping visitors understand how Witney’s heritage continues to develop today. Designed for use both within the museum and online, the map extends the museum experience beyond a single visit, allowing local people, schools and visitors to discover stories wherever they are. By combining historic photographs, contemporary interpretation and location-based storytelling, Discover Witney creates a new gateway into the town’s heritage. Working with MyVision lived experience consultants, we have also enhanced the accessibility of Discover Witney, using their feedback to shape a more inclusive and intuitive experience for visitors with sight loss.

Alongside the map, a new Listening Post – constructed with Stainless Steel buttons and Heavy Duty Handsets – brings together the museum’s growing oral history collection, allowing visitors to hear first-hand accounts from people who have lived and worked in Witney. The installation also showcases a specially commissioned soundscape created by participants from MyVision, a local charity supporting people living with sight loss. Working creatively with the museum, participants recorded sounds, memories and reflections that capture the atmosphere of modern Witney, demonstrating how heritage can be experienced through sound as well as objects. This project was funding by NLHF and the Oxford University Museum Partnership Fund. Together, the oral histories and soundscape preserve voices that might otherwise be lost while ensuring a wider range of experiences are represented within the museum.

The digital experiences complement the museum’s newly redeveloped galleries, providing visitors with multiple ways to engage with Witney’s heritage through touch, sound, movement and exploration. Rather than simply displaying objects, the project invites visitors to discover the town through personal stories, community memories and places that continue to shape everyday life. By combining thoughtful design, digital technology and community collaboration, the project demonstrates how museums can collect and share contemporary heritage while creating accessible, engaging experiences for audiences of all ages. The redevelopment has transformed the museum into a place where Witney’s story continues to grow, ensuring today’s memories become tomorrow’s heritage.