The educational role of museums has increased worldwide in recent decades, targeting free choice learning. Cemeteries may also be considered as cultural heritage museums, once they have lost their characteristics as sites of sadness and mourning, and have become real places of memory. The cemetery "musealization" is an increasingly important subject of study in museology, fundamental to the preservation of these spaces as locations of famous people, tombs, and funerary art created by renowned sculptors. Cemitério Consolação is a burial place of many historical figures, including politicians, artists, industrials and many others, in addition to the site of hundreds of funerary art works.
This article's purpose is to verify the effectiveness of a mobile application at providing self-guided visits at Cemitério Consolação, focusing on the educational aspects for users.
Many visitors don't exploit a visit to the museum as much as possible due to a lack of information. Some technologies can help guide visitors through space, directing them to exhibitions or objects that match their preferences, or suggesting routes or other digital resources to interact with. This may increase the knowledge and understanding acquired at the site, challenging and stimulating visitors.
We developed a mobile application using the following steps: cataloging tombs; bibliographical research; self-guided visit routes; geolocation and tomb photographs; information architecture and data modeling; choice of application technology; and application construction and tests.
Planned routes were designed according to spontaneous visitors, and also to scholars' interests. For example, the script “20 must-see” was basically designed for visitors with little knowledge about the site and what they could find there. The search for a name of a sculptor or buried celebrity, and the search for keywords (e.g. "musicians," "poets", "chapels" etc.) have great value for the site's explorers, facilitators, professionals and researchers.