About Tours of Mason

On the original "Walking Tour of Mason" web page on the Mason Chamber of Commerce site (last updated around 2010), several business ownerships and URLs and stories have changed and need to be updated. This "Mason Matters" project chunks that information so that stories can be updated individually as needed, and accessed by various navigation schemes such as:

  • Walking Tour -- has instructions on getting from one place to the next in a fixed sequence (with the information being easy to select individually).
  • Pick and choose -- has a map for locations for choice of sequence
  • Scavenger Hunt -- same as "pick and choose" but with added gamification (can provide usage data for city, businesses)

Note: This particular rendering tests the idea of adding a form after each chunk that gives visitors a chance to interact with a local volunteer to get more information (via email, as opportunity avails) about the visited site. The goal is to encourage return visits and word-of-mouth recommendations, while the City benefits by getting improved feedback on information that visitors are looking for.

Going further

A nice extra feature of chunking is ease of update of individual bits of information (direct editing in the database) and easy option of adding new chunks (for example, add Seaquist House, or add challenges like "Find Oliver the Elephant" or "Count the critters on the Old Yeller Statue").

Consider adding historical markers as yet another tour content type.

During the annual Republican Women's House Tour, those sites could be added as a current tour, effectively providing a guided tour with deep "narration," turning your cell phone into an informational app sort of like a museum audio guide.

A chunk-based platform like this can serve as a wayfinder for widespread events like Andrew Suppers, artists/hosts on the Art Walk, or Small Business Day promos at locations.

Literature search
Example of a map-based navigator

Click on the square overlays for the Courthouse, Mason Bank, and "garage."

Mason Hotel/ Bank Mason County Courthouse Site of garage