Art Institute of Chicago App

If you're using this for wayfinding, you're much better off using the paper map or just following the signs. The only thing it's good for is the audio guide. But don't expect to navigate the museum.

Get a paper map while you are there. This app was useless to navigate the museum. If you pan anywhere on the map, it pans back to your location. It looks pretty, but has zero functionality for navigation. It probably makes a great companion for audio tours, but that’s not how I wanted to use it.

Connectivity in the museum is a challenge. Let us load the audio tour for offline use, please!

The map responds very oddly to attempts to scroll around. The Audio feature is cool… but is only available for maybe 1 out of 100 pieces of art. Weak sauce. Do better, AIoC.

I’m a long-time AITC member. Got an email from them saying membership was expiring soon. Thought I’d get the App to check hours and exhibit dates of something I wanted to see rather than just Googling it. The App is a waste. No hours listed! No days open listed! No overall list of exhibits or coming events! Sure, I can watch a 15 minute video of something and see a floor plan, but that’s not what I need! I searched “hours” it gave me “horses”. Only useful thing I found was my membership doesn’t expire for another 3months. But who cares, I still don’t know when the exhibit ends or day the Museum is closed. Back to Google

The good, the audio is really helpful. The bad, the map actually makes the experience worse because you try to use it and it doesn’t show your location and is constantly shifting about and doesn’t allow you to move it around. It’d be better for f they just remove the map, everything else is ok.

For the past three years that I have tried to renew my membership, the renewal states no information. I think I’ve been a member for over 25 years. Then I called the membership department and could not reach anyone. I had to mail in my renewal, which I’m not keen on because of check Fraud. One time I received a pop up when I was trying to renew that said, it’s not you. It’s us. Really, no kidding. It’s time to fix the app.

Not exactly user friendly. Challenges users to succeed!

Please be aware that outside the entrance of the Art Institute about six people are constantly drumming on 5 gallon buckets. They’re incredibly loud. They’ve been doing this for many many years. The Art Institute doesn’t appear to have any interest in clearing them out in front. So, when you come to the artist, be prepared to wear earplugs to get in the entrance.

This app constantly crashes. It is useless.