useums are typically thought of as destinations to house and display art, artefacts and collections of cultural interest. But in an age of shortened attention spans, it’s becoming more obvious that museums can’t simply be something nice to look at — they must actively engage their visitors. To do this, many institutions are turning to games, in their various forms, to both engage and educate those who walk through their doors.

Games are great tools for learning. We’ve known this from a very young age whether we were learning to clean up after ourselves or memorize our times tables. The wonderful thing about games, though, is that they’re not just for kids and can be effective education tools in your exhibitions for adults and children alike.

Beyond just a learning perspective, games also foster a wonderful sense of connection, and there are many examples involving cultural institutions. Visitors can interact with Pepper, the Smithsonian’s robot guides, who offer interactive games on a tablet. At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, visitors connected with the museum — and each other — by jotting down their “I went to MoMA and…” experience on slips of paper that were either posted on museum walls or scanned and featured online. And people across the globe flocked to download Google’s Arts & Culture app, which offered the ability to match the user’s face to a famous work of art.