How generous interface affect user experience and behavior: Evaluating the information display interface for museum cultural heritage

Abstract

Museum web interfaces continue to be important in how users search for information and navigate through digital cultural heritage resources. A generous interface was deemed appropriate for displaying large amounts of digital cultural heritage. However, more example verification is required in this field of study. This study compared the traditional interface and the generous interface of the Liaoning Provincial Museum to investigate the role of a generous interface for cultural heritage collections. Forty second‐year design graduate students were randomly assigned to one of two interface groups: traditional interface or generous interface. Four variables were measured to compare the differences between the two interfaces for the participants. In addition, two parameters, holding time and average retrieval time, are recorded and used to evaluate and compare the impact of the two interfaces on user behavior. The generous interface, according to the findings, is more effective than the traditional interface in increasing participants' engagement with cultural heritage and is perceived to be more aesthetically pleasing. In addition, the generous interface has been proven to be more suitable for casual leisure users to explore cultural heritage information. This research provides the basis and reference for developing the web interface of cultural heritage collections.