Methods and Practices for Assessing the User Experience of Interactive Systems for Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Over the last few years, an increasing number of cultural sites, including museums, archaeological places, and historic cities, have adopted a wide range of interactive technologies to enhance the visitor (user) experience. This chapter presents a review of interactive systems for cultural heritage, selected from a total of 83 publications in 2012-2019, from the perspective of the methods employed for their empirical evaluation (i.e., the degree to which the system satisfies user goals and expectations). The review reports on several characteristics of interactive systems of CH including purpose, technology, content, and location of the interaction, and then emphasizes methods of empirical evaluation. The chapter provides discussion comparing to the results of the previous report, and outlook on particular challenges of interaction design and evaluation for CH.

Site Experience Enhancement and Perspective in Cultural Heritage Fruition—A Survey on New Technologies and Methodologies Based on a “Four-Pillars” Approach

“…Other surveys focus on the methodologies of machine learning more exploited in cultural heritage [10], provide an overview of existing 3D repositories [11], or outline museum gaming technologies and applications [12,13]. There is a review of interactive systems for cultural heritage [14], but the works are analyzed from the perspective of their empirical evaluation, that is, the degree to which the system satisfies user goals and expectations.…”

Co-Designing the User Experience of Location-Based Games for a Network of Museums: Involving Cultural Heritage Professionals and Local Communities

“…Over the last few years, there has been a notable increase in the development of interactive systems in museums, archaeological sites, and historical buildings or settlements for visitors to access related digital content and augment their experience and knowledge about the cultural heritage (CH) of tangible artifacts and intangible traditions. The development of interactive technologies for cultural heritage is often guided by technological advances and experimentation [1], rather than participatory design practice in co-operation with heritage professionals and local communities such as museum curators and staff, folklorists, archaeologists, architects, exhibition designers, local heritage scholars, experts, and educators, etc. Community-based design in cultural heritage projects can be an enriching and valuable process [2].…”

Charting Experience Categories for Museum Exhibitions

“…There has been a vast HCI research on cultural heritage [4], and prior art has presented a great number of examples how interactive technologies can be applied to museum exhibitions. It has been regarded that in general, interactive technologies can enhance museum experiences (e.g.…”

“…In the big picture of ubiquitous computing research, studies addressing the user experience design are still scarce [9]. Nikolakopoulou and Koutsabasis present a review of UX research conducted on interactive systems with cultural heritage [4], but they do not seek to identify experience categories.…”