UX Designer and Software Developer at the Mirror: Assessing Sensory Immersion and Emotional Involvement in Virtual Museums

Abstract


 Virtual Museums (VMs) and their audiences have always been studied as separated worlds. Recently the importance of cross-methodological studies has been accepted by the academic sector for their usefulness in the process of assessing the impact of such VMs. Hedonic aspects, such as emotions, senses, perception, and environmental atmosphere rather than technicalities, like usability and affordance, have indeed played a precise and crucial role in the meaning-making of the world around us. This contribution will highlight the need for a collaborative sharing of ideas among designers and developers, creators and technicians, in order to reach sensory immersion and emotional involvement in VMs that will translate into enhanced participation and the predisposition to assimilate and memorize cultural contents. It has been stated that “a virtual museum is a digital entity.” As such, it is inevitably based on technology, on its user interface (UI), on the visualization solutions it employs, and on its usability and ability to interact with the end user in order to transfer a certain message. VMs are designed to complement, enhance, or augment the ordinary museum experience through contextualization, narration, personalization, interactivity and richness of content. This contribution originates not only from the lessons learned in twenty years of research by CNR ITABC, but it also moves one step further in the direction of exchanged experiences and good practices between the humanistic and the technological sectors, therefore contributing to the promotion of lifelong learning in Virtual Museums.

Impact of Virtual Reality Experience on Accessibility of Cultural Heritage

“…For what concerns the length of the corridor, seven (N=7) people estimated the right value and two (N=2) of them were wrong by 5%, while four (N=4) people estimated a length that was between 30 and 50% shorter than the actual one ( Figure 15). The fact that nobody estimated a longer length and that 46% of the participants perceived the hallways as shorter than they actually are, conforms the results of previous studies that users of Head Mounted Displays tend to underestimate distances by 26% (Pietroni et al, 2018). This aspect should be further investigated in order to provide solutions that will enhance the communication of dimensions through the VR mediums.…”

Bringing the Illusion of Reality Inside Museums—A Methodological Proposal for an Advanced Museology Using Holographic Showcases

“…Experience, instead, reflects the general conditions of fruition and, for the holographic showcase it needs to take into account [10]:…”

“…The success of a digital installation like a holographic showcase is largely dependent on the public's potential interest and experience. Potential interest relies upon multiple parameters like: Experience, instead, reflects the general conditions of fruition and, for the holographic showcase it needs to take into account [10]:…”

Virtual Museums as a Means for Promotion and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage

“…E., Roumeliotis, 2018;Fanini et al, 2019;Agnello et al, 2019) also allowing an understanding of the timeline (Kersten et al, 2017). All the cited experimentations of VM are valuable examples of how the concept idea is devoted to augment the educational engagement of the visitor, proposing stimulating forms of storytelling in an immersive and interactive environment (Pietroni et al, 2018;Latos et al, 2018). Furthermore, often these VM prototypes are oriented towards a Serious Game approach with a balanced presence of three components: educational, simulative and playful.…”