Impressions that last: representing the meaningful museum experience

in Behaviour and Information Technology (2022)

Research in human–computer interaction (HCI) has identified meaning as an important, yet poorly understood concept in interaction design contexts. Central to this development is the increasing emphasis on ... [more ▼]

Research in human–computer interaction (HCI) has identified meaning as an important, yet poorly understood concept in interaction design contexts. Central to this development is the increasing emphasis on designing products and technologies that promote leisure, personal fulfillment, and well-being. As spaces of profound historical significance and societal value, museums offer a unique perspective on how people construct meaning during their interactions in museum spaces and with collections, which may help to deepen notions of the content of meaningful interaction and support innovative design for cultural heritage contexts. The present work reports on the results of two studies that investigate meaning-making in museums. The first is an experience narrative study (N = 32) that analyzed 175 memorable museum visits, resulting in the establishment of 23 triggers that inform meaningful interaction in museums. A second study (N = 354) validated the comprehensiveness and generalisability of the triggers by asking participants to apply them to their own memorable museum experiences. We conclude with a framework of meaning in museums featuring the 23 triggers and two descriptive categories of temporality and scope. Our findings contribute to meaning research in HCI for museums through an articulation of the content of meaning-making in the cultural sector. [less ▲]

Museum Meaning-making: Experience Design for Digital Cultural Heritage

Doctoral thesis (2021)

Interactive technologies have created a ubiquity of digital arts and culture on the Web, offering visitors unprecedented access to museums around the world directly from their personal devices. Despite ... [more ▼]

Interactive technologies have created a ubiquity of digital arts and culture on the Web, offering visitors unprecedented access to museums around the world directly from their personal devices. Despite the enormous potential of these systems to facilitate education, cultural mediation, entertainment, or even interpersonal connection, research has demonstrated that users have difficulties deriving meaningful experiences from the digital museum visit due to a poor or incongruent user experience (UX). Among these challenges are a lack of integration between the online and on-site visit, as well as a disconnect from human-centered and participatory design methodologies increasingly embraced by contemporary museological practice. Insofar as museums are spaces of meaning-making, whether through aesthetic experiences, historical embodiment, or other phenomena, developing a deeper understanding of meaning and its implications for experience design in museum contexts may enhance the UX of museum technologies, particularly for the Web. Meaning has recently become an important conceptual focus of research in human-computer interaction (HCI), but additional work is necessary to connect theoretical advances in meaning-making to the cultural sector and to translate them into actionable design recommendations, which are the primary aims of the present work. This dissertation reports on five mixed-methods studies that address notions of meaningful design across three interrelated dimensions of UX analysis — the user, the system, and the context. For the purposes of this research, these dimensions have been adapted to the museum experience, thus becoming the (digital) visitor, (digital) cultural heritage, and the (digital) visit, respectively. The collection of studies contributes to a deeper understanding of meaning in and around museums through an analysis of museum memories, emerging information behaviors, public co-creation of digital technologies, and experience design strategies to bridge the on-site and online visit. While each study investigates individual facets of meaningful interaction between museums and their visitors, taken together they establish a fundamental interrelation, orienting designers and cultural professionals to embrace them as a coherent whole. The five studies presented in this work address individual dimensions of museum meaning and conclude with a framework of meaning to support museum experience design (MXD). The initial study provides insight on the (digital) visitor through an analysis of casual leisure information behaviors during navigation of an exploratory museum collections interface called rich-prospect (N = 30). The second is a co-creation study (N = 12) that introduces meaningful interaction through the design space of digital cultural heritage. The third study documents the #MuseumAtHome movement that emerged during the global COVID-19 pandemic, providing insights on meaningful design for the (digital) visit by integrating the on-site and online contexts. Finally, the fourth study combines an experience narrative analysis (N = 32) and a subsequent validation study (N = 354) on museum memories to establish a systematic understanding of the content of meaningful interaction in museums. This dissertation advances theory and practice in HCI by extending research on the psychology of meaningful interaction into a largely novel context, museum experience design. Each study contributes to a deeper understanding of the different facets of museum meaning-making and their relation to experience design, while the aggregate lays the groundwork for an integrated approach. The primary findings include new insights into the psychological factors of meaning in museum contexts, subsequent design recommendations for the online and on-site visit, and a suite of tools to support meaningful design in the cultural sector. [less ▲]

Casual Leisure in Rich-Prospect: Advancing Visual Information Behavior for Digital Museum Collections

in ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (2021), 14(3),

As digital cultural collections become increasingly sophisticated in their scope and functionality, there is a need to build an in-depth understanding concerning the information behaviors of users in this ... [more ▼]

As digital cultural collections become increasingly sophisticated in their scope and functionality, there is a need to build an in-depth understanding concerning the information behaviors of users in this new domain. Research has demonstrated that many digital museum visitors are engaged in casual leisure during exploration of a collection, suggesting that they do not have an inherent information goal but rather seek new experiences or learning opportunities based on personal curiosity and moments of discovery. Consequently, understanding how to translate casual leisure contexts into meaningful interaction design may play a critical role in designing engaging digital collections. Our study reports on the user experience of a largely unexplored user interface design framework called rich-prospect, which was originally developed to enhance browsing and discovery for complex visual collections. We performed a mixed-method, within-subjects study (N=30) that simulated a casual leisure approach to information browsing and retrieval across three different rich-prospect interfaces for digital cultural heritage. Our results show that rich-prospect scores well in the hedonic facets of its user experience, whereas pragmatic aspects have room for improvement. Additionally, through our qualitative analysis of participant feedback, we derived salient themes relating to the exploratory browsing experience. We conclude with a series of design implications to better connect interactive elements with casual leisure contexts for digital cultural collections. © 2021 Owner/Author. [less ▲]

Experiential Culture: Feeling the Museum of the Future

Presentation (2019, October 25)

In an age when the museum experience is no longer tethered to physical spaces, how might we design for memorable experiences in the digital? Exploring the intersection of cultural objects, user interfaces ... [more ▼]

In an age when the museum experience is no longer tethered to physical spaces, how might we design for memorable experiences in the digital? Exploring the intersection of cultural objects, user interfaces, and human emotion, this talk unpacks the space between the future and the past, offering a new approach to interacting with our shared cultural heritage. [less ▲]

Art in Rich-Prospect: Evaluating Next-Generation User Interfaces for Cultural Heritage

in Morse, Christopher; Koenig, Vincent; Lallemand, Carine (Eds.) et al MW2019: Museums and the Web, Boston 2-6 April 2019 (2019, March)

The present study reports on the user experience (UX) of rich-prospect browsing, an emerging interface design trend for digital cultural heritage. Building on research that suggests online museum ... [more ▼]

The present study reports on the user experience (UX) of rich-prospect browsing, an emerging interface design trend for digital cultural heritage. Building on research that suggests online museum collections are used only infrequently by the general public, this study investigates the role of next-generation user interfaces in the design of optimal browsing experiences. Moreover, it describes the results of user testing for three different arts and culture collections that make use of rich-prospect. The study recruited 30 participants of varying ages, nationalities, and museum visiting habits to discuss their museum experiences and test three different applications: Coins, Curator Table, and Museum of the World. The results of the study provide insights into the user experience of a new browsing medium and reveal the information-seeking habits and patterns that occurred within these information environments. Moreover, the study isolated the core features of rich-prospect in order to define opportunities and pain points during the browsing experience and indicated which features in particular are most important to people during the browsing experience. Finally, we suggest some best practices going forward in the design of rich-prospect. [less ▲]

Reconstructing the Historic Landscape of Larochette, Luxembourg

in Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection (2018)

Cultural Heritage education relies on a solid foundation of scientifically validated knowledge. This case study shows how different disciplines come together to source, combine, and interpret data for a ... [more ▼]

Cultural Heritage education relies on a solid foundation of scientifically validated knowledge. This case study shows how different disciplines come together to source, combine, and interpret data for a landscape reconstruction of Larochette, Luxembourg. It is the initial stage of a larger interdisciplinary project to create an educational game that highlights the tangible and intangible heritage that can be traced in the town's structures even today. [less ▲]

The New Interactive: Reimagining Visual Collections as Immersive Environments

in Visual Resources Association Bulletin (2016), 43(2),

Emerging technologies and shared standards have opened up new avenues for the curation and presentation of data in archives and published research. Among their many benefits, these developments have made ... [more ▼]

Emerging technologies and shared standards have opened up new avenues for the curation and presentation of data in archives and published research. Among their many benefits, these developments have made collections across archives more accessible, and have vastly improved the visual experience for users. This paper focuses on the next step in applying technical development and standards to digital collections: improving discoverability and providing a visual product that is simultaneously informative and experiential. The cases presented here focus on new approaches in these areas, with an emphasis on the utilization of visual search and discovery across a research archive and the integration of data and image into an augmented reality (AR) experience, with discussion of how these approaches can improve the usability of visual material while broadening the user's experience from the purely visual into the realm of the immersive. [less ▲]