Exploring Methodologies to Create a Unified VR User-Experience in the Field of Virtual Museum Experiences

K. Nam Jeff Baker Chris Dutt

7 Agustus 2023

The tourism industry will be shaped by the growth and development of the metaverse in the coming decades. Virtual reality (VR) will enable the creation of virtual worlds, avatars, digital twins, and new social networks. These technologies can be utilized in tourism to enable travelers to preview real-world experiences, to enhance experiences while on-site, to relive experiences after travel, or in some cases to even substitute for travel. Given the metaverse’s transformative potential, empirical investigation of VR is clearly warranted. Studies of VR tourism typically choose a single specific VR application and investigate its impact on adoption or user satisfaction. This application-level focus is a significant limitation. We therefore evaluate multiple heritage tourism applications as well as VR hardware in a comprehensive and structured analysis from the user experience (UX) perspective. Our content analysis of user interviews reveals 13 factors that shape users’ overall perceptions about VR. These factors are grouped into categories related to presentation of the VR content, the content itself, and the functionality of the hardware and software. Our analysis also reveals three design dilemmas for creators of VR heritage tourism content for the metaverse. Implications and an agenda for future research are included.

Ning Zou Wenjing Yang Qi Zheng + 2 lainnya

8 Maret 2024

A virtual reality (VR) based cultural heritage exhibition (VRCHE) is an important type of VR-based museum exhibition. The user experience (UX) design of VRCHE has encountered opportunities and due to the differences in human–computer interaction between VR-based and conventional interaction interfaces, so proposing the UX model of VRCHE is crucial. Although there are some existing works that study the UX models of VRCHEs, they are not complete enough to describe the UX of VRCHEs or offer any design strategies due to the methodologies and experimental materials that they currently use. This study creates experiments utilizing grounded theory that combine qualitative and quantitative approaches. Then, the study synthesizes three-level coding and quantitative analysis findings from grounded theory, builds a detailed model of the VRCHE UX using theoretical coding, and proposes design strategies.

Harish Vijayakumar

4 April 2025

User Experience (UX) in virtual worlds is a fast-developing discipline that requires creative design concepts to overcome the divide between physical and virtual interaction. This research investigates primary principles and techniques to improve UX in virtual experiences based on usability, accessibility, user engagement, and technology advancements. It gives detailed insight into trends, issues, and prospects for UX design of virtual applications that guarantee an efficient, easy-to-use, and immersive experience.

Hai-Ning Liang Letian Xie Lingyun Yu + 3 lainnya

6 Februari 2023

Abstract Museum artifacts are the main way for visitors to experience and learn about cultural heritage. Augmented reality (AR) allows for high interactivity and is increasingly applied in museums to improve tourists’ experience and learning. It also supports the extension of museum experience to outside of the physical museum space, contributing to the visiting trajectory and takeaway experience. In this paper, we present our design of two tangible AR interfaces for cultural artifacts: Postcard AR and CubeMuseum AR, followed by three user studies that evaluate and optimize the design. In Study 1, we conducted a within-subjects study (N = 24) that compares the two AR interfaces with a baseline condition (Leaflet). Our results demonstrate the positive effects of tangible AR interfaces on users’ motivation and engagement in learning cultural heritage. In Study 2, we further explored how to optimize CubeMuseum AR by adopting a user-centered design approach. Through the analysis of expert interviews (N = 7) and an online survey (N = 207), the results specify a series of requirements and design guidelines for tangible AR interfaces to be used as a learning tool and a hybrid gift. Based on the findings, the design of the CubeMuseum AR was optimized and evaluated in Study 3. A between-subjects user study was conducted (N = 32) to compare the optimized design with the initial design. The results verified the positive effects of gamified tangible AR interfaces on users’ motivation, engagement, and performance in learning cultural heritage. We present our design and evaluation results, and discuss the implications of designing tangible AR interfaces for cultural heritage learning and museum gifting.

JiYang Yi Hae Sun Kim

29 September 2021

Wearable Mixed Reality (MR) technology is a tool that gives people a new enhanced experience that they have not encountered before. This study shows the process of designing new museum experiences while considering how this technology changes previous museum experiences, what those experiences are, and what people should feel through these experiences. This process was systematically conducted according to the UX design process of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In the analysis step, six types of museum artifact viewing experiences were defined: knowing, restoring, exploring, expanded scale, encountering, and sharing experience through research and user surveys related to the museum experience. In addition, through research analysis related to MR technology, presence, flow, and natural interaction were defined as three essential factors that users should feel in the MR experience. In the synthesis stage, optimized wearable MR experiences were designed and implemented by applying the necessary experience types and essential factors according to the characteristics of each artifact. In the evaluation stage, user experience evaluations such as user experience tests for essential factors in the MR experience, User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) tests for interaction products, and the Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory (VisAWI) test for visual experiences from various perspectives were conducted on the developed results. Through these evaluations, users gave positive scores to the design results based on the experience types and essential factors defined in this study. When applying new media technologies such as wearable MR technology, improved technology implementation is important, but an understanding of the applied field must first be obtained, and user analysis must first be thoroughly conducted. This study will be a guide to the systematic development process to be followed when applying wearable MR technology to other fields.