User experience of museum technologies: the phenomenological scales

Abstract

Museums increasingly rely on technology as a guarantee of enhanced visitor experience. However, both in Information Systems and Museology research, little attention has been paid to the evaluation of user experience (UX) with technologies in cultural heritage environments. This paper reports research in this area that uses a framework of interpretive archaeology and phenomenology. Users of museum technologies are studied to determine whether the framework's criteria correspond to visitor expectations and can be met by Information Technologies (IT). Our epistemology is methodologically independent and by using a multi-methodological approach, mixing both qualitative and quantitative approaches, it is consistent with the original spirit of the theory of understanding. The findings confirm the importance of phenomenology and post-phenomenology as a reference to assess IT UX in museums. In addition, our field study indicates that technologies available in museums – namely audio guides, interactive kiosks and computers – contribute positively to an experience of the past.

Keywords:

• museum technologies
• IS evaluation
• user experience
• phenomenology
• post-phenomenology
• multi-methodology

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments and suggestions, which considerably improved the quality of this paper. In addition, the authors thank the National Center of History of Immigration for allowing their visitors to participate in this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessie Pallud

About the authors

Jessie Pallud is an assistant professor of Management Information Systems at EM Strasbourg Business School, France. She received her dual Ph.D. in Management and Computer Information Systems from Paris Dauphine University and Georgia State University. Her research focuses on human–computer interaction, user experience, technologies of the cultural heritage and phenomenology. She has written several articles that have been published in the proceedings of leading international conferences, such as the European Conference on Information Systems, the Pre-ICIS workshop on HCI and the Americas Conference in Information Systems.

Emmanuel Monod

Emmanuel Monod, Paris Dauphine University (France), is Visiting Associate Professor at Georgia State University (Atlanta, U.S.A.), and currently Associate Editor for Information Systems Research (ISR). He is also editorial board member of Information Systems Journal (ISJ), Database for Advances in IS and Information Technology and People. He was previously associate editor for Communication of the AIS (CAIS) and Journal of the AIS (JAIS). He was vice-president of the AIS from 2003 to 2008 and conference track chair for ICIS (2004 and 2005), ECIS 2005 and AMCIS (from 2004 to 2007). He created (and was leader of) two AIS Special Interest Groups ‘e-culture e-tourism’ and ‘philosophy and epistemology of IS’. He has previously held executive positions in IBM (France and U.S.A.), France Telecom and the French Company of External Trade (COFACE), depending of the French Ministry of Finance. At Paris Dauphine University, he is the director of the Master of International Business (MIB), co-director of the EDBA (Executive Doctorate in Business Administration) and director of the dual doctorate-Ph.D. programme with Georgia State University (Atlanta). He published in Information and Organization, Information System Journal (ISJ), European Journal of Management, Communications of the AIS (CAIS) and three French journals recognized by CNRS (French equivalent to NSF): Systèmes d’Information et Management (SIM), Réseaux (networks) and Annales des Telecommunications. He was guest associate editor for MISQ and guest editor of a special issue of ISJ.