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ABSTRACT
This article analyzes the use of different multimedia displays (3D recreations, interactives, audiovisuals) in the Museum of Lleida (in northeast Spain) which opened its new venue in November 2007. This art and archaeological museum has actively used information and computer technology (ICT) applications in its permanent collection in order to improve communication with its public. However, after a couple of years it was realized that some applications were not properly used by visitors and most of them did not fulfill all the expectations. For this reason, the group Òliba from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya conducted an evaluation in 2008 aiming to find the reasons for such behavior. A new methodological framework for evaluating ICT applications is proposed and its application at the Museum of Lleida is discussed. The framework focuses not only on visitor behavior, but also on technological aspects (i.e., usability, comfort, accessibility) and communication practices.
Notes
1. ICT stands for information and computer technology and it refers here to all the technological applications currently implemented in museums and other cultural institutions.
2. Video tracking was used to define a selected sample profile for direct observation, questionnaires, and interviews. According to users’ behavior, we defined different visitors’ typologies that were later evaluated with our selected samples.
3. Video tracking and evaluation is quite a new methodology in museum studies that follows some of the theoretical background from anthropology (Morrissey, Citation1991; Phillips, Citation1995; vom Lehn et al., Citation2002).
4. You can look at a sample of all the ICT applications on the home page of the Museum website (http://www.museudelleida.cat).
5. Our own personal evaluation experiences were contrasted with other evaluation projects of CHIRON, a European network of ICT evaluation with members from different countries such as United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, or Greece.