Situating Approaches to Interactive Museum Guides

Abstract

This paper examines the current state of museum guide technologies and applications in order to develop an analytical foundation for future research on an adaptive museum guide for families. The analysis focuses on three critical areas of interest in considering group and social interaction in museums: tangibility – the role of tangible user interfaces; interaction – visit types and visit flows; and adaptivity–user modeling approaches. It concludes with a discussion of four interrelated trajectories for interactive museum guide research including embodied interaction, gameplay, transparent and opaque interaction and the role of personal digital assistants.

Keywords:

• museum guides
• adaptive museum guides
• tangible user interfaces
• museum user models
• group interaction
• visitor experience
• digital heritage

Notes

1. In discussing PDAs, further consideration should be given to impact of the changes in industry and use of smartphones. The growing prevalence and comfort with smartphones will have an impact on the role PDAs in museums; in particular, visitors will have expectations of using their own mobile devices through downloadable software or online applications.