Special Issue on Advanced Interaction in Cultural Heritage

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is an interdisciplinary area that focuses on computer design and user experience covering disciplines from computer science, cognitive psychology, behavioural science, and design. Advanced HCI combines human senses, requiring new strategies for the design of user experiences. This special issue focuses on HCI for covers both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Tangible cultural heritage covers material culture and the production of physical artefacts, their maintenance and transmission in a society. Intangible cultural heritage includes the evolving knowledge and skills which are transmitted through learning and tradition. For this special issue we have accepted 10 papers, 9 research articles and 1 research report. All included articles have undergone a round of corrections before their final publication in this special issue. It is of note that they thematically cover a visibly wide-ranging variety of subjects focused on the theoretical and practical aspects related to advanced interaction in cultural heritage.

The first article, entitled “Factors determining whether an art museum will offer virtual content: An empirical study in South Korea” by Ha and Kim, collected definitions of virtual museums from previous studies and identified the key attributes to then suggest a comprehensive definition. The paper assessed the current digitalization level of South Korea’s registered art museums and examined which museum attributes determine whether there is virtual content offered by the art museum showing that the number of museums with virtual content are quite limited. The second article, entitled “Design and Evaluation for Improving Lantern Culture Learning Experience with Augmented Reality” by Li et al, described what participants learned after lantern exhibitions that combined AR, mobile websites, and paper-based exhibition brochures. Authors evaluated what a cohort of college students (n = 115) learned about Intangible CH (ICH) through experiments and questionnaires and results showed that the public understood ICH better through digital technology.

The third article, entitled “The Doctrine of the Mean: Chinese Calligraphy with Moderate Visual Complexity Elicits High Aesthetic Preference” by Han et al, proposed a computational method to evaluate complexity and conducted several perception studies. Results showed that layout features and calligraphy style (regular script, running script, and cursive script) affected visual complexity. The level of visual complexity (low, medium, and high) affected aesthetic preference, but calligraphy style did not. The fourth article, entitled “The motivational effects and educational affordance of serious games on the learning of Cantonese opera movements” by Pang et al, presented the gamified learning of Cantonese opera movements and evaluated its motivational effects and educational affordance. The serious game consisted of a total of 30 foundation sets of Cantonese opera movements captured by a professional performer, which are challenged and scored against the player’s movement through a motion-sensing camera. Experimental results indicated the feasibility of applying digital game-based learning to the preservation of ICH.

The fifth article, entitled “PoeticAR: Reviving Traditional Poetry of the Heritage Site of Jichang Garden via Augmented Reality” by Tian et al, developed two prototypes of PoeticAR, which presents poems based on physical scenery to enhance tourists’ cultural and aesthetic experience. A between-subject user study with 30 tourists compared PoeticAR with video. Results showed that PoeticAR significantly motivated tourists’ interest in poems, enhanced the cultural and aesthetic tour experience in Jichang Garden, and increased awareness of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Cultural Heritage sites. The sixth article, entitled “CubeMuseum AR: A Tangible Augmented Reality Interface for Cultural Heritage Learning and Museum Gifting” by Xu et al, presented two tangible AR interfaces for cultural artifacts: Postcard AR and CubeMuseum AR, followed by three user studies that evaluate and optimize the design. A between-subjects user study was conducted (N = 32) to compare the optimized design with the initial design and the results verified the positive effects of gamified tangible AR interfaces on users’ motivation, engagement, and performance in learning cultural heritage.

The seventh article, entitled “A mixed-methods study of cultural heritage learning through playing a serious game” by Kara, investigated the impact of a serious game on university students’ learning about cultural heritage content, and to investigate the factors that affect their learning experiences during the serious gameplay. Quantitative results of a user study indicated that the “Europe in a museum” serious game had a significant, positive effect on learning about cultural heritage. The eighth article, entitled “Gamified Mobile Sensing Storytelling Application for Enhancing Remote Cultural Experience and Engagement” by Tan and Ng, reported the design and development of a prototype story game app, The Story of Praya Lane that combines use of mobile sensing, machine learning and AR to engage users in physical mobile activities as part of a gamified, non-linear storytelling application. Results of a user study showed promise in promoting interest and engagement in cultural learning and reflection.

The ninth article, entitled “Assessing User Experience And Cognitive Workload In Virtual Heritage” by Skola et al, presented a large-scale evaluation (N = 125) of an archaeological underwater VR application. The application is simulating diving into the reconstructions of a submerged ancient site combined with interactive storytelling. The user testing assessed how the user experience (presence, engagement, immersion, etc) affects the cognitive workload. Results revealed that the feeling of presence in virtual reality is strongly related to self-reported performance on the task. The last article, entitled “Interactive digital engagement with visual artworks and cultural artefacts enhances user aesthetic experiences in the laboratory and museum” by Jonauskaite et al, presented an interactive digital tool for exploring artworks and cultural artefacts. Authors detected an aesthetic advantage of the interactive possibility over no interactive possibility and did so in both the laboratory and museum study testing participants of relatively low and high art training and awareness, respectively. They found no measurable impact on recognition memory, though, suggesting that our digital interactive exploration possibilities were limited to aesthetic experiences.

The guest editors wish to thank Prof. Gavriel Salvendy and Prof. Constantine Stephanidis for their guidance in producing this special issue and we also wish to thank the authors and reviewers for their hard work. We hope you enjoy reading these articles and learn more about advanced interaction in cultural heritage.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fotis Liarokapis

Fotis Liarokapis is the director of Extended Experiences lab and an Associate Professor at CYENS - Centre of Excellence. His research interests include virtual reality, augmented reality, brain computer interfaces and serious games.

Areti Damala

Areti Damala is a Researcher/Lecturer in Digital Humanities, Museum Learning, Museum Visitor and Gender Studies involving Digital Media. She works as a Senior Researcher in Digital Curatorship, Museum Education and Learning at the Musée des arts et métiers and the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, France.