Final Report Summary - DISPLAYS IN MUSEUMS (Large displays in museums)
Visitors' experience in cultural heritage sites today tends to be personal, self-motivated, self-paced, and exploratory; they choose what, where and when to learn. Personalized and context-aware multimedia content provide new opportunities for the museum’s curators to enhance and support this experience. In order to provide visitors with personalized and contextual information, museums often use handheld devices such as smart phones as mobile museum guides. However, the social aspect of the museum visit is also very important. Many visitors tend to visit museums in small groups, mainly with family and friends, and a large part of their experience is social. An electronic mobile guide does not support a group and often isolates visitors from their companions, in effect de-socializing the group. On the other hand, large situated displays, that are getting more common in many public spaces, have the potential to support the needs of a small group of visitors. The main objective of this project was first and foremost to examine how to best support small groups interacting with a various kinds of displays within the museum, retaining the social interaction of the visitors. The project examines how to combine the use of a personal handheld mobile museum guide with situated displays as well as other types of mobile displays located at the museum, examining how to best distribute information between the displays, how to support group decision making processes, and how to support both individuals and small groups at the same time.
At the first stage of the project we aimed to first understand how technology actually affects museum visitors with the focus of small group interaction. In a field study involving more than 400 visitors at the museum, we compared the behavior of museum visitors using a mobile multimedia location-aware guide during their visit with those who did not use any electronic aid. Results of this study (which were published as a journal article) show that visitors’ behavior at the museum highly altered when using a mobile guide, and thus have a strong impact on museum curators and mobile guide designers. First, we showed that visitors using a mobile guide visited the museum longer (visiting time increased by 31%). The increased visitor time is encouraging for museum technology advocates. Although a longer visit time does not necessarily mean a better visit experience, time spent at the museum is often deemed an indicator of learning and is a target goal for museum curators. Second, our findings show that in some extent, the guide monopolizes visitor’s time. Visitors were more attracted to and spent more times at locations where they could receive electronic information from the mobile guide. For these visitors, this might come in exchange for time spent in other exhibits. Electronically enhanced exhibits (that have mobile multimedia interpretation) should be therefore carefully chosen in such a way that is in-sync with the museum’s commercial, educational and overall goals. Finally, regarding group behavior, we provided empirical evidence of the decoupling effect that a mobile guide has on pairs and small groups of visitors. Using a mobile guide caused visitors to reduce proximity and to interact less with their fellow group members. Thus, the use of the guide disrupted the social interaction of visitors coming in a group. Since social interaction is an important aspect of the visit and affects visitor’s learning and satisfaction, museum staff should consider how to address the tradeoff that while a mobile guide provides a better connection to the museum content, this comes at the expense of hindering social interaction, which is important to the learning process.
At the second stage of the project, we aimed to address this social disrupting effect and design technology at the museum that supports rather than hinders social interactions. First, we designed and implemented a novel museum planning prototype system that supports small group activity in the museum. After planning the museum visit at home, visitors are detected at the entrance of the museum where a large display is located. The visitors can then collaboratively re-plan the visit and integrate the individual plans as needed to accommodate for changes due to group preferences as well as to environmental constraints. The interaction with the display is done using the visitors’ personal handheld devices that then continue to accompany the visitors as their mobile museum visitors’ guide. We have experimented with the system in the museum and in a controlled setting, examining by means of a user study how to best distribute control and information across the displays. Results from this study indicate that visitors were happy to be able to plan their visit at home and were also able to consolidate their plans when they arrived at the museum. Regarding the distribution of information between handheld and large display, results indicated that working on a shared view, with the handheld acting simply as a remote control (that is, no personal information on the handheld device) is preferable for enhancing group interaction and group decision making.
Second, we have designed and implemented a general system to support content viewing on a large display situated at the museum during the visit itself. This would enable small groups of visitors to collaboratively view and experience multimedia museum content. The system supports both nomadic users using touch and users using a mobile museum guide as their main interaction device. In addition, the system supports both individuals, a single small group, and multiple small groups all wishing to interact and view content on the display. The aim of this system is to help museum technology designers in deciding how to deploy large displays at museums that would support various kinds of visitor constellations. For example, in addition to the case where a group of visitors watch content on a large display located near an exhibit at the museum, we also consider a “viewing room” scenario in which the large display showing videos is situated in a room and various individuals enter and leave the room. We deployed the system, showing its feasibility and are currently in the process of evaluating it using simulated visits in controlled user studies as well as with real users at the museum. The final results are culminating into a framework for the use of situated displays in museums.
In Summary, our results emphasize the need of museum staff to focus on technologies that would support small groups and social interaction rather than just individuals. These results contribute to the general understanding of how to deploy technology in cultural heritage sites aiding both museum curators and mobile guide and museum technology designers, and ultimately improving the experience of cultural heritage visitors.
At the first stage of the project we aimed to first understand how technology actually affects museum visitors with the focus of small group interaction. In a field study involving more than 400 visitors at the museum, we compared the behavior of museum visitors using a mobile multimedia location-aware guide during their visit with those who did not use any electronic aid. Results of this study (which were published as a journal article) show that visitors’ behavior at the museum highly altered when using a mobile guide, and thus have a strong impact on museum curators and mobile guide designers. First, we showed that visitors using a mobile guide visited the museum longer (visiting time increased by 31%). The increased visitor time is encouraging for museum technology advocates. Although a longer visit time does not necessarily mean a better visit experience, time spent at the museum is often deemed an indicator of learning and is a target goal for museum curators. Second, our findings show that in some extent, the guide monopolizes visitor’s time. Visitors were more attracted to and spent more times at locations where they could receive electronic information from the mobile guide. For these visitors, this might come in exchange for time spent in other exhibits. Electronically enhanced exhibits (that have mobile multimedia interpretation) should be therefore carefully chosen in such a way that is in-sync with the museum’s commercial, educational and overall goals. Finally, regarding group behavior, we provided empirical evidence of the decoupling effect that a mobile guide has on pairs and small groups of visitors. Using a mobile guide caused visitors to reduce proximity and to interact less with their fellow group members. Thus, the use of the guide disrupted the social interaction of visitors coming in a group. Since social interaction is an important aspect of the visit and affects visitor’s learning and satisfaction, museum staff should consider how to address the tradeoff that while a mobile guide provides a better connection to the museum content, this comes at the expense of hindering social interaction, which is important to the learning process.
At the second stage of the project, we aimed to address this social disrupting effect and design technology at the museum that supports rather than hinders social interactions. First, we designed and implemented a novel museum planning prototype system that supports small group activity in the museum. After planning the museum visit at home, visitors are detected at the entrance of the museum where a large display is located. The visitors can then collaboratively re-plan the visit and integrate the individual plans as needed to accommodate for changes due to group preferences as well as to environmental constraints. The interaction with the display is done using the visitors’ personal handheld devices that then continue to accompany the visitors as their mobile museum visitors’ guide. We have experimented with the system in the museum and in a controlled setting, examining by means of a user study how to best distribute control and information across the displays. Results from this study indicate that visitors were happy to be able to plan their visit at home and were also able to consolidate their plans when they arrived at the museum. Regarding the distribution of information between handheld and large display, results indicated that working on a shared view, with the handheld acting simply as a remote control (that is, no personal information on the handheld device) is preferable for enhancing group interaction and group decision making.
Second, we have designed and implemented a general system to support content viewing on a large display situated at the museum during the visit itself. This would enable small groups of visitors to collaboratively view and experience multimedia museum content. The system supports both nomadic users using touch and users using a mobile museum guide as their main interaction device. In addition, the system supports both individuals, a single small group, and multiple small groups all wishing to interact and view content on the display. The aim of this system is to help museum technology designers in deciding how to deploy large displays at museums that would support various kinds of visitor constellations. For example, in addition to the case where a group of visitors watch content on a large display located near an exhibit at the museum, we also consider a “viewing room” scenario in which the large display showing videos is situated in a room and various individuals enter and leave the room. We deployed the system, showing its feasibility and are currently in the process of evaluating it using simulated visits in controlled user studies as well as with real users at the museum. The final results are culminating into a framework for the use of situated displays in museums.
In Summary, our results emphasize the need of museum staff to focus on technologies that would support small groups and social interaction rather than just individuals. These results contribute to the general understanding of how to deploy technology in cultural heritage sites aiding both museum curators and mobile guide and museum technology designers, and ultimately improving the experience of cultural heritage visitors.