Interactive Experience Design: Integrated and Tangible Storytelling with Maritime Museum Artefacts

Museums play the role of intermediary between cultural heritage and visitors, and are often described as places and environments for education and enjoyment. The European Union also encourages innovative uses of museums to support education through the cultural heritage resources. However, the importance of visitors’ active role in museums as places for education and entertainment, on the one hand, and the growing and indispensable presence of technology in the cultural heritage domain, on the other hand, provided the initial ideas to develop the research. This thesis, presents the study and design for an interactive storytelling installation for a maritime museum. The installation is designed to integrate different museum artefacts into the storytelling system to enrich the visitors experience through tangible storytelling. The project was conducted in collaboration with another PhD student, Luca Ciotoli. His contribution was mainly focused on the narrative and storytelling features of the research, while my contribution was focused on the interaction- and technology-related features, including the design and implementation of the prototype. The research is deployed using a four-phase iterative approach. The first phase of the research, Study, deals with literature review and different studies to identify the requirements. The second phase, Design, determines the broad outlines of the project i.e., an interactive storytelling installation. The design phase includes interaction and museum experience design. We investigated different design approaches, e.g., interaction and museum experience design, to develop a conceptual design. The third phase, prototype, allows us to determine how to fulfill the tasks and meet the requirements that are established for the research. Prototyping involves content creation, storyboarding, integrating augmented artefacts into the storytelling system. Th final phase, test, refers to the evaluations that are conducted during the aforementioned phases e.g., formative and the final usability testing with users. The outcome of the research confirms previous results in the literature about how digital narratives can be enriched with the tangible dimension, moreover it shows how this dimension can enable to communicate stories and knowledge of the past that are complex, such as the art of navigating in the past, by integrating tangible objects that play different roles in the storytelling process

Reversing Cyber Loneliness

After more than thirty years we reopen the folder of immersivity in a social dimension enabling creatives to express themselves in open public spaces. Is “immersivity” an interesting and innovative “communicative experience” to be enjoyed together with other citizens, breaking cyber-isolation. This paper describes a interdisciplinary Horizon Europe research project aimed to design and develop a cost effective, hassle-free, easy to install and tune solution to setup a multi-user, multi- site, multi-platform non-invasive immersive and interactive users’ experiences, sorry for the long list of buzzwords identifying the key characteristics. The “users” are subdivided in two families: creative/authors and citizens. The first family is again subdivided by: authors without cyber skills and the couple creatives/programmers. The outcomes of the project includes specific training courses to enable both authors to express their creativity thanks to a simple procedure and already developed components or in case of cyber skilled users to integrate the open source platform with new ad-hoc created components

Proceedings of the International Workshop “Re-Thinking Technology in Museums: towards a new understanding of people’s experience in museums"

Proceedings of the International Workshop “Re-Thinking Technology in Museums: towards a new understanding of people’s experience in museums

Supporting place-specific interaction through a physical/digital assembly

This article examines visitor interactions with and through a physical/digital installation designed for an open-air museum that displays historic buildings and ways of life from the past. The installation was designed following the “Assembly” design scheme proposed by Fraser et al. (2003), and centred around five principles for the design of interactive experiences. We discuss how the Assembly framework was adapted and applied to our work on the installation called Reminisce, and we then present qualitative data gathered through the shadowing and naturalistic observations of small groups of visitors using Reminisce during their exploration of the museum. Through these data excerpts we illustrate how interaction occurred among visitors and with the assembly. We reflect on the guiding principles of the adapted Assembly framework and on their usefulness for the design of place-specific interactional opportunities in heritage settings. Results from the empirical study show that the adapted Assembly principles provide HCI researchers and designers with ways in which to flexibly support collocated interactions at heritage sites across artefacts and locations in ways that both complement and enrich the physical setting of the visit and its character

Modular Audio Platform for Youth Engagement in a Museum Context

The purpose of this thesis is to support museums and other cultural institutes in their mission to attract young visitors by offering engaging experiences. The main goals of the the-sis were to develop a modular and easy-to-use audio story-sharing and audio-augmented reality platform, and evaluate the usefulness of the platform by measuring the level of engagement of participating youth in a workshop context. Design-science research methodology was used for audio platform component development, and mixed-methods were used to study the utility of platform components as case studies. At a more detailed level this means that the expandable and modular platform was developed incrementally one component at a time. When developing Audio Digital Asset Management, action research was used. For the Soundscape Mixer development, combined action research was used until the software was in the α phase after which a separate evaluation method was used in the β phase. For the Audiostory Sharing development de-sign-science research with separate building and evaluation methods was used. After implementation and testing the audio platform also from the usability angle, we moved on to engagement research. Workshops were organized in order to demonstrate the usage of the audio platform. During the workshops engagement was researched using mixed method, namely quantitative self-report questionnaires and qualitative methods in the form of observations. We have succeeded in developing a modular and versatile audio platform. All of the hardware is commonly used including Android phones. Software-wise the backend system is based on open source components. As the backend system provides relevant APIs, new mobile applications can be developed by third parties. In parallel, a concept was also developed, which helps to reach the young target audience and helps to measure the level of engagement. For this purpose, the student engagement structure has been applied in order to find out the level of engagement in workshops where the audio platform is a vital part. As a final summary, the results are promising. There is a general-purpose audio platform, which is modular, expandable and affordable for cultural institutions, and there is a concept to reach young people and a measurement instrument to measure the level of engagement in an audio-related workshop context.Väitöskirjan tavoitteena oli kehittää modulaarinen ja helppo käyttöinen tietojärjestelmä, mikä tukee äänitarinoiden jakamista sekä äänimaisemien rakentelua ja kokemista. Toisena tavoitteena oli arvioida, miten koukuttavia kokemuksia nuorille syntyy työpajoissa, missä tätä tietojärjestelmää hyödynnettiin. Väitöskirjan tarkoitus on tukea museoita ja muita kulttuurilaitoksia houkuttelemaan nuoria kävijöitä tarjoamalla nuorille mahdollisuus kokea kulttuurilaitoksen tarjonta osallistavalla tavalla. Olemme onnistuneet kehittämään modulaarisen ja laajennettavan ääniin keskittyvän tietojärjestelmän. Palvelinohjelmisto perustuu avoimeen lähdekoodiin ja nuorille käyttäjille tarkoitetut mobiilisovellukset on kehitetty Android puhelimille. Järjestelmä tarjoaa avoimet rajapinnat, mikä mahdollistaa myös kolmansien osapuolien uusien mobiilisovellusten kehittämisen kulttuurilaitosten tarpeisiin. Tietojärjestelmän rinnalla kehitimme työpajakonseptit. Työpajoilla on pedagogiset tavoitteet, mikä mahdollistaa yhteistoiminnan koulujen kanssa. Työpajojen arviointiin sovelsimme kasvatustieteiden puolelta ”student engagement” tutkimusta, jolloin kykenemme arvioimaan ja mittaamaan osanottajien kokemuksia perustuen heidän käyttäytymiseen, tunnetiloihin sekä kognitiiviseen oppimiseen. Järjestimme kuusi työpajaa, missä tietojärjestelmä oli keskeisessä roolissa. Neljä työpajaa järjestettiin Suomessa eri-ikäisille ja eri kansallisuuksista tuleville osanottajille. Kaksi työpajaa järjestettiin Puolassa. Perustuen näistä työpajoista kerättyihin kokemuksiin voimme sanoa, että tulokset olivat lupaavia iästä ja kansallisuudesta riippumatta. Saimme sovellukset toimimaan sujuvasti ja nuoret innostumaan sovellusten avulla. Innostuksen määrän saimme selville kehitetyllä mittausmenetelmällä. Suurin osa työstä on tehty osana Luova Eurooppa rahoitteista People’s Smart Sculpture hanketta. Hankkeen saksalaiset partnerit hyödynsivät äänimaisemasovellusta osana kaupunkisuunnittelua, mikä voisi olla yksi jatkotutkimuksen aihe

Enhancing the museum experience with a sustainable solution based on contextual information obtained from an on-line analysis of users’ behaviour

Human computer interaction has evolved in the last years in order to enhance users’ experiences and provide more intuitive and usable systems. A major leap through in this scenario is obtained by embedding, in the physical environment, sensors capable of detecting and processing users’ context (position, pose, gaze, ...). Feeded by the so collected information flows, user interface paradigms may shift from stereotyped gestures on physical devices, to more direct and intuitive ones that reduce the semantic gap between the action and the corresponding system reaction or even anticipate the user’s needs, thus limiting the overall learning effort and increasing user satisfaction. In order to make this process effective, the context of the user (i.e. where s/he is, what is s/he doing, who s/he is, what are her/his preferences and also actual perception and needs) must be properly understood. While collecting data on some aspects can be easy, interpreting them all in a meaningful way in order to improve the overall user experience is much harder. This is more evident when we consider informal learning environments like museums, i.e. places that are designed to elicit visitor response towards the artifacts on display and the cultural themes proposed. In such a situation, in fact, the system should adapt to the attention paid by the user choosing the appropriate content for the user’s purposes, presenting an intuitive interface to navigate it. My research goal is focused on collecting, in a simple,unobtrusive, and sustainable way, contextual information about the visitors with the purpose of creating more engaging and personalized experiences

Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2013 Florence

Important Information Technology topics are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, protection of data, access to the content. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (2D, 3D) regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace – Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The main parts of the Conference Proceedings regard: Strategic Issues, EC Projects and Related Networks & Initiatives, International Forum on “Culture & Technology”, 2D – 3D Technologies & Applications, Virtual Galleries – Museums and Related Initiatives, Access to the Culture Information. Three Workshops are related to: International Cooperation, Innovation and Enterprise, Creative Industries and Cultural Tourism

Exploring Factors and Impact of Blockchain Technology Adoption in the Food Supply Chains

Globalization has also increased the complexity and difficulty of addressing these issues and enhancing efficiency in FSCs. The adoption of blockchain technology (BCT) has been proven to have the potential to transform the FSC based on its potential benefits. BCT promises to improve FSC processes. However, little is known about the factors that drive blockchain adoption within the FSC and the impact of BCT supply chain processes, as empirical evidence is scarce within the existing literature. This study, therefore, explores key factors, impacts, and challenges of blockchain adoption in the FSC