Vapriikki case : design and evaluation of an interactive mixed-reality museum exhibit

Museums have the challenging job of educating while entertaining. In their attempt to achieve such, they have introduced the concept of “hands-on” exhibits, where visitors can interact first-hand with the phenomena being displayed. With the emergence of new technologies and devices, museums have exploited the opportunities hands-on exhibits can offer to further enhance interactivity. At the same time, researchers and museum workers have become aware of the importance of conducting evaluations to guide and assess the design and development process of these exhibits. Traditionally, exhibit evaluations have utilized ethnographically-oriented methods and gathered all data manually. Though some studies have used log file analysis to explore interaction patterns, evaluations still heavily rely on the traditional methods. This thesis explores the design and evaluation processes of interactive exhibits by presenting a case study of the interactive replica of Abraham Edelcrantz’s shutter telegraph developed for the Vapriikki Museum in Tampere, Finland. Additionally, this work investigates the usage of a semi-automated log analysis in combination with qualitative methods to evaluate interactive museum exhibits. The results of this thesis show that a semi-automated method can be used to separate and analyze sessions and conduct a longitudinal analysis on interactive exhibits. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the exhibit satisfied visitors with different interests because of its multiple appealing elements: problem-solving challenge, communication aspect and historical significance. Additionally, results show that interaction and collaboration in groups differs depending the age composition of group members. Finally, this thesis presents a set of design guidelines for interactive exhibits