Information Technology (IT) has been put forth as a reasonable way to sustain visitor interest and encourage visit repetition in museums. Therefore, IT is becoming more common in museum settings and professionals express their need for more information about how their visitors interact with these systems. This dissertation is an attempt to answer this call. We propose three essays that deal with different aspects of museums and IT from a user-centered perspective. The first essay is an attempt to determine with a free simulation experiment how IT and more particularly websites can arouse interest for museological content. The second essay relies on a field study to analyze the influence of IT on affective and cognitive reactions during a museum visit, namely perceived enjoyment, perceived authenticity and learning. In the third essay, we use focus groups and questionnaires to explore visitor expectations towards a phenomenological experience and the role played by IT in visitor experience of the past. This dissertation contributes to research by (1) advancing our knowledge of IT dedicated to the cultural heritage area, and (2) identifying and understanding visitor perceptions of hedonic systems. By proposing a set of key dimensions that could be used for IT evaluation in the cultural heritage, this dissertation also offers actionable advices to museum professionals
