Virtual Museum: Playful Visitor Experience in the Real and Virtual World

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Virtual Museum: Playful Visitor Experience in the 
Real and Virtual World 
Maja Pivec
Institute of Design and Communication 
FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences 
Graz, Austria 
[e-mail] 
Anika Kronberger
Institute of Design and Communication 
FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences 
Graz, Austria 
[e-mail] 
Abstract—In this paper we present virtual museum as an 
extension to the real museum, and outline different possibilities 
of using technology based display of virtual content to create a 
unique and individual visitor experience. We look into 
innovation of virtual museum from the perspective of added 
value to the displayed content, and innovative interaction with 
the content. Based on examples three areas of creating a playful 
visitor experience are explored more in detail: apps and games 
for using at home or in classroom specifically addressing 
younger visitors, virtual tours allowing for non-physical field 
trips, and museum quests that are combining virtual and real 
world. In conclusions, further deployment possibilities of 
combining virtual and real for interactive and conversational 
visitor experience are also discussed. 
Keywords—virtual museum; visitor experience; playful 
learning; learning in real and virtual world 
I.
I
NTRODUCTION 
Museums are social learning environments where people 
typically visit museums in family settings, with friends, or 
with classmates [1]. Exhibitions are often augmented by 
information communication technology (ICT) based missions 
and problem-solving interaction across school and museum 
context to improve visitors experience and learning [2] [3]. 
According to the International Council Of Museums (ICOM) 
[4] “A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the 
service of society and its development, open to the public, 
which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and 
exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and 
its environment for the purposes of education, study and 
enjoyment.“ According to [5] virtual museums not only have 
their presence around our leisure time but also accompany us 
at home, and provide a drive in our social life. For that 
purpose the definition of museum to virtual museum (VM) 
was further expanded by V-MUST. V-MUST is a network of 
excellence of eighteen transnational partners from thirteen 
countries, that focused different research activities between 
2011 – 2015 to provide the heritage sector with the tools and 
support to develop VM that are educational, enjoyable, long 
lasting and easy to maintain. 
“A virtual museum is a digital entity that draws on the 
characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, 
enhance, or augment the museum experience through 
personalization, interactivity and richness of content. Virtual 
museums can perform as the digital footprint of a physical 
museum, or can act independently, while maintaining the 
authoritative status as bestowed by ICOM … Moreover, a 
virtual museum can refer to the on site, mobile or World 
Wide Web offerings of traditional museums (e.g., displaying 
digital representations of its collections or exhibits)…” [5] 
Web-delivered VM is in many cases used at least for the 
purpose of advertising i.e. as a web presence of the real 
museum, or also to extend appealing user experience of the 
museum assets through web technologies. A number of on-
site interactive installations, varying from PC in a room, to 
caves, kiosks, virtual teachers based on 3d immersive stereo 
installations are increasing in the last decade. Single and 
multi-user concepts enabling a collective experience of the 
museum visit are also often explored. Common 
characteristics of such solutions are 3d models in 
combination with other multimedia assets, where in real time 
or through the explanatory guided narration objects can be 
explored in more detail.
Multimedia VM are mainly interactive blends of different 
media, developed as educational tool, and delivered in forms 
of CD-ROM, DVD, flash drives or other removable data 
storage units. Products like “Medieval Dublin” or “Louvre” 
that are focused around interactive 3D model, can be created 
specifically for a target audience, in the case of formal 
learning for school children, and be directly distributed to 
schools and libraries. 
Based on a thorough research combining an online survey 
in 2011 where around 90 different VM were located and 
assessed, followed by expert interviews in 2012, 2013 and 
2014 [6], different aspects of VM were assessed. Results 
showed that 41% of VM grouped by their contents were 
about architecture and urban history, followed by 24% of VM 
dedicated to archaeology and archaeological sites, and 17% 
of art and museum collections. VM presenting cultural 
heritage, natural heritage, medical science and medicine are 
with 1% at the back of the list. The main scope of VM and 
ICT extended displays are for education (31%) and 
edutainment (32%) purposes, whereas only 19% are focusing 
on enhancement of visitor experience, 9% for research 
purposes, 5% for the promotion and 4% for entertainment. 
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When grouping the museums by interaction technology and 
type of communication, the majority of displays are 
concentrated on the exposition of the contents, whereas only 
8% are online narrative and 24% onsite narrative type of 
displays, and only 8% are mobile narrative.
While looking into the ways of content distribution there 
are 80% on-line and on-site VM while only 20% of 
distribution of VM are mobile. Furthermore, looking into 
possibility of re-using the concept and technological 
solutions, 59% of VM are not re-usable. 
Results showed that 90% of VM are permanent virtual 
exhibitions, with different levels of immersion. In total 62% 
of these virtual exhibitions are not-immersive and only 11% 
of VM are classified as highly-immersive. This means that 
most VM applications focus on the presentation of content, 
and only few include an interaction with the public. 
Innovation in terms of VM has several layers, from 
explorative and collaborative interaction with the content, 
added value to the exhibition on the technological level, 
pedagogical level and from the museology perspective.
II.
V
IRTUAL 
M
USEUM 
–
AN 
A
PPROACH TO 
A
TTRACT 
V
ISITORS
Virtual exhibitions and narrations create a reflective space 
and enable a new relation with the world and objects 
mediated per digital technologies [7], especially when 
providing interfaces supporting group and social interaction 
and participation. A museum's cultural assets are not only its 
collections but also the know-how of its experts. Museums 
and cultural institutions are often reluctant to open their doors 
to the public beyond the traditional methods of paid visitor 
entry, but new ways of providing knowledge and guidance 
are necessary to make the cultural heritage relevant for 
younger generations. [8] 
Creation of digital archives can be a fundamental 
component for VM. This can have a twofold function, on one 
hand digital preservation of objects and on the other hand 
gaining public the access to information, with the challenge 
of storing and retrieving the information. One of the 
museums that is using digital applications for engaging the 
public to interact with their collection is the Rijksmuseum in 
Amsterdam. Their application Rijksstudio [9] can be used on 
mobile devices and as web application. The application offers 
high-resolution images and additional information for further 
usage like making personal sets, reproductions and sharing of 
the digital artworks. The Rijksmuseum encourages the users 
to download the images and get inspired by the collection to 
develop new products with the artworks.
Online projects like Europeana [10] give museums the 
opportunity to integrate their national and regional artefacts 
into a digital accessible European cultural heritage collection. 
The Europeana project collects pieces of cultural heritage 
from galleries, libraries, museums and archives across Europe 
to make them accessible online. From this pool of virtual 
exhibitions theme based collections are created by users and 
museum experts. The website also offers a ‘My Europeana’ 
section where registered users can tag and collect their 
favourite images and save their search results.
Ideally from the museum perspective is deep engagement 
with narratives, cultural artefacts and material objects as key 
to visitors’ interpretative processes [11]. However, one needs 
to be aware of cognitive overload that might be caused by 
introduction of too much information, and necessity to foster 
dialogical interactions with visitors. Between the expert 
knowledge and narratives, and experience shared by visitors 
there also can be differences in narration [12]. 
III.
P
LAYFUL 
V
ISITOR 
E
XPERIENCE
To engage with the visitors a playful way of interaction 
can be a solution. Different levels of engagement are 
possible. The main goal is to connect visitors with the 
museum and make the visits fun and engaging. Younger 
generations need to get to know museums as places of 
communication and need to connect to their cultural heritage 
with the use of new-media technologies.