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

A. 
Apps and Games from the Museum for use at Home 
or in the Classroom
 
Customised apps can be developed for exhibitions as a 
replacement for traditional audio guides but also as additional 
layer for different visitor groups. Apps can add interaction to 
a static museum experience. Online or mobile applications 
can be also used to prepare museum-visits or prolong the 
after-visit experience and to deepen the knowledge and keep 
the interest in the topics, especially for kids. A lot of 
museums use ICT based applications specially to engage with 
their younger audiences.
Apps are used to introduce museum objects like in the 
MOMA online game Destination Modern Art [13] or the 
NGAkids Art Zone-App [14] from the National Gallery of Art 
where Kids can explore a variety of works and get an 
authentic understanding of the artistic process. Another 
example would be the online game High Tea [15], which is a 
strategy game, based on the 19th-century British opium trade 
in China which was developed to support an exhibition at the 
Welcome Collection in London entitled High Society. The 
game reached a broad range of people all over the world 
counted by downloads.
B. V
irtual Tours in the Museum for Non-Physical Field 
Trips or Virtual Experiences
 
Another approach is to bring the museum artefacts 
virtually out of the museum to visitors, or bring the visitors 
by means of digital technology virtually to the museum or 
excavation sites, thus enabling visitors a virtual experience.
The Street Museum [16] is an augmented reality 
application from the Museum of London. Old black and white 
photographs of the museums collections are laid over the real 
streets to experience how London looked like years ago. This 
experience can connect real life experience with the virtual 
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representation of museum objects. Experiences that would 
not be possible in a museum scenario. A complete three-
dimensional reconstruction of the Regolini Galassi tomb [17], 
in Cerveteri (Italy) can be accessed virtually through a 
gesture-controlled environment. In the exhibition Les 
Etrusques et la Méditerranée. La cité de Cerveteri/Gli 
Etruschi e il Mediterraneo. La città di Cerveteri, the 3D 
application can be experienced together with more than 450 
pieces of the Etruscan culture. Objects can be examined and 
looked closely which would not be possible in the real tomb. 
To visit a museum without a real visit is possible through 
Google Art project [18] where online visitors can visit over 
300 cultural institutions all over the world virtually. Like the 
Google street view technology exhibition spaces can be 
walked through and experienced without a real visit. One 
example is the Doge's Palace in Venice. Artworks and their 
surroundings can be observed in the original places without 
the restriction of opening hours and travelling expenses. 
Additionally more information on the artworks can be 
accessed in the web interface. 
C. 
Museum Quests - Applications Combining Virtual 
and Real 
To attract new visitors and to entertain regular visitors 
museums have different strategies. One is to bring 
gamification elements into the museum. This makes it fun for 
the whole family and groups of people and gives new 
possibilities to engage learning.
The app of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a playful 
item called Family Quest [19]. Two to four players can play 
this game, each on their own digital devices inside the 
museum. The challenge is to find secrets within museum 
objects. A Similar approach is used by the Ivory Bangle Lady