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

Quest [20] of the Yorkshire museum or the Capture the 
Museum – game [21] of the National Museum of Scotland in 
Edinburgh. Both are mobile device-driven games. The first is 
a twitter-trail that can be followed through the exhibition to 
reveal additional information and solve riddles along the way 
the second is a group game where two groups can compete 
with each other and play a Capture the Flag-like live game 
where the two parties capture and hold various physical 
locations to win. 
Learning by playing is also the main goal of 
Wonderkamer Gemeentemuseum [22] Den Haag. The whole 
exhibition is enriched with game based learning elements. 
Through tablet-based games the visitors have to become 
curators and be very active during their visit. This makes the 
visits a playful experience for the whole family. 
IV.
C
ONCLUSIONS AND 
D
ISCUSSION
In the paper we looked into the role of a museum as an 
institution for formal, informal and non-formal learning, 
where visitors can experience and interact with exhibits 
individually or in groups. We further explored what is the 
definition of a VM and to what extent digital technology can 
enhance the role of the museum, reach more visitors, and help 
to create a unique and individual visitor experience.
Based on different VM categories, technologies, and 
deployment purposes, different VM usage scenarios and 
examples were presented. In many exhibition spaces 
technology based interactive visitor experiences are offered 
by museums to keep the visitors attracted and entertained. 
VM are also used to allow for a non-physical exploration of 
the museum artefacts and excavation sites to the visitors, 
either because of safety reasons and preservation of the 
historic site, or with the intention to bring the artefacts to the 
broad population. VM could also be used for preparation of 
the real museum visit, or after the visit for debriefing 
purposes in the frame of formal learning settings. 
Downloading an application to a smart phone to have 
additional information about exhibits is a combination of 
virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Based on 
AR, visitors can have specific explanation on objects and 
additional information on exhibits on site, in an indoor or 
outdoor environment. With recent development of low cost 
mobile virtual reality headsets, an immersive interactive 
virtual experience using own smartphones will be available 
for the masses, thus opening new challenges for creating 
playful VR and AR experiences. 
Furthermore, VM is establishing relationships and 
opening up a dialogues with visitors by means of social 
media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Flickr, 
Tumblr or similar, thus maintain the visibility as well as 
fostering the social dynamics and conversation around the 
museum’s collections.
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