Effective levels of adaptation to different types of users in interactive museum systems

Abstract

Users interact with museum application interfaces for many reasons. There are various types of users, who want to perform various tasks, in various contexts, that can access the same Web site. Thus, it is important to have user interfaces able to adapt to these different user requirements to facilitate the accomplishment of the desired goals. Most current interfaces to museum information do not take into account this variety of types of users, thus providing interfaces that some users find confusing to achieve their goals. In this article we discuss the various possible levels of support that can be given to different users during navigation of museum information. In particular, we focus our attention on how to obtain adaptable and adaptive interfaces using the web site for the Marble Museum, which we have designed and developed, as a source of examples for our discussion of possible solutions.