Human-Computer Interactions in Museums

Abstract

Museums have been a domain of study and design intervention for Human-Computer Interaction for several decades. However, while resources providing overviews on the key issues in the scholarship have been produced in the fields of museum and visitor studies, no such resource as yet existed within HCI. This book fills this gap, and covers key issues regarding the study and design of human-computer interactions in museums. Through an on-site focus, the book examines how digital interactive technologies impact and shape galleries, exhibitions and their visitors. It consolidates the body of work in HCI conducted in the heritage field, and integrates it with insights from related fields and from digital heritage practice. Processes of HCI design and evaluation approaches for museums are also discussed. Hornecker and Ciolfi draw from their extensive knowledge of case studies and from their own work to provide examples, reflections, and illustrations of concepts and problems throughout the book. This book is for students and early career researchers in HCI or Interaction Design, for more seasoned investigators who might approach the museum domain for the first time, and for researchers and practitioners in related fields such as heritage and museum studies or visitor studies, as well as designers, who might wish to understand the HCI perspective on visitor-facing interactive technologies.