Digital Museum Experience: Exploring Opportunities in Mixed Media Storytelling Using Augmented Reality

This research project explores opportunities for mobile augmented reality (AR) applications as an alternative means of viewing artifacts. Augmented reality is a promising technology that can greatly improve a visitor’s interactions with artifacts and their contextualized information. However, many museums hesitate to adopt AR due to concerns of gimmickry, detraction of the museum experience, and user cognitive overload (Marques & Costello, 2018). In this project, the usability and perceived usefulness of mobile AR is investigated through a comparative case study of existing AR applications for museums. Using the findings from the case study, a mixed-media storytelling mobile AR application is prototyped to demonstrate how mobile AR can enhance public engagement and improve access to cultural artifacts. By fulfilling the aim of the project, AR can be more readily accepted for museums. This project presents new insights to usability evaluations and the development of mobile AR apps for digital museum experiences.