Evaluating XR Museum Experiences and Some Issues for Consideration

The study presents the evaluation of integrating Extended Reality applications in situ to foster visitors' experience at the Tomato Industrial Museum "D. Nomikos". This paper firstly provides an outline of the methodological, technological, and museological approaches undertaken to integrate XR in a quest to enhance visitors’ meaningful engagement with the industrial heritage-related exhibition. Storytelling and narration are key elements of the museums’ museological design [1] through audio tours and interactive AR-based visualization of the machinery’s role as well as internal function. This paper presents and discusses the evaluation findings. We adopted the User Experience Questionnaire method as the main vehicle for gathering quantitative data and analyzing the results with the use of corresponding metrics and benchmarks embedded in this evaluation tool. Moreover, we conducted semi-structured interviews and combined the qualitative data accrued in the form of accounts, suggestions, and remarks to reach more rich and dependable conclusions. This paper aims to offer both an instance of practice to the research community and a broader discussion of the challenges and prospects connected to the quest of employing emerging technologies and assessing their impact on visitors’ museum experience.